Temperatures are beginning to lift, typically sitting between 10 and 15 degrees during the day, and the land is starting to respond. Growth is picking up, the ground is drying where it can, and there’s a noticeable shift across both the fields and the hedgerows. The farms are properly in full swing.

For Frazer Jollie, Farm Manager at Great Oakley, this is one of the most important points in the farming calendar.

“It’s a key time,” he says. “Everything is starting to move. You’re watching the crops come through and keeping on top of conditions day by day.”

Across the farm, fields are being prepared and crops are starting to come through, with wheat and barley beginning to establish. Everything is closely watched, with decisions made day by day depending on soil conditions, temperature and moisture.

Alongside this, the estate is starting to fill with wildlife again. Hedgerows are beginning to bud, with fresh green growth softening the lines of the landscape. Within them, native birds are busy nesting. You may spot robins, blackbirds, wrens and blue tits moving quickly through the branches, gathering twigs, moss and feathers, or hear the early morning chorus building as territories are established.

Out in the margins and meadows, early wildflowers are beginning to return. Primroses and stitchwort appear first, followed by cowslips, with knapweed coming later into the season.

The first bees are also out. The larger bees moving low to the ground are queen bumblebees, newly emerged and searching for nest sites. It’s a short but vital window, as they establish the colonies that will carry through the summer months.

Butterflies are starting to reappear too. Brimstones, with their distinctive pale yellow colour, are often among the first to be seen, along with early orange-tips moving across hedgerows and field edges.

For those walking the public footpaths, it’s a chance to see the estate as it wakes up. Not dramatic, but steady. A gradual shift that happens over days and weeks rather than all at once.

As always, visitors are encouraged to enjoy the footpaths responsibly, keeping to marked routes and being mindful of both wildlife and working farmland. Please keep dogs on leads, take photos, and leave everything else just as you find it.