Big cut done

 

Wasps are splendid and important animals, pollinating and predating for all they’re worth, and there are loads of different species, most of them being solitary types. However, the species we encounter most is the Common Wasp, and they are social insects, if not very sociable. They collectively take a dim view of having their nests disturbed; they are the ultimate NIMBYs. Last week the pressure was on to get the whole of Area A beside Warren Road cut, in order to hit Natural England’s requirement that it is done by the end of September. Thus it was that Kevin drove Grillo the substitute mower on Tuesday, unerringly picking out a nest nestling in the grass, and, deeming him responsible, its occupants expressed their dissatisfaction in the time-honoured and painful way by delivering at least five stings.

The following day NWT warden George came along with a second mower, and cut some more, with John on Grillo. John found another wasps’ nest (fortunately without incident), and George found a Harvest mouse. Then on Friday he was back with four of his Cley volunteers. All was going well until Grillo broke down (physically, not emotionally), so a chunk of the area remains uncut.

Meanwhile, Julie, Sue and Margaret did another back-breaking session hand pulling reeds on the central area (G).

A lot was added to the dump site…

… with almost none left.

While they were there, Sue discovered a pretty little fungus – has anyone got an identification for it?

They had almost completed the task - John was to just run Grillo over the bit near the boardwalk by the reed bed, but the machine went on strike part-way through the job. So for the three reed-pulling specialists today’s work session started earlier than usual in order to finish the task and clear the material cut by Grillo (before it broke down).

Once the main work session began, Sue gamely finished the job off alone, whilst the other two moved in Team Leader mode to Area A.

And so it was that 14 of us convened on a muggy Sunday morning, facing the prospect of clearing a mass of previously cut material.

This is where Team Leaders Julie and Margaret showed their mettle, for in addition to Grillo’s breakdown, our wonderful little green trolley that is used to transport tools etc. had also suffered a terminal failure in the wheel department, forcing a quick change to a convoy of wheelbarrows.

Kevin’s wasp nest (as it shall be known henceforth) was slap bang where it had been intended to put a dump site, so there was debate as to whether we could even use the winch! Finally, it was agreed we could winch some material to the bottom end of the site and hand pull lighter loads to a dump around the corner from the wasps.

In a great blast of nostalgia for the previous way of working pre-winch, old yellow sheets were dragged by hand to then be turned over.

Being quite light, there may have been a little too much enthusiasm with tipping them out at first: it resulted in Margaret tumbling backwards into a clump of stinging nettles. Such was our concern for her that surprisingly neither of the two usual photographers for this blog thought of capturing the moment for posterity.

The hand-dragging folk made superb progress, with many short pulls being possible whilst the winch was more slowly dragging heavily laden sheets the full distance from almost the edge of Warren Road all the way down to the alder carr at the bottom of the area.

All this made for hot work on a humid day, so the break for refreshments was especially welcome - but what is Andrew doing? Describing a fishing success perhaps?

And here is the obligatory shot of Noel taking his ease. Much garden furniture is going to be chucked out now, to be replaced by comfortably upholstered wheelbarrows in future.

We’ve remarked before on the sartorial elegance of our little group; it’s now extended to gloves.

Along the way, a disused Harvest mouse nest was discovered; a beautiful construction!

By the end of the session we had two heaps:

The winch dump site…

… and the hand-pull dump site isn’t much smaller!!

We left with almost everything cleared, apart from the bit that couldn’t be cut due to Grillo’s infirmity. What a brilliant effort!

Here is the message of thanks from the Team Leaders:

Hello all

This is a very heartfelt thank you to the 14 volunteers today.  We were beset with problems - no trolley to transport the gear to the sites, a wasp nest in the planned dump site. However, you all threw yourself with gusto into the mix of winched sheets and hand pulled sheets.  It was a huge effort from all of you and we are very grateful for your hard work. We got a huge amount of material cleared.  Thank you.

Regards, Julie and Margaret

 

NWT botany expert Aaron has visited Pit Common recently to look at how the wildflower patch he created with us is developing, and the exciting news is that a nationally scarce and ‘near threatened’ plant has grown there. It’s Sulphur Clover (Trifolium ochroleucon).  Aaron was also pleased to find Meadow Vetchling (Lathyrus pratensis), so it’s great evidence that the work at Pit Common is already paying off.

 

Surprisingly, this is not the only blog in town; NWT has one too, part of which is to showcase the work of its volunteers. We were asked if we could contribute an item to it, which we have done; it’s at https://www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/news-and-articles/blog/all-blog-posts/volunteer-spotlight-the-southrepps-volunteer-group