Summer is my favourite time of the year and I have had one of the best this year, working as the interim warden on Chimney Meadows National Nature Reserve.

I particularly enjoy working on and surveying grassland habitats, so when the opportunity came my way to work at Chimney Meadows, where BBOWT has restored floodplain meadows, I could not have been happier.

Chimney Meadows, near Bampton in the west of Oxfordshire, is BBOWT’s largest reserve, totalling 250 hectares. It is one of the few surviving fragments of floodplain meadow in the UK and part of the site is the original National Nature Reserve, which BBOWT has managed since 1990.

Through many generous donations from trust members and the public, BBOWT was able to raise the £1.2m required to buy adjoining farmland in 2003.

Using seed harvested from the original meadows, BBOWT started the process of restoring parts of this newly-acquired land to its historic wildflower glory.

Getting involved in some of the surveying of these meadows and seeing for myself the successes of the reversion process this summer has been a great privilege. Some fields now boast swathes of yellow rattle, red clover and black knapweed, with the occasional orchid here and there. These and other flowers provide a crucial nectar source for many invertebrate species, and this could not have been demonstrated more beautifully than by the clouds of common blue butterflies which emerged in August.

I find walking along the willow-bordered river at any time of year induces a sense of calm. Mute swans, coots and moorhens breed along the banks and martins create an aerobatic spectacle hunting for mayflies over the water, only to be outdone by the agility of a hobby after the same prey.

Suddenly the heat and sounds of the summer have gone but Chimney Meadows continues to delight into autumn. Even though the hay meadows have been cut, the misty early mornings in October and November give visitors a new perspective. As the sun rises, you can see thousands of jewelled spiders’ webs glinting across the grass and into the hedgerows, which will be invisible in the warmth of the day.

Those same hedgerows are filled with bright red haws and dark blue sloes which redwing and fieldfare will devour in their flocks once they return to spend the winter here.

You may even see a human being, foraging for vital ingredients for sloe gin! So, just as autumn sets in, my time at Chimney Meadows has come to an end, and I hand over to Andy Fairbairn, who is the new site warden working with Lisa Lane, the Upper Thames living landscape project officer. Lisa has worked at Chimney Meadows before, and I know that she and Andy are looking forward to the arrival of winter wildfowl on the new wetland features.

l If you want to get involved with wildlife this autumn visit www.bbowt.org.uk for a list of events including the Autumn Colour Photography Walk at Chimney Meadows on Octobe 30.

Join the Friends of Chimney Meadows, who are instrumental in the progress and success of the Chimney Meadows project, building board walks and bird hides, and surveying.