One of the best parts of my job is definitely helping people to discover the richness of the wildlife on their doorstep, writes Ellen Winter from the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust.

I work on a couple of GWT projects aimed at people who haven’t had much chance to get out into nature, often because of poor health.

These sessions are often the best part of my week because of the enthusiasm and delight the participants show when discovering how to identify trees, or bees or whatever it is we are doing that day.

What people seem to really appreciate is finding out how to look, how to hear and how to notice all the tiny differences that will lead them to what a plant or creature is called.

At the start of the six-session course I find that most people are very keen to learn but don’t always know how to see what’s there.

I spent one session recently showing a group of women how to look at flowers. We looked at a small patch of flowers on Frome Banks Nature Reserve near Waitrose in Stroud.

To start with they struggled to see differences between the white flowers.

Gradually, using hand lenses and guides, they started to see that instead of just white flowers there were different types, tiny white flowers each held singly within a spike, greeny-white flowers held in a flat head, and red stems with groups of beautifully scented fluffy cream flowers.

After close observation the group got to grips with some of the technical terms found in field guide books.

Whether divided petals, stamens or racemes, they learnt to use the different characteristics to put names to the plants, and found themselves looking at greenery with new eyes. What is really wonderful is that participants often tell me what a difference it has made to how they see the world. It is a real privilege to be able to bring such a lifelong source of joy to people.