Planting, Raking and other Bits

Wednesday, April 5th 2017

The last couple of days have been fairly productive with volunteers working enthusiastically enabling us to have a reserve which not only has great flora and fauna, but is also a fantastic place to be!

The last of our saplings went in yesterday; Walnut, hazel and a couple of Common Oaks, and some Willow cuttings also went in to fill empty areas in the Willow Carr coppice block we have been doing lately.

On the wetland the team had begun raking up Gorse cuttings from the previous day .…

….Charlie continued with more brush-cutting which we raked-up and removed today!

As we worked we noticed a foaming bubbly patch on one of the ponds, on closer inspection it had been made by numerous frog tadpoles wriggling in the shallow water.

Elsewhere a mud coated but jovial Luke, John and Brian were investigating a path where an up welling of water was coming to the surface, it was suspected that a burst pipe was causing this, alas this is still unknown and will involve further digging work to find the pipe in question.

Ann, Colin and Bob were busy tidying up the Field Centre as well as getting toad spawn in a tank to accompany the frog spawn in the Field Centre activity room.

Two other Johns filled the bird feeders….

…. before helping on the wetland where Common Lizards were spotted and this Peacock butterfly, probably just out of hibernation.

These butterflies usually find a shed, outbuilding, or even a hole in a tree to sleep through the cold winter only to emerge when the temperature warms up in Spring. Small Tortoiseshells have also been seen recently on the reserve, and in the moth trap this morning half a dozen Early Tooth-striped. This moth visits sallow catkins to feed on having over wintered as a pupa.  

Jorge was busy at the workshop processing some timber into manageable lengths, and fixed a damaged water fitting in one of the sheds.

As you can see from all the above activity we depend heavily on our fantastic volunteers. It is credit to them that our reserve is maintained to such a high standard, thank you to all involved.

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