One of the highlights of a job like mine are the random encounters with wildlife whilst doing often rather mundane tasks.

 This includes flushing a bittern from a few feet away whilst checking for wobbly fence posts and seeing the first 3 swallows of the year at Lodmoor whilst litter picking.

 Today's highlight has been a red kite flying over the Swannery car park as Dan and I were loading cardboard destined for recycling into the car.

Dan's cry of 'that's not a buzzard!' sent us running for the binoculars and a hurried phone call to the office to hopefully make everyone else's day too.

So that was my first Dorset red kite, I wonder what tomorrow will bring?!