Another month gone and another lot of management completed, some of it planned but some of it not! The weather has given us some issues with storms and snow bringing plenty of problems with them but we've been working hard to make sure you can enjoy the reserve and stomp through the snow.

Little Heath has had its annual haircut! This small corner of the nature reserve is very important as we believe it to be the only place not disturbed too much by our industrial past. A tiny fragment of heathland which probably represents what the landscape would have looked like at one point. The fragile flora here includes tormentil, heath bedstraw, great burnet and heather, which we work hard to promote. By cutting the lower area we can suppress the growth of alder and birch seedlings, which are trying to get established, for the benefit of the more delicate plants.

Wintering birds are starting to be seen. We are often asked what the differences are between a great white egret and little egret - as you can see from this photo taken by our head warden, there's quite a bit of difference in the size! Find out more about these striking birds, now regular visitors to many of our nature reserves across Lincolnshire, here.

Now that the weather has turned and common lizards are no longer being spotted basking on the railway bridge we've cleared the path sides ready for next year's growing season. The cut material was left in small piles and maybe the lizards will use them to shelter in over the coming months before we see them again.

The snowstorm we had was wonderful and turned the reserve into a winter wonderland for a few days, but it wasn't without problems. The weight of the snow falling on trees that still had their leaves caused many boughs to break and even larger trees to come down. We sadly had to take out a large Willow over the seat in Orchid Glade as it suffered too much damage to be left.

Around the path network there were many trees to deal with, and it took the warden team five days to get around it all! Thank you for your understanding and patience if you encountered us out there - we were working as fast as we could. Where we can do so safely we will leave damaged trees as the splits and breaks are part of their natural life cycle, also offering habitats to other species, but around the paths and fences we have to clear back any problem trees. This cheeky sheep tried to raid our volunteers' lunch bags when we were clearing her fence line!

The cows very inconsiderately broke their coral earlier in the season so we needed to replace the gatepost they had used as a scratching post until it fell over! They look a bit guilty, don't they?