Time for growth

Now that the cutting season is over for another year you will be hearing less from us about work done on the Commons. This of course is largely because very little work is possible through spring and summer without disturbing the inhabitants of the place, who need to concentrate on growing and breeding.

Instead, so you don’t forget about us, we thought it might be a good idea to do some occasional postings about the plants and animals that can be found here as the seasons progress. Wherever possible, images will either be freshly taken, or re-used from the now defunct Southrepps Commons Trust website, which only used pictures taken on the Commons. (If you have any images of plants or animals on the Commons that you would like to be included on this blog (and of course acknowledged), please email them to scommonsvolunteers@gmail.com including the word “blog” in the subject line.)

To kick off, this little video taken on 14^th March this year at the bridge over Fox’s Beck, mid-way along the boardwalk, is a reminder of how soul-soothing a few quiet minutes spent here can be. The birds are now becoming much more vocal – particularly the robin which dominates this particular recording, although it is briefly joined by the inevitable woodpigeon.

While we’re on the subject of birdsong, the first of the warblers to start singing is the chiffchaff. Many of these little gems actually manage to stay here through the winter, and so have the advantage of being already up and running at the start of the breeding season. Others don’t go far for their winter holidays (southern Europe and north Africa), so are bound to be quicker off the mark than the long-haul sub-Saharan migrants.

This bird has the decency to have a distinctive, if very simple, song that actually tells you its name as it sings! The RSPB website is a font of valuable information about, well, birds: this is a link to their page about the chiffchaff and its easy to recognise song: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/chiffchaff

This image was taken from the now almost inaccessible Scouts’ Pond near the Jubilee Boardwalk in April 2011. I think it’s the best picture of a bird I have ever managed to take.

At this time of year, while trees are yet to come into leaf but the resident birds are becoming more vocal and active, bullfinches are a particular delight to find. I always approve of species that make their identification easy (like the chiffchaff with its song), so the white bum shown by flying bullfinches is something to celebrate. They have a very quiet, gentle call, which once noticed is a tell-tale giveaway that they are in the vicinity.

If anything, the male bullfinch is perhaps a little too gaudy; it looks as though a young girl has got at her mother’s make-up box and overdone it somewhat. The female on the other hand is rather plain – apart from her aforementioned diagnostic white bum. This photo of a male bird was taken by volunteer and winch master Dave Goode in his garden adjoining the common in January 2016.

See the excellent BTO website at https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/bullfinch for all the information you might want about bullfinches, and recordings of their calls and song.

Thanks to heroic volunteering efforts, almost 500 plant species have been recorded on the Commons. Plants likely to be seen in flower here during the next couple of months are:

Marsh Marigold 

Creeping Buttercup 

Lesser Celandine 

Red Campion

Lady's Smock (also known as cuckoo flower) 

Tormentil

Herb Robert

Bog Bean (was the emblem of the Southrepps Commons Trust)

Moschatel/TownHall Clock 

Marsh Valerian

Common Cotton Grass 

Carnation Sedge

Lesser Pond-Sedge

Bluebell

Common Twayblade

Click on the plant names for further information and pictures on various websites. (All links open in new windows.)

Some butterflies which have over-wintered as hibernating adults make an early appearance if the weather has a warm spell. Last week it was very pleasantly warm, and some gorgeous male brimstones were seen, as well as a few fast-moving commas, and I have seen at least one small tortoiseshell. (Brimstones are incidentally considered to be the reason we call these insects butterflies, as the males of this species is the colour of butter.)

Follow this link for more about the brimstone: https://www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/butterflies/brimstone

Comma

And finally for now, two gardens close to The Common have camera traps mounted in them by their nature-loving owners. Both have Fox’s Beck running through them, and those camera traps often pick up visits from creatures that must also appear on the part of the Beck running across the Common. This wonderful footage from 6^th March this year shows a fabulous little egret in glorious sunshine, using its distinctive yellow feet to shuffle up the stream bed in order to flush out some prey.

 

Reedbed put to bed

 In a show of welcome solidarity, the local birds have declared Spring sprung. A recent walk in the glorious sunshine round the Common earlier in the week was all the more enjoyable due to the live playlist of robin, song thrush, wren, chaffinch, dunnock, goldcrest, great tit, greenfinch, and wonderfully – siskin. That siskin was one of a flock feeding on the alder trees at the bridge over Fox’s Beck, and unusually, they stayed close at hand (they’re usually way up at the tops of the trees). As usual however, I did not have my camera with me, and relatively close though they were, the phone wasn’t going to be up to the job. Fellow volunteer Janet however had been properly equipped when she was there a few days earlier, and she got this shot of an unusually confiding female.

This also being a time for disputing territory, a large garden adjacent to the Common was recently the scene of an unprovoked attack on a barn owl by a buzzard. The owl swiftly left the scene, with the assailant in hot pursuit. Kestrels will often steal prey from barn owls, but this is going a bit far. Apparently, this beastly behaviour is fairly common, and there are videos of it on YouTube to prove it.

The midweek downpour had its inevitable effect on the giant sponge that is Southrepps Common. Including your own correspondent, several people discovered the hidden deep pitfalls, with wellies filled with water thick with liquid mud the unlovely result. Last night’s below freezing temperature meant that we 14 volunteers were again greeted this morning by the makings of cold hands and feet. However, the sun was out and warm, so the suffering was so much reduced that we all felt we "mustn’t grumble".

It really was a lovely morning, which Maggie for one said she could not resist. On arrival at the car park I was struck by the scene, made even better by a singing song thrush, ably accompanied by a robin. In the background you can also hear Grillo hard at work.

It’s not all just turn up and bash away; oh no. Here we see two team leaders assessing the jobs to be done, photographed by another.

Those jobs broke down into the usual clearing away of the cut reeds, and cutting back the scrub which had been encroaching from the edge of the site.

Before the reed can be removed, it must first be cut. Here’s the man responsible: as can be seen, he is showing full respect to the machine, in case it turns on him.

Once cut, the reeds are loaded onto the sheets. This time we were dealing with beautifully light stuff; here’s Ken looking like a proper Norfolk reed cutter.

Then of course the sheet must be moved to the dump site; in this case across treacherously boggy ground.

We must never forget the winch team: they always know which way to look.

And anyone who can look this good clearly knows which way to look. Don’t you admire the backlighting?

This gentleman kept us enthralled by his tales of working as a daffodil picker some time around 1992. He revealed that he was paid £4 for every thousand he picked, and the most he picked in a day was 28,000! He then moved on to what he was paid for harvesting tulip bulbs, but eventually we decided we ought to do some more work of our own.

There was no singing of note this time, but talk of threading the winch rope through a gap between two dumped piles led to it being called the Cumberland Gap, and the erudite amongst us knew that was the title of an American folk song. The words of it were however sadly (or luckily) unavailable.

Early on, wincher Dave had rashly mentioned that it didn’t look like we had much to move. In a moment of self-deprecation, he called himself “tw*t”. Here’s what he saw.

From that dump site the view was exquisitely framed by a tree, or so I was told, so I snapped it (not the tree, the picture of course). Note the morass just where we were working!

In amongst the scrub was a tree decorated with a wretched balloon that had been let loose goodness knows where; why is that encouraged, let alone allowed?

It became useful though, as a coat rack as the sun warmed us up.

The refreshment break came with its usual welcome. It was made all the more pleasurable by the addition of Nina’s splendid apple cake.

After that it was back to sloshing about in the mud and hacking away at the scrub. Here’s a man possessed, or very focussed on the job in hand!

At last, the reed had all been moved, and it was time to clear up. Dragging even an empty sheet across the mud is an arduous task, but one the folding crew were equal to.

And here’s how we left Area D, for wildlife to enjoy for the next four years.

Here’s Team Leader Margaret’s message of thanks:

Hello all.

I apologise for the slightly tardy thank you. I, like all of you, had to have a period of rest and recuperation! What a cutting season we have had, and an amazing final flourish today. When you can, take a walk and look at the enormous space you have all cleared and the huge piles that testify to the work involved. We sincerely thank you all. We are very grateful that we will not be visiting that area again until 2029! Thanks to Nina for the reviving warm apple cake, delicious.

In two weeks’ time we will be holding another working party, at this moment we are not sure what it will be. As Julie has said George has asked if we would be happy to dismantle part of the boardwalk for him. Many of you have expressed an interest so it might be that if that fits with his timetable or possibly School Common. We will be in touch. Enjoy this beautiful afternoon.

Thank you.

Margaret for the team leaders

And in other news, 

we have again been honoured by a visit from an otter in Fox’s Beck, Here’s some cracking video footage taken by a camera trap showing it in glorious detail.