From time to time I have had my eyes opened when discerning visitors appreciate what Sussex Wildlife Trust - and hence our green team - is trying to do for the environment. This month our visitors were members of Sussex Ornithological Society of whom I was a little in awe, they being specialists, while we are very much aware that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing".

But we need not have worried. As we bedded down into a walk around the reserve we all filled gaps in our knowledge, which through the continuity of interest, any hesitation or shyness was lost to sheer enthusiasm. So we spent a happy three hours during which we identified 19 species of bird - some of which I had never seen before on the reserve.

So we can now add to our pleasure: goldcrests, marsh tits, willow warblers and, what our visitors were particularly excited about were spotted flycatchers. A group of them were in a line of chestnut coppice beside the heathland, darting across the heather, which was in flower, to catch insects.

This was new to me and, on reflection, I recalled that just one variety of dragonfly - a "darter" - catches its prey in the same way and at the same place every summer. We often see them - and the dragonfly "hawkers" patrolling the area for flies while we are working in the heather.

As I become increasingly knowledgeable about things ecological I marvel more and more about how well it all works. Unlike our human world perhaps!

One of our visitors on that day added to the exhortation for visitors to nature reserves to "leave nothing behind but their footsteps". She said: "Take only photographs, and leave nothing behind but footprints". Excellent advice.

John Hall © 2003