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

 

 

From snooker to embroidery: just another day on the Common

93% - that was the forecast from the Met. Office for humidity this morning, and I doubt any of the 13 hardy volunteers who attended today’s working party would have cause to doubt it. The morning (happily, the part of it before your usual correspondent ventured out) started with drizzle, but then it held off until we finished. So at least we could strip off so far as decency and legislation would allow, but there was precious little evaporation going on. We’ve mentioned before the old saying “horses sweat, gentlemen perspire, but ladies merely glow”: this time, there was no distinction – sweat applied equally.

Six person hours had been expended earlier in the week to perform the essential pre-cut of the part of Area G (the central bit of the Common) that is south of the boardwalk, leaving it looking like this.

On arrival (on time as usual, no sooner) I found only Janet, bravely forking material onto a drag sheet.

The lack of companions for her can be explained by the absence of several Team Leaders, who had come up with reasons to be absent. But have no fear, we were in the capable hands of TL Julie, who managed extremely well thank you, and before you knew it more volunteers started flocking in.

There’s an art to tipping out a drag sheet, and here’s how it’s best done.

And then there’s this:

A mishap has occurred, with Dave disappearing and at risk of being buried. Listen carefully, and your correspondent can be heard asking plaintively to be allowed to join in. Despite this, we found we were actually working at peak efficiency (for us, that is) with well-loaded sheets ready to be towed as soon as the previous one was tipped out. Already the task looked well on its way to completion.

Half-time came, providing a welcome opportunity to cool down for a bit, and an even more welcome piece of Nina’s famous and indeed essential apple cake.

Back at work and suitably refreshed, as always there was random conversation to eavesdrop on: reminiscences about free school milk, which was either un-drinkable because it had been left out in the cold and was frozen, or because it had been left out in the heat, and was curdled. That’s the sort of thing the pitchforkers discuss. Back at the winch end of the rope, there’s always much debate about where to tip out the next sheet. With growing piles (I know, we’ve done that joke before) the optimum spot for the next load is a matter of concern, so when someone suggested “that pocket there”, inevitably we went into a lot of useless fantasising about snooker tables, and which pocket on a table was meant by this. Regular readers won’t be surprised to learn that this persisted for several sheets, and incorporated the desirability of “going in off” in billiards and then a detour into bar billiards, with those tables having holes in the middle and mushrooms to add further confusion.

Meanwhile Dave, for reasons that now escape me, gave renditions of “When the Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along” and “There’ll always be an England.” Perhaps it was his close shave with being buried that brought it on.

Bette Midler’s “From a Distance” featured briefly, connected to the fact that the sheets by now were having to be winched a fair old way, and the mound grew higher.

Meanwhile, the usually melodic Noel was strangely quiet: this was put down to the fact that he had been thinking a lot...

What he was plotting was the best route for the last set of sheets, and he came up with a course between two trees that he likened to threading them through the eye of a needle. This quickly became likened to embroidery – naturally. Here we see a sheet approaching the challenge:

And here we go, rather to a different Dave’s surprise…

Sometimes the Common’s inhabitants make themselves known while we’re messing up their home. This time it was a very active and healthy-looking common lizard.

There was some material on the other side of the boardwalk that also had to be cleared, and this too was done in time. Then it was time for the sheet folding specialists to consider things…

… and finally wrapping the whole thing up.

Here is TL Julie’s fuller message of thanks:

Hi all

This is a huge and heartfelt thanks to the 12 volunteers who joined me today on the Central Area. I knew we were down at least 6 regulars (including team leaders) and so was a little concerned about getting the task done, especially as it was raining first thing....but I should have known better and needn't have worried - our superb group of volunteers never disappoint - we got more reed moved today than I thought we would......you are all amazing. Thankfully the rain stopped for the duration of the work party - though it was very humid.

My chat about digging up the small Alders on the central area was also supported, so I will be putting out an email about doing that task for an hour next Friday afternoon early next week. Again you never cease to amaze me with your enthusiasm.

Thanks again

Regards, Julie

Here’s how that part of Area G now looks:

 

Earlier in the week three of us attended a two-handed talk by NWT’s David North and Nick Acheson. (David worked for the Trust for many years and now volunteers, and Nick is the Trust’s Wildlife Ambassador.) Publicity for this event seems to have been elusive, so it is thanks to our Sheila that she tipped us off that it was happening in the theatre attached to the excellent Black Swan pub and theatre in North Walsham. The talk was part of NWT’s celebration of 100 years of conservation in Norfolk, and was built around the four books that the two speakers have written between them: David’s Life Changing: Cley and Salthouse Marshes which we mentioned back in February and his just published biography of the legendary Bernard Bishop, sometime warden of Cley Marshes and still a volunteer there. This is described in the Trust’s blog (yes, there are other blogs!). Nick’s books are The Meaning of Geese which we mentioned back in May 2023, and more recently This Wild Dream: A Celebration of 100 Years of Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Amongst many other things, Nick was able to reveal that his beloved Pink-footed geese have begun to appear back at Cley for the winter.

 Here in Southrepps I see that despite the exceptionally hot and dry summer, the hedgerows are full of berries: many hawthorns and blackberries in particular (although a lot of the latter are in a bad state). This being the season for fungi, there are a few striking examples along the lanes, including these two. The usually reliable Obsidentify app has failed to tell me what they are, but perhaps someone out there will know. 

And finally, staff from NWT have been at work at Pit Common, cutting down all the reeds and reedmace that were clogging the pond. Presumably the clearing away of them is due to be completed.