The exciting news that came out last week was that the video
some of us volunteers contributed to way back in June (see https://southreppscommonsvolunteers.blogspot.com/2019/06/lights-camera-action.html)
is now out! NWT have produced two videos as part of their Wildlife in Common
project, one of which features
Southrepps Common and its volunteers. Those of you who took part gave Oscar
winning performances - thank you!
The films are:
Wildlife in Common: History and Wildlife (10.46 mins)
Wildlife in Common: People and Wildlife (7.26 mins). This is
the one that stars Southrepps - and the specific bit can be found between 2.17
and 3.12 mins.
However, both films are well worth a watch.
The video containing the Southrepps performances is available
on YouTube, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY-l6Z9Lljc or if you go to the NWT website you can get lots of
information on the project and see both of the films (select 'Commons on Film'
on the right hand side of the page: (https://www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife-in-norfolk/commons/wildlife-in-common)
Enjoy, and thanks to all those
who took part.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back in the more usual volunteering territory of mud and
sharp thorns, the latest working party moved to Pit Common. Keen and attentive
readers of this drivel blog will remember that in September big diggers excavated
The Pit, which had become clogged with Bulrushes and reeds and silted up with,
well, silt. After the diggers left, it looked like this:
Keen and attentive weather watchers may remember that since
then there have been some torrential downpours. Such was its attractiveness to
wildlife immediately, that a Kingfisher was spotted there one recent morning.
Sadly, fish though it might, it seems unlikely that the bird was successful so
soon after the pond was dry and lifeless, but perhaps in the near future…
Anyway, the early cutting programme for the SSSI part of The
Common having been completed on schedule, the willing workforce turned their
attention to Pit Common. Now there is a pond to view, it is necessary to clear
some of the scrub that has grown up round it, obscuring its delights from
sight.
At the start of the session on a grim, grey and unpromising
morning, The Pit looked like this:
Defying the weather forecast, 13 doughty volunteers turned
up in the damp early gloom. Pit Common is not our usual venue, so it was a
rather different session for most of us. Some were raking up grass that had
been cut earlier;
Some wielded loppers and saws, doing battle with the vicious
thorns of bramble and dog rose;
Two of our top brush cutter operators deployed their noisy
machines around the edge of the pond, and at the side of the path leading up
from it. Having damaged a tooth recently, the racket made by those brush
cutters sounded too much like the dentist’s instruments of torture for my
liking.
And some were clearing the newly cut material – every little
helps!
Not everything was different: we loaded the heavy, wet
material onto a dragsheet, which was then hauled by hand to a dumping site
under the trees. Tipping it over was a challenge, requiring quite a prayer
meeting to achieve.
Some of the recidivist reeds raising green shoots above the
rising waters were close enough to shore to be plucked out by determined, but
increasingly wet people.
The pond had of course been completely swamped by reeds and
bulrushes, and the whole purpose of the exercise was to remove as many as
possible. Inevitably, they will fight back, and no doubt by the summer there
will again be cover for the moorhens which usually breed here.
Two hours on, the day had brightened and the threat of rain
lifted for a while, and it was time to pack up and wander off back up the road.
After the session, The Pit now looks like this:
Here is Team Leader Kevin’s message of thanks:
A big thank you to everyone who turned up to tidy the Pit
Common on this damp and soggy morning. Fortunately, the weather didn't dampen
the spirit of the volunteers who gamely raked, lopped, sawed and brush cut the
area in question.
All in all a job well done.
We may call a smaller working party later this month in
order to finish cutting back the branches along the path.
However, for the moment thank you once again.
Kevin
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