Final working party of the year.

 Winter is now officially here, and its solstice is only a fortnight away. Before long we will be looking out for the spring migrant birds, but so far I personally have not noticed many of the winter ones. Dear old Gilbert White noted redwings on 11 December 1771 (I have only seen a couple so far), whilst on the same date five years later he noted that the weather was “Summer-like: the air is full of gossamer, & insects” and it was much the same on the same date in 1780. By 1784 he was complaining of heavy snow and a hard frost, but on 6 December 1787 there were apparently five or six bats flying at dawn, the temperature being above 50⁰ Fahrenheit.

Turning to my trusty 1959 Ladybird book ‘What to Look for in Winter’ the first page talks about farmers layering their hedges in the time-honoured way. Sadly, that’s rarely done these days, with destructive machinery merely mangling them instead, to the detriment of any wildlife that would have otherwise benefitted from more sensitively but labour-intensively managed hedgerows.

Very much on that topic, today’s working party task was to cut back the encroaching scrub bordering the boardwalk between the car park and the spur leading to Bradfield Road. This is important work, as if left alone it becomes increasingly difficult to walk along the boardwalk whilst still retaining the use of one’s eyes.

Unlike the last session, the weather today was fine and quite mild, and 14 of us convened at the appointed hour – including the very welcome first time for newcomer Adam. We spread out thinly, armed with saws and loppers.

Inevitably, the more competitive elements amongst us vied for the accolade of having sawn through the thickest branch.

Your correspondent was called upon to measure the diameters of the two contenders, despite nobody having had the foresight to bring a measuring device. Nobody except Noel, whose braces have featured before on this blog, but to refresh our memories, here’s what they look like.

They were deemed impractical for the task however, and indeed their accuracy was the subject of some concern. I remembered that my phone has an app allegedly capable of making measurements, but on applying the app and it telling me that the diameter of the little twig the chaps had cut through was over a metre, that too was discarded. It was time for low-tech to step in, so a length of reed stem was snapped off and trimmed to the exact diameter of one of the disputed stumps. To the astonishment and dismay of the rival sawyers (John on the one hand; Noel and Andrew on the other), applying the precision measuring twig to both sawn branches revealed that they were the same diameter!

Here is that ingenious device, which should be treated with all the reverence of the standard metre held by some French authority on the metric system.

On applying a tape measure to it back at the laboratory, it measures eight and a quarter inches, or rather more centimetres if you favour that metric system: a tie was therefore declared, to general dismay.

Regular sufferers of this blog will have become accustomed to the traditional photo of the happy throng enjoying some light refreshment at the half-way break. Unfortunately, your correspondent neglected to take such a photo this time, and our other snapper, Team Leader Julie, had absented herself for this particular session, so there isn’t one. My excuse is that I was distracted by the re-appearance of Nina’s splendid apple cake, which had been so sadly missed at the previous rain-soaked session.

Speaking of me, I took myself off with a trusty broom to attempt to sweep away the slippery mass of fallen leaves covering Jubilee boardwalk. Here’s how the first stretch looked before and after my efforts leading up to the break.

After the break I was joined by Nina and Sheila, and with their invaluable help we managed to clear the whole thing.

Missing Team Leader Julie is of course the acknowledged queen of dead hedging, but Sheila, Janet and Team Leader Margaret made an excellent hedge themselves in her absence.

Here is the message of thanks from Margaret on behalf of all the Team Leaders:

Thank you to the 14 volunteers who came to bash the scrub along the boardwalk. It will make it so much easier in the summer when the leaves are back on the trees. We are pleased to welcome Adam who joined us for the first time and hope that he returns when he is able. Lovely to meet you Adam. Thanks also to Nina for the apple cake and Kevin and Linda who despite being away, sent mince pies which were much appreciated. Thanks to Duncan, Nina and Sheila for undertaking the rotten task of sweeping Jubilee boardwalk.

Michelle and I were much amused that the gentlemen of the group had lost none of their competitive edge as to who had cut down the biggest tree!

Thank you all for your help and support through 2025 and as this is the last missive before Christmas, may we wish you all a Happy Christmas and hope to see you all in 2026.

Margaret, Julie, Michelle, Kevin and Sue.

The British Trust for Ornithology’s Birdfacts species has for a long time been an excellent resource for detailed information on British Birds. See for example one of our iconic birds, the ReedBunting.

The BTO has now launched Birdfacts Places on its website. This is a way of discovering what birds are found and, where relevant, breed in different parts of the country. Naturally I looked up Norfolk at https://data.bto.org/birdfacts-places/?search=norfolk-bcra and saw that “In the last 10 years, 369 bird species have been recorded in Norfolk, putting the region in the top 10% of counties. Of these species, 155 have been confirmed to breed.” From the overview you can then see which species occur in the county, and how frequently they are reported, with links to the Birdfacts species for each, how well they are doing, and to what extent they are of conservation concern. Well worth exploring!

I found this fabulous fungus yesterday, not quite on the Common but in the adjacent Warren Woods.

The excellent ObsIdentify app told me that it is a Cauliflower fungus. Never mind looking like a cauliflower, it looks more like a bath sponge to me! Seen on the Jubilee Boardwalk back in 2014 was this Jelly ear fungus.

It occurs to me that if the cauliflower and jelly ear fungi loved each other very much and had babies, those ought to be called cauliflower ears. Just saying.