There are some evenings when you know you have the best job in the world. And Saturday evening was one of them.
The Big Wild Sleep Out has become an annual event in the RSPB calendar and for me, is a wonderful way to provide children with an experience of nature they rarely get these days.
The chance to camp out for a night, to spend quality time with mum and dad and to see lots of special wildlife in ways they wouldn't usually get the chance.
We started by asking the children what they were most looking forward to. A variety of responses but my favourite was the young lad who said it was the dawn walk. He'd always wanted to get up at dawn and whilst his dad kept promising they would, he always overslept.... Dad looked quite sheepish and said he was looking forward to the dawn walk too - and for the same reason!
Our first activity of the evening was a walk on the reserve to look for wildlife at dusk. It didn't let us down. Two young foxes play fighting, a selection of ducks and waders, a barn owl quartering over the marsh and a steady stream of little egrets coming in to roost.
Then back to the camp to listen to bats and toast marshmallows on the fire. A sing song followed and then it was time for bed.
4.30 in the morning and it was up again. Back out on to the reserve to see more fox activity and a kingfisher perched in front of the hide for a full fifteen minutes.
Moth trapping was next - a wonderful show of 40 species and then on to the mammal tunnel where we identified the footprints of shrew, hedgehog and grey squirrel.
After a breakfast in the cafe, it was time to say farewell.
It was fun, it was relaxed and it was tiring for those who slept out and had to put up with our Learning Assistant Dave Wilde's snoring!
But the kids loved it. Each had a different highlight. From the kingfisher to the moths. For one boy, the foxes were a species he had wanted to see all his life but never had. His was the quote of the weekend for me as I overhead him say to his mum "I'm so excited, I'm shaking!" Sharing moments like that are what makes it all worthwhile. I remember when I was his age, deciding that I wanted to work for the RSPB. Let's hope that this weekend, across all the RSPB reserves that hosted an event, the next generation of conservationists were being born.