That’ll do for now

Now that the birds appear to have got the idea that Spring is upon us, and have started yelling about it, telling one bird song apart from another can be a bit daunting. Never fear, technology’s here! For several years I have had the Chirpomatic app on my phone, and it can be quite helpful. Not only does it provide examples of the songs of most if not all of the birds found in Britain, but crucially it allows you to record a singing bird and then it suggests what that songster might be. So far, so good, but it’s not the only kid in town.

America’s Cornell Laboratory has produced Merlin: bird ID help for 10,000 species. I have also had this free app on my phone for some time, but really only used it to help identify birds seen: it guides you through the process, narrowing down the field from presumably 10,000 possibilities to (hopefully) the right one, using criteria such as size, colour, location, etc. But it’s also really powerful at identifying birds by sound, and a walk round the very wet NWT Hickling reserve the other day with someone continually using the app impressed me greatly. So much so in fact that I put it through its paces on our own dear reserve the very next day. What I like about this one is that it copes well with several birds all making a noise together, displaying each one on the screen as it makes an identification. Here’s a screenshot of a recording I made of blue tit, robin, wren and goldcrest in the Alder Carr where the boardwalk crosses Fox’s Beck.

That trip to Hickling was just about rain-free, but the reserve and the surrounding area was evidence of how much rain had fallen recently. On my way home I stopped in a lay-by opposite a flooded field, enjoying this flock of swans: a few mutes, but wonderfully, most of them were whoopers, and no doubt soon to leave us for their summer breeding grounds.

It turns out that our mini working party on Saturday 10^th was the final act of the cutting season. NWT warden George has declared the job finished, and expressed his gratitude for our efforts. So we’re off the hook until sometime in March, when attention will shift briefly to Pit Common.

Here’s a short account of how that final hour-long session unfolded:

Eleven of us turned up at the appointed hour, facing as we knew we would, a supremely soggy fen. Three heavily loaded drag sheets had been left from the previous Sunday’s session, and these needed shifting. Would the winch be up to the task? Well, as it turned out, yes, of course it was – thanks goodness.

Here to demonstrate how boggy it was, and also how important one’s choice of headgear is, are two of our stalwarts.

Always hogging the camera, one of the said stalwarts then popped up at the winch site, with another stalwart. You’ll notice they’re pointing in different directions…

Once the three sheets to the wind had been moved and tipped out, we were presented with an almighty great heap of dumped material. So that it isn’t encroaching too much onto the open area, just for the fun of it we decided to pitchfork the front of it over the top to the back of the pile. Here we see just how much fun it was.

Meanwhile, another, less mud-loving team was busy at the car park, knocking back the scrub that had been gradually encroaching. Part of it was temporarily taped off for safety reasons

Brian was reunited with his beloved brush cutter.

Team work makes the dream work!

Here’s the end result …

Another dead hedge!!

We wanted to get some space back, but you must be careful what you wish for!

Here’s the Team Leaders’ message of thanks:

Hello all

When we sent out the schedule of work parties, we had two more scheduled - this Sunday and then two weeks after that, but in truth we have completed everything that NWT want from us for this season! We are just too efficient!

Our NWT warden, George, visited the commons this week and declared us as done for the reed cutting.  There will be a small work party in March to do a Conservation Cut at the Pit and then (for those who are into it) Himalayan Balsam pulling around May time. We will put out emails when these are scheduled in. The main fen/reed cutting will start again in August.

Until then, can we take this opportunity to thank you all very much for all your hard work and support again over the last year.  We have a fantastic team of volunteers at Southrepps - long may it continue. We hope to see you all again soon.

Take care,

Regards, Julie, Margaret, Kevin, John and Sue

 

Spring in the air

Spring in the air? Most of us are knocking on a bit (indeed, there’s a fair sprinkling of septuagenarians in our doughty group), so any suggestion of springing is rather out of the question. As for the season however, the unfashionably early spring weather is certainly leading a lot of plants and birds to wake up. The snowdrops are looking great, and justifying the earlier work to keep this section on the edge of Bradfield Road clear in readiness for their display.

I have recently listened to a lovely podcast on BBC Sounds, about a visit to the reed cutters on Cley Marshes. The Bishop family have been cutting reeds there every winter for several generations, with very little change to the tools and methods used. As well as hearing about the current line-up, there was also a short section focussing on the management of the NWT reserve; which of course shares our warden George with us. The item is called Reed cutting at Cley, and it’s in the Open Country podcast. Since we share a passion for cutting reeds, it’s well worth a listen.

Speaking of weather, there had been a good dry spell, including the couple of days after the pre-cut of reeds ready for our attention today. Unkindly, it rained the evening before our work session, meaning that the piles of cut reed we were presented with were soggy again – just like last time. In fact, it was surprising just how much boggier the whole area had become in the last fortnight.

As soon as the drag sheets are laid out the happy throng of volunteers (20 again this time) set to with a will and a pitchfork; here they go.

But before the loaded sheets can be moved, the vital winch crew must get the blessed machine in place and running; that’s what these three are up to.

Regular (or even irregular) readers of these posts will be only too aware of the tendency of those at the winching end of the operation to burst into song, usually led by the redoubtable Noel. Today was exceptional, in that a quartet of rich male voices formed, including your own, your very own, correspondent. For reasons already unclear, our concert began with Waterloo Sunset, originally by the Kinks: a little later a rousing rendition of L-O-L-A Lola rounded off the performance. A stray remark of how summery the temperature felt led us nicely into the hits of The Small Faces and Mungo Jerry. We then, for no apparent reason, meandered into a bit of Oliver! The Musical, with the risk, thankfully averted, of a longer diversion into Songs from the Shows. The rest of the work party, safely out of earshot, don’t know what they missed!

Summer it might not yet be, but it was definitely milder than last time, and within 15 minutes the layers were coming off. Thank you Nature for providing a coat stand, albeit one reminiscent to at least one of us as a gamekeeper’s gibbet, looking as it did like a lot of strung-up crows. These of course were intended to warn “vermin” about their fate if the keeper saw them: in this case it could perhaps serve as a warning to unwary folk inclined to join us in our muddy cavorting.

Team Leader Julie was busy raking up as much as possible of the wet material left behind last time.

A useful incidental task in this area is to keep the watercourses heading towards the Beck clear.

 The half-time break arrived to general relief.

It was a relief tempered somewhat by the loss of the majority of the biscuits in the muddy morass. In Sheila’s absence, we blamed it on the Catering B team! But it didn’t entirely inhibit those for whom Custard Creams are so desirable; they’re alright if they don’t get too soggy

Then the fear was that a pile of uneaten biscuits beside the boardwalk would not be considered inedible by passing dogs, with the risk of enraging their owners, so it was decided to submerge them. (I don’t think it will present much of a challenge to Basil and his ilk though.)

The old yellow drag sheets were brought out of hibernation for some of the older, wet and heavy material to be piled onto, so that they could then be laboriously dragged to the main sheets for winching the considerable distance to the dumping site.

At first I thought some giant amphibious moles had been at work, but their molehills turned out to be piles of almost immovable vegetation.

Almost immovable, but not quite. Not for the first time, thank goodness for that winch!

While all this forking and winching was going on, Brian was busy with the brush cutter clearing dead stuff away near the car park.

He was later joined by others to help keep the Beck clear.

By the end of the session there were still three fully loaded sheets to winch away. This will be done by a small team next Saturday, all being well.

Otherwise, Area F is cleared and our reed clearance duties completed for this season.

What a view from the car park now!! 

Here is Team Leader Margaret’s message of thanks:

Hello all you wonderful people.

Another amazing morning's work. We have now completed the cutting programme for this season. Thanks to the conditions underfoot it was another morning of hard graft and we are extremely grateful for your efforts. We hope it gives you pleasure as you stroll along the boardwalk. We still have three sheets to pull, those of you who said that they would be willing to help with this task, we shall meet at the container at 10.00 next Saturday. JH suggests it takes 10-15 minutes per pull; so it should only take an hour. If it is pouring with rain we will cancel.

We will contact George Baldock our warden and see if there are any other tasks he wants doing, and let you know in good time if we will be holding a working party in two weeks’ time.

Many thanks again.

Margaret (for the team leaders)

Volunteers beetling away again

 There are apparently more than 400,000 species of beetles in the world: some are a nuisance to humanity, but all are doing valuable work in their own ecosystems. Amongst the most useful and visible are the dung beetles, and a recent article in The Guardian highlighted research showing that male and female South African spider dung beetles coordinate to roll balls of, well, dung. It says in the article that “They don’t know where they’re going, but they can still coordinate to move the object together.” These are thought to be the only example of animals other than humans working together without knowing an object’s destination. In other beetles that roll balls in pairs, the females tend to hitch a ride on the balls of dung, or walk behind their ball-rolling mate (presumably holding a scented hankie to their little nostrils, in the same way as can be necessary at the moment when walking past huge mountains of pungently decaying manure waiting to be spread on the local fields.)

This surprising research was drawn to the attention of your correspondent by a fellow volunteer, who thought it could describe alternate Sunday mornings on the Common to a tee. I for one decline to comment.

Speaking of your usual correspondent, once again I was absent for the first half of today’s working party. The reason was of course entirely legitimate, but it was a lucky coincidence that my eventual arrival was as the tea break was starting, so that I could enjoy the warm greeting of my fellow beetles volunteers. The warmth of that greeting was perhaps tempered by my initial surprise that the job wasn’t yet finished, but nonetheless the cup that warms and a biscuit still came my way.

The pre-cut crew had of course been busy a few days before, leaving the area looking like this to greet the initial 18 volunteers.

Since I was absent for the first hour, I am grateful to Team Leader Julie for her photos and account of what took place, on what was very soggy ground. As I found out, if you stood still too long you felt a sinking feeling, there were treacherous streamlets heading for the Beck, and keeping your balance was quite tricky (although nobody actually fell over).

The first problem to deal with was unfolding the still-frozen drag sheets. And then, although it had only recently been cut and not rained on, the material to be shifted was particularly heavy and awkward.

Then it was on with the usual tasks:

Forking the cut material onto the drag sheets

Escorting the sheets being winched to the dump site

Just in time for my arrival, there was the traditional gathering for coffee

At break-time the pitchforks are set aside, and don’t these ones look pleased, giving us their thumbs up?

We’re a multi-talented and multi-skilled bunch, as is obvious for all to see. It’s not often you find a glove puppeteer on a boggy fen, but it can happen.

Every so often a long straggly stem, or root, or something else the botanists would know the name of would interfere with the smooth lifting of cut reeds. Dire warnings were issued by the Wise Woman of the group (who had watched too many horror films in her youth) that these were manifestations of something evil on the benighted site, and we should all watch out. She was a bit better after a little lie down – but who knows if she was right…? (Team Leader Margaret did later take a tumble in the storage container – just saying.)

We like to show where the cut stuff gets dumped, and once again the winch and tipping out crews had come up with an impressive pile (not a medical term, you understand).

When the work was over, and people were wending their weary way home, those who needed their boots in sparkling condition for, presumably, future social engagements made their way down to the Beck for a spot of hazardous welly washing. This, as Rita discovered last time, is fraught with danger, but nothing daunted she did it again.

Brian made sure the job was a good ‘un before letting her back out.

Here’s how the area looks now, with one section left to deal with.

Here is Team Leader Margaret’s message of thanks:

A very heartfelt thank you, to the 19 people who came today. It was hard going with the heavy wet conditions under foot. As always you all rose admirably to the task. It is great to walk across the bridge and see right across to the bench, a view seen only every four years. It will also make hunting down the Himalayan balsam easier. Roll on May!

So take your well-earned rest this afternoon and hopefully see you, same time, same place in two weeks.

For those who saw my inelegant fall, no damage done at all.

Thanks again.

Margaret (for the team leaders)