The weather becomes more confusing year after year. Just when it seems that spring is on its way, the heavens open, and snow sprinkles down, bewildering wildlife and woodland workers alike.

The winter work of cutting and clearing of scrub is halted once March is here, for this is the time that birds begin to nest and must not be disturbed. The volunteers need to find other jobs to fill their time in Finemere Wood. And so under dark gloomy skies, spitting out snow and freezing rain, the summer work begins.

In the winter, areas of the wood are cleared of scrub and trees, this allows the sun to reach the ground and for new growth to begin. The resulting fresh and tender shoots must be protected from the voracious deer that roam here.

Fencing is the name of the game now; dismantling those that have done their job and erecting others around areas needing protection. Heras fencing panels are the mode of choice, quick and easy to fix in place, and endlessly reusable. Harder to dismantle after a few years of enveloping vegetation growth, tangling tendrils clinging tenaciously to the fencing panels.

Despite the cold gloom, the weather-beaten wood is slowly coming to life. One primrose is in bloom, and others will follow soon. The emerging lobed leaves of wood anemones can be spotted by keen eyes. The long yellow hazel catkins are dangling from branches.

Corylus avellana (Hazel) is a monoecious plant, having both male and female flowers on each plant. Catkins are the male flower. Each catkin has over 200 individual tiny flowers on it. Each flower is packed full of pollen. Exquisitely delicate, these flowers have no need to be eye-catching, colourful, or scented as they rely upon the wind to disperse the pollen far and wide. The female flowers, small buds with red styles (pollen tubes), are found on branches above the catkins and in this way self-pollination is avoided.

The driving icy rain pushes the woodland workers onwards, fences must be dismantled before the wood is in leaf. It becomes an impossible task during the months of growth, and undesirable as creatures may be nesting amongst the tangle of plants and fences.

Relentlessly, the volunteers toil with the promise they can knock off early once the designated fences are down. In record time the job is done and a huddle of soggy, dripping hardy souls retreats to the welcoming warmth of their homes and families.

More than 1,700 volunteers help us towards our vision of more nature everywhere, on our nature reserves, at our visitor and education centres, in our offices and more.

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