I left you in week three, where I was learning about all of the acronyms used on a day-to-day basis here at Banovallum house – there are a lot. Fortunately, I now know what they mean and can finally understand what people are talking about!

After scrambling around on the bank looking for Deptford pink flowers, it was a much more relaxed day on the Tuesday. I attended a site visit for Hawthorpe which is one of the largest areas of grassland left in Lincolnshire. Hawthorpe stretches over 87 hectares and is host to skylarks in the spring and short-eared owls in the winter. The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust are currently trying to purchase this land to restore it back to nature. It is previously arable land but has spent years ‘set aside’, The Trust hope to purchase it before it gets returned to arable land to bring back wildflower rich grasslands and re-link river habitats.

Wednesday consisted of carrying on with tasks in my workbook. I have been helping support the expression of interest for the seedbank and plant propagation project as well as completing lots of online training on health and safety, awareness around water and GIS on The Wildlife Trusts’ WildLearn platform. 

Thursday was exciting as I went to Whisby Nature Park and helped run a pond dipping activity for adults. It was great to see adults getting excited about nature and identifying all the creatures we caught including: dragonfly and mayfly nymphs, water stick insects, greater water boatmen and much more. I did a similar activity day at Whisby on the Saturday but this time for children. I worked alongside the education centre staff (shout out Leanne and Sam) and the junior wardens group to show children what exciting things they can find in water. We also ran a dragonfly walk on which we identified over five species of damselfly!

Moving quickly onto week five, I attended a flood resilience workshop in Market Rasen that was about raising awareness and providing support to those who have experienced flooding. I found it really interesting talking to all the other exhibitors about what they contribute to flood management and enjoyed explaining the Ancholme project and the ‘slowing the flow’ processes we are implementing at the Trust.

Wednesday consisted of shadowing a colleague on a UKHab monitoring survey deep in the Lincolnshire Wolds. I learnt lots about indicator species for good calcareous grassland and identification tips for common wildflowers found in meadows and grasslands. On Thursday myself and a colleague manned a stand at a school career fayre. It was lovely to talk to young people aged 14-18 about their passion for wildlife, volunteering opportunities and how they can get involved with real world conservation work.