X marks the spot

X of course does not refer to the new name given to Twitter by its strange owner, but it is the evocative name given to the area of The Common just beyond Area B on the Warren Road side of Fox’s Beck. In truth, it would be better named “XXX**!XX” as a fair approximation of the language employed by our plucky Balsam Bashers as they encountered head-high nettles, goose grass and dried reed stems intent on blinding them.

Yesterday we had rain on and off all day, with the highlight being a thunderstorm in which lumps of hail hurled themselves down with un-called-for force. That would not have been welcome today, but thankfully that nasty stuff had moved off in order to top-up the North Sea, and we were rewarded for our volunteering zeal with dry and breezy conditions. Indeed, that breeze had been effective in drying out the vegetation, so we didn’t even suffer from that.

A select group of eight convened for a spot of Himalayan Balsam bashing at the appointed time, with your correspondent making a ninth a bit later. I missed being part of the main party heading over across Area B: very carefully to Area X as the ground has some deep ‘ankle breaker’ holes.

Noel is displaying an impressive halo! (He didn’t entertain us with much singing this time, the one offering being a heartfelt rendition of Katie Melua’s “This is the closest to crazy”.)

The beastly balsam is generally still quite small at this stage of its development, so the only thing to do is cast your eyes down and look in the undergrowth.

It’s a great place for playing hide and seek: where’s Kevin?

After an hour it was time to extract ourselves from the XXX**!XX area: Team Leader Margaret had counted us all out, and she counted us all back, complete with laden sacks. From the rear of the group it was entertaining to see the trailblazers sticking their free arms out to balance as the encountered the many holes in the ground: sadly this photo does not quite capture the moment.

Here’s the usual photo of the growing heap of rotting balsam. Already, Margaret estimates many thousand plants have been uprooted – but there will be plenty more popping up later!

I mentioned in the last posting that the Cotton Grass in the central area of the Common was doing very well, and I see that it has now even spread up to almost the bit of boardwalk heading towards the bridge over the untroubled water flowing down Fox’s Beck.

Team Leader Julie also caught a few of our special plants on camera today…

Meadow thistle on Area B

Marsh Orchid (we think??) with Ragged Robin on the central area.

Here is her message of thanks:

Hello all,

This is to thank the nine who turned out today to brave the unpredictable Area X to remove more Himalayan Balsam. It was not as wet as we thought even after the rain and hail yesterday which was a pleasant surprise!

We are attempting to prevent the invasive Himalayan  Balsam from moving into the Fen area adjacent, and we pulled a very impressive number of small plants today. Definitely counted in thousands, Margaret estimated 50,000, and every one plant pulled up helps us to halt its march across the Common.

Good job today team!

Thanks

Julie and the TLs

 

Summer now being officially underway, as you can tell by the drop in temperature and the reappearance of rain, there’s a fair bit of Nature about on the Commons and nearby. I have mentioned before that variant of Sod’s Law that says that only if you don’t have a camera with you will you come across something crying out to be photographed, and this time it was because I found a reed warbler singing its head off. Not in full view of course - they rarely are – but visible enough to make for a reasonable photo to share with you dear reader. By way of compensation, here’s one I did succeed in taking earlier: much earlier in fact – June 2011 to be exact.

I was back at the same spot (the thin bit of reedbed near the car park) a couple of days ago, this time armed with my camera (which spent most of the time inside my waterproof jacket, giving me a very portly appearance). I did actually see the bird, whizzing out of the reeds across the boardwalk into the willows opposite, but there was no way it was going to pose for me. I had been pleased a few minutes before to discover a singing reed bunting at the edge of the large reedbed we cut last winter. I was particularly pleased about this, as I had not heard one for the last couple of months and was afraid that this year they had given us a miss. It was too far off for me to get a good enough picture of it, so here’s another from way back in 2015.

I bumped into our friends Tim and Jane on a sunny visit to Warren Woods a few days before this. It appeared that Tim was engrossed in photographing the ground, but it turned out that he had found a group of Green Tiger Beetles, and he was very excited about it. His enthusiasm is infectious, so I was soon equally engrossed; dogs Basil and Nellie less so. Here’s one of Tim’s resulting pictures: it took some taking, as they are very active.

Not on the Common, but still in the village, I came across a couple of robins having a rare old punch-up. We’ve seen it often enough on the telly, but here it was in front of my eyes at the junction of Clipped Hedge Lane and Sandy Lane. They were rolling around in the dust, completely oblivious to me, and it really looked as though one would kill the other (see https://www.birdspot.co.uk/bird-brain/do-robins-fight-to-the-death) . They eventually broke apart when I said “ahem” but I don’t know if either was injured. I did see a robin at the same place the next day, but whether his rival is still about is anyone’s guess.