We’re Snowdrop-ready!

 The Pit Street Puddle – formerly (and indeed formally) known as The Pit – will need considerably more rain than yesterday’s pathetic drizzle to get it anywhere close to its capacity. Here’s how it looked a few days ago.

Although nostalgia is nowhere near as good as it used to be, old hands might look back fondly on how it was a few years ago, when those hands (younger then) were needed to keep The Pit clear. In those days it was mainly to keep the greater Reedmace under control, Crassula not yet having made much of its malign impact.

We’ll be back there in a fortnight, clearing some overgrown undergrowth. Meanwhile, today’s working party began in the mist on a proper Autumn morning.

When I arrived, a few people had already gathered, amongst the beautifully dressed reeds. As team Leader and fellow photographer/blogger Julie says, “I love these autumn mornings where the tops of the reed are silvery against the drab skies.”

They were just the advance party; the final total was a magnificent 19 volunteers! Although they could be quite hard to spot…

It’s only the red sheet that gives this group away!

The dump site was, as usual, in amongst the trees. Red and white sheets were winched, whilst more lightly laden yellow ones were dragged by hand – meaning a lot of material was shifted quickly.

In amongst the trees, if you looked carefully and he moved, you could spot Noel: he only needed mud on his face to complete his camouflage! Dave was less coy…

New recruit Bella looked on, but we’re not convinced she is impressed yet!

We stopped as usual at 11.00, but this being Remembrance Sunday we paused for two minutes of silent reflection, accompanied by a softly singing Robin.

Then Nina’s apple cake was gratefully consumed. We were very lucky to have three recent recruits with us today (Julian, Jane and Simon), so coupled with John and Lynne who also joined us fairly recently our group is growing nicely.

After the break our forces were divided. Some finished off winching away the remaining material from the central area, while the remainder moved to the section known as “The Bradfield Road spur.” This is the patch on the other side of the boardwalk, bordering unsurprisingly, Bradfield Road. And it is here that every spring is heralded by a lovely show of Snowdrops, so it’s important to cut and clear the area at this time to give them every chance to delight our visitors each year. It was cut earlier in the week, and left like this:

The old saying about many hands making light work certainly applied here.

That’s Brian making a noise with the brush cutter, but the result was neat edges to the boardwalk spur. All this stuff necessitated the creation of another mound in amongst the trees,

Short work was made of this task, at the end of which that section now looks like this:

This is where TL Kevin dug out some unwanted montbretia (or Crocosmia to give it its better-known name) dumped in someone’s garden waste perhaps.

And this is now how the central area looks:

Here is TL Margaret’s message of thanks

Hello All.

As usual, thank you seems very inadequate. 19 of us turned out today, including two new volunteers Jane and Simon, you are most welcome and we completed the work on area G as well as clearing the snowdrop area on the Bradfield Road spur. Thank you to Kevin for digging up all the montbretia that had self-seeded. Brian did a wonderful job with the brush cutter. We were fuelled as usual by Nina's brilliant apple cake after a beautiful two minutes silence. We noted that the walkers who were present joined us in marking this moment of National solemnity.

Julian has been signed off to be a Grizzly operator, we are very pleased to have another on the rota; well done Julian, not that you needed any training, more of a duck to water.

Next time we will be working at the Pit doing slightly different tasks for those who like chopping trees and brambles and dead hedging. I hope you all enjoy it, as yet again I will be playing hooky, this time watching rugby at Murrayfield. Come on Scotland!

Thank you again.

Margaret for the team leaders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Alders Abstracted

 The third and (for now) final session of Alder sapling removal from Area G was done by six dedicated volunteers on Friday 16^th October. As faithful readers might expect, your usual correspondent had another cast-iron excuse for his absence, but we’re grateful to Team Leader Julie for her photos anyway.

This reminds me of the Ducks’ Ditty from Kenneth Graham’s The Wind in the Willows, which begins:

All along the backwater,

Through the rushes tall,

Ducks are a-dabbling,

Up tails all!

The heap of pulled alders …

Look no alder seedlings/small trees!!

We were expecting to have a working party on Sunday 25^th October, but Storm Boelo put paid to that, with forecast very high winds making it unsafe to venture near any trees. We were instructed by NWT to cancel the scheduled work party.  As Team Leader Julie said in her cancellation notice, “NWT George has advised that they are closing their reserves with wooded areas due to the risk to trees that have suffered in the heat and drought as they do not know how they will now deal with strong winds. Obviously, our dump sites are in the wooded area. We have already had a tree down overnight on Jubilee Boardwalk.”

Both storms produced heavy downpours, but the Pit, so recently scooped out, still only managed to collect a puddle: so we still need a lot more. Back in 1781, Gilbert White was still reporting on the lack of rain in Selborne. I don’t suppose “trick or treat” was a thing then, but although it was dry on Halloween it was also frosty. Millers didn’t have enough barley to grind, and dairy farmers were unable to fill the butter-pots of their customers. (Now, we’re being urged to stock up for whatever coming disasters await us, and customers might again find butter-pots hard to fill.)

That blown-out session was re-convened for today (1^st November), and the weather was indeed very different to last week’s offering. As with the last couple of days, we were treated to a clear blue sky and warm, bright sunshine. This time 20 volunteers and one dog turned up to mow a meadow – or at least a wet valley fen. The recent rain had been enough to make the peaty ground soft, without yet being muddy.

I mentioned the dog: she’s called Bella and accompanied our recent recruit Julian. Already she has the look of a team Leader…

Or maybe not…

20 is a very creditable turnout, and we were pleased to welcome back after an interval of a few years three guests of TL Margaret’s. How much coercion was involved is shrouded in mystery, but they seemed pleased to be there on such a fine morning.

Here we see a concerted effort to get your usual correspondent and photographer to actually join in on some of the work.

Having been dragged into it, I did my little bit without the aid of a pitchfork, under Noel’s supervision.

Songs were in short supply today, but brief snatches of the Beatles’ Come Together and Blackbird (triggered by nearby birdsong) were attempted.

Meanwhile, others were working, widely dispersed across the area. Whilst the winch was used for the longer drags, it was also possible to load some sheets less fully and move them by hand, such was the lightness of the material involved.

It was only a few hours since the high-jinks and jumps of Halloween, so volunteers of a nervous disposition blanched at this sight:

They should not have been so scared; these were in fact merely jackets making use of the stakes marking out the survey areas! Or so we thought…

And now for two obligatory photos:

Firstly, one of the inevitable frog trying to keep out of our way.

And then the usual group shot of the refreshment break – complete of course with Nina’s famous and fabulous Apple cake.

At that break there was talk of the recent invasion of Ladybirds, with some people reporting numbers in the plague league, whilst others had seen very few. If it helps, I saw a Red Admiral butterfly flitting about in the warm sunshine yesterday. (The butterfly was flitting; I wasn’t.)

Also featuring in the break was the revelation from the botanists present that some Purple Reed Grass had been discovered, this being the first time it had been recorded here.

Here is a sample, being modelled by TL Margaret.

The cut vegetation having been so light and easy to handle, we actually managed to run out of work early, so were all packed up and back at the tool store by 12.00.

Here’s how the area looked at the end of today’s work.

Here is Julie’s message of thanks:

Good afternoon

This is a massive thank you to the 20 volunteers who turned out today on a beautiful autumn morning on the common.  We split into several units, some clearing to yellow sheets and hand pulling them to the dump site and some to the red sheets for the winch to take the load. However, the material was so light we packed up the winch at coffee time and completed the remaining material by hand.  Make the most of the light weight material as in a few weeks’ time we will be on the reed bed where the material will not be so easy to handle!

As this was the rescheduled work party from last week, we will be out again next Sunday spilt between the remaining clearance on the central area and clearing Bradfield Road for the snowdrops. So one more week of the light material!

Thanks as always for all your hard work, and to Margaret for providing the refreshments and to Nina for the lovely cake. Always appreciated.

Enjoy the mild weather while it lasts!

Regards, Julie for the TLs

 

Beyond the Bird Table

Back at the beginning of August, I mentioned in this blog that the BTO had announced the launch of its new podcast, Beyond the Bird Table. The latest episode is a fascinating explanation of the mysteries of bird migration – which of course is very much underway at the moment. It’s great, so do give it a listen, on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

 

 

Berries galore

 I’m not too sure what poetry John Keats might have written in a time of climate breakdown, but so far at least there is little sign of his season of mists. The mellow fruitfulness is nowhere near as fruitful as it should be either, although hawthorn locally is a notable exception. This year’s glut of berries is perhaps just reflecting that for that plant at least the spring and early summer was good for it. There was a lot of blossom and plenty of pollinators in May so although we then had drought it would have got off to a good start, and with sufficiently deep roots it presumably found enough water to make the berries.

Another poetic John – Clare – started his ‘A Autumn Morning’ with “The autumn morning waked by many a gun…” and that has a very familiar ring to it, even after all these years. Meanwhile in Selborne back in 1781 Gilbert White was worried about the drought that was affecting the area, with wells drying up everywhere. Presumably reservoirs were not yet a thing, so dry wells will have represented quite a problem. Luckily, they didn’t have hosepipes either! He will also have been wrestling with the problem of where swallows and other birds of summer go at this time of year, not yet understanding the wonder of migration. On that topic, I saw my first redwings of the winter thrush influx yesterday.

Today, breaking with my usual practice of arriving on time for a working party I arrived uncharacteristically early; perhaps as much as ten minutes before the advertised start time. This coincided with the arrival of the redoubtable Noel, who greeted me with “If you’re here at the same time as me, I must be late” – rude! Anyway, 15 volunteers turned out to clear away material that had been cut previously. We’ve actually had some rain lately, meaning of course that the cut stuff was still wet, but fortunately not too heavy, and at least today the rain stayed away. In fact, from a chilly start the day just got better and better – almost too warm for comfortable working by midday.

Work was straightforward today: basically just raking or pitchforking material onto drag sheets…

… and tipping the sheets out at the dump site, accompanied by much good-natured banter.

Inevitably the mounds of dumped material grew, and your correspondent found himself at the summit of one such eminence, and thus able to look down on his colleagues.

We were dumping in a pleasantly bosky area, which particularly with the sunlight streaming through the branches was attractive enough to merit a photo of its own.

As previously described, ad nauseum, it is here that the work takes on some of the character of a music quiz, always featuring songs from several decades ago – even though nostalgia is not as good as it used to be. Today we started with Nowhere to Run from Martha Reeves & The Vandellas following a tricky moment when one of us was in danger of being trapped as a sheet was tipped out (NOT an uncommon occurrence). Tipping out sheets is an art in itself, best achieved when the sheet almost forms into a ball as it rolls over. This led to speculation about whether it could indeed fully encase its load and be rolled for some distance. Rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ then rang out at the dump site, enthusiastically performed by those who remember it from the ancient TV Western Rawhide starring a young Clint Eastwood. So many of our number still resemble Clint… More recently, it featured in the excellent film Blood Brothers, starring John Belushi. Some of our number still resemble John…

For no reason that I at least can remember, the penultimate offering in this set was Blame it on the Boogie from The Jacksons. Finally, as we were summoned to the mid-morning refreshments, Bob Dylan’s One More Cup of Coffee seemed the appropriate offering.

Here is the assembled company enjoying that break.

At this stage all sorts of friends, family and random interlopers magically appeared, but there was by then hardly any of Nina’s legendary Apple Cake left.

Back to work, and at one point we were also joined by this little frog.

At the end of the session the area looked like this 

Here is Team Leader Julie’s message of thanks:

Good afternoon

I hope you are all enjoying the lovely sunshine today - it was certainly a lovely day to be working on the common.

Our thanks go to the 15 volunteers who worked on the common today clearing the reed cut earlier in the week. Thanks also go to the Grizzly operators who did the pre-cut for us - often the unsung heroes!

We cleared a big area today, aided by the fact that the arisings are reasonably light in the area we were working on!  We were also powered on by half time apple cake provided by Dave in Nina's absence - and a great job he did too!

We will return in two weeks to finish the remaining area not done today.  

Thanks again

Regards, Julie

Walking past the Pit a couple of days ago, I saw that it has been much changed. A few weeks ago, all the reeds and other vegetation clogging it up had been cut and left in heaps in it. Now they’re all gone, and by the look of it the awful clogging Crassula helmsii has been scraped out too. The heavy machinery involved has made a bit of a mess of the grassy area, including the wildflower section, but that should recover in short order. Almost certainly, some Crassula will have evaded the scraping, so it’s likely to try to re-colonise the pond. We are therefore highly likely to be called to arms to try to prevent it gaining another foothold: watch this space! 

 

Alder Pulling again and again

 Your usual correspondent having had numerous excuses for absence, we’re grateful for the un-usual one for this account of the first session to pull out the encroaching alders in the Central Area (G) of the Common:

This is what we are tackling - a mass of young alders taking hold in the corner of the central area.  Cutting them with Grizzly is making them stronger so, depending on their size we decided to pull, pop or dig them out!!

See the intrepid Alder pullers starting this new task, while Margaret set to work on the bigger ones with the tree popper.

A specimen!

And a larger specimen pulled out!!

The heap of young alders removed.

But there are still more to tackle next week!

Here is the message of thanks from Team Leaders Margaret and Julie:

I know it's not normal to get a thank you on a Friday but today 7 volunteers joined Julie and me pulling up hundreds of Alder saplings and we are very grateful. The weather was kind and we made good inroads into the infestation in the corner. Such a good time was had, that we are going to repeat the fun next Friday at 2.00.

We had a couple of people saying that they couldn't come but you never let us down and 7 far exceeded our wildest hopes so thank you.

Margaret and Julie

The following Friday duly arrived, this time minus both your usual correspondents, but we do have Margaret’s message of thanks.

An enormous thank you to the 13 volunteers who came today. This includes the three chaps who did the pre-cut ready for Sunday. We were lucky to have (NWT warden) George pop past today and he was most impressed with your handiwork. So far we have totalled 18 volunteer hours on this one task alone which is amazing. Thank you. We had so much fun again that we are going to repeat it next Friday, same time, same channel as the old saying goes. Hopefully see some of you on Sunday.

Margaret for the team leaders

Two days later, and they were at it again, this time on a scheduled Sunday working party, incorporating some more alder pulling – and still minus your usual and un-usual correspondents, but we do have some photos of the event, along with another message of thanks from TL Margaret.

It’s interesting to note that in a change from the obligatory half-time photo opportunity, in the absence of your usual correspondent Dave managed to monopolise a bevy of booted beauties.

More work was carried out on the bit of Area G south of the boardwalk – this time featuring our mower Grizzly, minus its driver.

And here’s how that section looked at the end of the session.

Margaret then sent yet another message of thanks

Thank you as always to you all, particularly the 10 volunteers who came this morning. So glad that the rest of you had much better things to do. A good clearance was made and fortunately the material was light and easy to move. Area G is always the easiest area to work and your reward was the fantastic display of Devil's Bit Scabious and Grass of Parnassus that we have had this year. We will be returning to this task in two weeks’ time. In my last email about the Alder removal, I said we would return to this task this Friday. As it has been pointed out to me I, and several others, will be elsewhere, namely the Antingham and Southrepps Schools 200th celebration. So watch this space for the next working party.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Margaret for the team leaders