A Tale of Two Teams

 

Last week I mentioned the unusually late but excellent number of Glow-worms still active on The Common. To my shame, although I have long been aware of their presence, I have never made it down there at night to see them for myself. So I have now put that right; on two consecutive nights running I went across the boardwalk after dark, at about 8.30 p.m. The conditions were presumably ideal; the moon had already set, the sky was cloudless, and the temperature reasonably warm, with only a slight breeze. When I first saw a little glow that lasted for a few seconds before fading to black again, I wondered if my eyes were playing tricks, as I had only just switched off my torch – not really wanting to fall off the boardwalk. But as my eyes/brain became attuned to the darkness I realised that there were little earth-bound stars everywhere, mirroring the spectacle above. I wasn’t inclined to count them, but at a guess I must have seen around 40-50 of these lovelorn lady beetles – wonderful!

 

Not being available for the working party today, once again Team Leader Julie has done the blogging honours. At this rate, she will get the title of “Your usual correspondent.”

 

During the week we had been given the go ahead by NWT to continue with working parties of up to ten people in one area - exempt from the ‘rule of six’ due to the fact that we are working in a voluntary capacity for a charitable organisation. So on Saturday, the proposed winching site on Area G/E was cleared and prepared and the reed was cut. The Michaelmas daisies on Area A were also cut. The only fly in the ointment was the punctures to wheelbarrow wheels.  One trusty volunteer was wielding a spanner on one of the barrows when he became aware of a presence behind him...he turned to see three alpacas scrutinising his efforts! A missed photo opportunity I fear!! They have obviously swapped their Sunday stroll for a Saturday one.... perhaps they are camera shy.

On Sunday morning we all arrived on site in glorious sunshine. As is the norm the team leaders took the required equipment to the ‘sites’....plural as the team leaders had received enough requests to volunteer to have twelve people in total, so had decided to split into two teams. Eight were to clear reed and scrub on the central area near the ‘Chadwick bench’ utilising the winch, and four were to clear the cut Michaelmas daisies near Warren Road hand pulling the old yellow sheets.

The old yellow sheets have not seen any action for some time and are pictured here ready for action.

Soon we were underway on both sites.

...raking the reed on to sheets on the central area

....clearing scrub on the central area.

 ...and clearing cut daisies and reed on the Warren Road site.

By the time we broke for a drinks break halfway through the session it was very warm - it felt more like July than September. We were all ready for a drink. I am beginning to suspect there is a refreshment competition now underway....some of us had our trusty water bottles...others had flasks of coffee and some stood munching cake! 

Replenished, we set to work again. There still seemed to be an awful lot of reed yet to be cleared....I think we learnt a lesson today that the magic number of ten people is the ideal for clearing the areas we tackle in a day. With four people on the daisy area and eight on the central area we all had a tough session.

But we put our backs into it and got the job done...

We had to chuckle as calls of “it’s out” were heard...apparently it was just that the reed was out of the sheet!

A little over our normal time slot, we got the sheets folded and packed up for the day.

An excellent job done on both areas ... 

...and a reminder that when we keep the reed controlled, beauties like these can flourish...

Here is Julie's message of thanks, on behalf of the Team Leaders:

Dear Volunteers

We had confirmation from NWT on Thursday that we could carry on working with our groups of 10 volunteers. We are exempt from the "rule of six" as it is 'for work, and voluntary or charitable services'. This was great news for us.

So, we were able to run our work party today in the glorious sunshine. It felt like a mid summer's day.  We had 12 keen volunteers today, so we made the decision to go ahead with this number and split into two totally separate groups with the main group of eight shifting reed and clearing scrub on the area by the Chadwick Bench and four people clearing Michaelmas Daisies on the area near Warren Road. With hindsight this was probably a mistake as it was very hard work for both groups!  

So this is a massive thank you for the amazing effort put in by both teams - as  we managed to clear both areas...a stunning success. We have decided though that we need to learn from today and keep to the magic number of ten volunteers on one site going forward to keep it manageable and enjoyable for all. (We can still manage 12, if people are keen to join in, by taking two people off to brush cutter and tidy the edges of the boardwalk).  

We will be running our final September work party next Sunday. The pressure to cut the fen and clear the Michaelmas daisies before the end of the month will then be lifted as NWT will have to clear any remaining areas before the last day of September. We can then get back to a more relaxed approach clearing scrub and tidying boardwalk edges throughout October and November.

One further thing to say is that someone left some very good gloves on the bench - they are large gloves with a camouflage finish to the top.  If you recognise these as yours - they are safe in the container. You can either collect them when you next volunteer, or if you need them sooner than this then please make contact with Margaret Dowland or reply to this email and we can arrange for someone to get them for you. 

Many thanks again to today's volunteers.  We hope you all stay safe and well.

Regards, Julie (for the Team leaders)

A Garland of Bindweed

 Sunday 13th being the last day before the new legal restriction on social gatherings to no more than six people came into force, this working party was able to consist of at several more than the ‘rule of six’ with a clear conscience. We are waiting for a definitive ruling from NWT on permissible numbers for future sessions: this is not as obvious as it seems, but it looks likely that as what we do is socially distanced voluntary work for a charity we will be allowed to continue in the way we have been organising ourselves. A couple of other exemptions, for sports and religion, are also attractive, or if things get really sticky we could perhaps instead arrange a wedding for each session. We should perhaps avoid calling our sessions ‘working parties’ as that will throw the whole thing into even deeper confusion. How about ‘working matches’, or ‘working services’?

On 13^th September in 1768, Gilbert White noted “Ravens are continually playing by pairs in the air.” None here sadly, but we can manage the odd crow. In 1771 it was “Grapes begin to turn colour”, and in 1773 he saw that there were “Young swallows in the nest.” In 1789 he reported on “Several nests of Goldfinches, with fledged young”. Meanwhile here and now, there are excellent numbers of Glow-worms lighting up The Common, perhaps unseasonably late in the year. The sightings whiteboard at the Information Point reveals that at least 100 were recorded late in the evening of 9^th; it must have been an exciting sight.

As has been the necessary pattern lately, preliminary work for Sunday’s session was done on Saturday morning. More Alders were asked to leave Area B (half of the grassy open part beside Warren Road), whilst the Grizzly chopped through the remaining uncut vegetation. Here is the resultant pile of now horizontal saplings, with the ‘tree popper’ used to hoick them out taking a well-earned rest beside them.

Almost immediately after that picture was taken the Grizzly chopped through a wasps’ nest. Quite unreasonably the stripey-jumpered inhabitants objected in the best way they knew how, and John beat a hasty retreat, firmly telling them to ‘buzz off’ or something similar. He was fortunately stung only once, on his heel, but that was more than enough; he shall henceforth be known as Achilles. The upshot was that the area guarded by the wasps had to be excluded from the otherwise comprehensive clearance of that section in Sunday’s main event.

 

Your usual correspondent being on the bench for this fixture, Team Leader Julie again takes up the story:

We had a lovely day for our work party today with blue skies and sunshine.

We were working up near Warren Road and yesterday’s preparation and pre-cut team had set up a winching site part way down, as we need a longer rope to winch all the way down to the dump sites we used last week. With the shorter pulls we were loading the sheets less, winching them to the dump site and the two people guiding the sheets were able to roll them onto the heaps without needing to use the winch for that part of the operation. It was all very efficient!

There was a lot of bindweed tangled in with the reed today making it quite hard to pick up at times. It was noted that all the parcels of reed were wrapped in a garland of bindweed!

 We had our customary break at half time and all caught up on the latest news ... 

Following the break we sent an elite team round the corner to tackle the cut reed in the scrub area we cleared last year. We opted to hand pull these sheets rather than move the winch.

 

Everyone had to be careful in this area as our poor Grizzly operator yesterday disturbed a wasp nest and spent the evening nursing a swollen leg.  We cordoned the area off with red tape and kept a safe distance away!

Eventually the last load was on its way on the main site... 

...and with reinforcements then sent to finish the old scrub area we were soon done for the day. As Margaret said in her thank you note - looking from the boardwalk over towards what was scrub last year people can see further than they have for 20 years... I think all the Southrepps Commons Volunteers past and present can give themselves a huge pat on the back for the work done here.

The boardwalk was busy this morning with people enjoying our Common! (Sadly no Alpacas this week though.)

The end product today:

Here is the Team Leaders’ message of thanks:

Thank you to everyone who came this morning. We were blessed with a beautiful dry bright morning at just about the right temperature. We have completed all the cutting in area B and thanks to the work done last winter you can now see further through the fen than has been seen for 20 years. That's a clumsy sentence but I think you get the drift. Social distancing does make a difference and it was a while before the chatter picked up, but we managed.

Thank you all so much for helping to make all this work, your support for the commons is just brilliant. Julie is getting guidance from NWT to see how the new 'rule of six' affects us so we will keep you posted but we hope to run two more working parties in September on the 20th and 27th so watch out for her emails.

 Enjoy the rest of the day and stay safe.

Best wishes from the Team Leaders.

 

Alpacas and a headless broom

 

Inspired by hearing novelist and nature writer Melissa Harrison on Radio 4’s Start the Week I have become a convert to her wonderful podcasts. She started these during Lockdown, as a way of sharing her walks in rural Suffolk with anyone who wants to listen in. Each week’s podcast includes a guest contributor, a poem and extracts from the diaries of the great 18^th century naturalist Gilbert White, relevant to the date of Melissa’s walk. They are a very relaxing way of spending half an hour; charming and almost an exercise in mindfulness. They can be found on her website at https://melissaharrison.co.uk/podcast/ .

Pinching Melissa’s idea of quoting Gilbert White’s diary entries for the day under review, I see that on 6^th September 1775 he noted “Wasps abound not only in neighbourhoods, but in lone fields, and woods…” but in 1790 it was a case of “Hardly here & there a wasp to be seen.” In 1785 he was reporting the storm damage done to his Orleans plum tree and a neighbour’s horse chestnut, as well as the “vast damage to the hop-gardens, which are torn and shattered in a sad manner!” The following year, the day’s entry was that “Hirundines (swallows and house martins) cluster on Hartley-house, & on the thatch of the Grange barn.” Presumably in preparation for migration.

Our Covid-secure arrangements mean that many of us are attending alternate working parties, but since at the moment they are happening each Sunday the usual pattern of every other Sunday morning for individuals is more or less unchanged. Not so for Margaret, who has been having a push on removing the errant Alder saplings that insist on trying to spread into the species-rich grassy areas adjacent to Warren Road that are the subject of the current work. Working with one other person each morning last week, the remaining saplings have been removed ahead of the mower, thus preventing them from being lopped off at ground level, and so going on to become little coppiced trees, stubbornly resistant to their easy removal.

Speaking of the Grizzly mower, we had a bit of a scare as it developed another fuel leak last week. It was whisked away for repair at the NWT workshop, and thankfully has been returned to us without any risk of causing us to fall behind our tight timescale. It was used to cut another substantial part of Area B, ready for today’s working party to clear up after it.

One of the effects of the Covid-secure precautions we are working with is the need for social distancing at the storage container, meaning that now only two people load the tools needed for the session onto our little green trolley well before the rest of the volunteers arrive – and the reverse at the end of the session. This means that team leaders are putting in even more hours than the rest of us; today we each clocked up 2 hours work, but the two leaders doubled that amount. In total, the working party alone accounted for 26 hours work, and the preparatory work done in the days leading up to it accounted for another 5 ½ hours.

Anyway, including team leaders 11 of us had turned up by 9.00 a.m. We had four drag sheets in operation, with people working (and keeping) in pairs loading cut vegetation onto them.

Two of us ‘escorted’ the loaded sheets as they were winched to the dumping site.

We are dedicated in our adherence to social distancing; including these neatly spaced out pitchforks…

We don’t of course benefit from having refreshments provided for the mid-session break, so must provide our own, taken at a safe distance from each other. This has always been the convivial highlight of our working parties, so is sadly reduced now. Nonetheless, when the call comes, there’s still almost a rush.

As well as clearing the cut vegetation, the chance was taken to break out a brush cutter to trim the boardwalk edges. It’s a noisy job, but another necessary one. Here’s Brian about to set the machine going.

All that strimming leads to a lot of cut grass on the boardwalk, and that needs brushing off, and that’s hard work, made harder by the non-slip netting.

Sheila and Julie took the job in turns. They must have put a lot of effort in, as this headless broom attests.

This area involves the longest distance we have to winch sheets; so far in fact that we need to hook a second length of rope on. This could be one of the most exciting pictures this blog has ever featured!

These two are peering into the distance, wondering when the next sheet will come into view.

Shortly before the end of the session, some Alpacas strolled along the boardwalk, as they do. They looked a bit surprised to see us, but were stoical about the noise of the winch. (Thinks: could they be pressed into service pulling sheets? They’re not cart horses it’s true, but…)

Here’s how the area looked with just one more lonely sheet to shift.

Here is the team leaders’ message of thanks:

To all our volunteers

We hope that you all continue to remain safe and well.

We ran another work party today with eleven volunteers and have now almost cleared Area B on the Warren Road end of the site. We were also able today to have a Brushcutter in action to clear the edges so the boardwalk from Warren Road to the bridge over the beck is looking clear and neat.

A huge thank you goes to all of the Volunteers who attended today. It was a lovely atmosphere on the site and great to all 'catch up' with each other.

We will be back in action with a different set of Volunteers next Sunday.

Keep well

Regards, John, Kevin, Julie, Margaret, Denise and Sue

Little by little

 We might have returned to working on the Commons, but we must still observe social distancing rules, and strict restrictions over the number of people working at any one time. Unless we can arrange for each working party to double as a wedding reception, we must still restrict our numbers at each session to rather less than the usual average of attendees. In order to continue providing people with the opportunity to volunteer here, when we have more people than permitted willing to attend a session, some of us are dropping out from some sessions. In a typical act of self-sacrifice, your usual correspondent was the first to do so, and accordingly this account of the latest session is clearer, better illustrated and makes far more sense. Have no fear, in order to try to meet Natural England’s exacting timescale for the completion of the work for maximum environmental benefit, there is a scheme afoot to possibly run sessions each weekend, allowing people to still turn out fortnightly.

The Commons are of course a Local Nature Reserve, so included today are a couple of pictures of wildlife from them. First up is a Stock Dove, very recently deceased on School Common. There was no sign of it having been predated, so perhaps it was a victim of the previous day’s gales. 

Team Leader Julie co-led today’s session:

Margaret and I arrived on Saturday planning to tree pop Alders...only to be faced with dozens of Himalayan Balsam flowers waving to us!! So we dealt with as many if those as we could before Grizzly munched them.... then progressed to the Alders. Over the last few weeks loads have been removed...

There are still plenty to be popped before next time though!!

However, HB and Alders removed, Grizzly managed to clear a good area for tomorrow’s work party.

Happily Mr Toad was unharmed by the work done:

I went home happy with my mornings work and sat having a cuppa...I ran my hand through my hair and out popped a very unwelcome guest:

I hate spiders 🙈 and screamed like a girl!!! Now I know why I normally wear a tight fitting hat - yuk urgh !!

 

We had a really good morning for the main event on Sunday. It went very well and everyone was very happy to be back on the Common. We met at the site as agreed and stood in a distanced circle while I explained how it would all work. A jogger went past and said we looked like we were just about to start a Tai Chi class! “Cloud Hands” everyone..

 Anyway, no time for such things we were soon up and running - some reassuringly familiar photos... 

The sheets were filled and guided to the dump site where the winch was used to pull the sheet over. Luckily the reed, cut yesterday, was dry and relatively light - it was all very effective and efficient.

The atmosphere was very relaxed and there was the familiar chatter and laughter across the site. At half time we all had a break - unfortunately with our own refreshments as we are not allowed to provide tea and coffee - and everyone sat or stood and had a drink. It was noted with the ‘couples’ sat together and ‘singles’ separate that it resembled a strange speed dating game!

We hadn’t tipped Noel out of his wheelbarrow - honest!

Then it was back to work - everyone reunited successfully with their own numbered pitch forks!

A very successful session leaves half of area B looking very smart.

Hopefully we will tackle more of this area in two weeks’ time.

Here's the message of thanks, from all the team leaders:

To all volunteers,

We hope that you are all keeping safe and well.

Following on from a 'trial' work party with six people last weekend, we have today held a hugely successful work party involving 11 volunteers in total.

Over the two weekends we have cleared half of the reed from Area B on the Warren Road end of the site (and a large number of small alders and more Himalayan Balsam!).

A massive thank you goes to the Volunteers who attended today for their help and enthusiasm and we are pleased that you felt safe and happy with the procedures now in place for our work parties.

Take Care,

Regards, Julie, Margaret, John, Kevin, Denise and Sue

Unlock!

 

In these cliché-ridden times which are it seems unprecedented, let’s hope that this is not the ‘new normal’, but merely a temporary phase. Like so much else, volunteering for NWT on Southrepps Commons has been on hold, with the minor exception of a few bits of urgent maintenance able to be done by one person, or a couple from the same household.

Nature of course has been having a high old time during the spring and summer, as it always does. The cessation of volunteering work actually had little effect on the Common, as it was during the period when the place is more or left to its own devices. Swifts screamed overhead as usual, and swallows disported themselves with gay abandon. Sadly, the bird species most associated with the reedbed were even less noticeable than recent years; a worrying decline. We had no reports of sedge warblers, a reed warbler sang only briefly for a couple of weeks in July, and we may have only had one pair of reed buntings (although a juvenile was spotted on 13^th August, so they have been quietly busy after all). On the plus side, around 100 glow worms were lighting the darkness. Butterflies have been numerous, although not so many species as usual have been noted. This Painted Lady turned up in pristine condition at the start of August, probably having migrated here from somewhere over the North Sea. It’s the only one I found, so presumably was self-isolating.

NWT has naturally been cautious about letting volunteers loose in numbers, but now work has recommenced to kick start the new cutting season, using groups of no more than six volunteers. Today there was a working party, but not as it used to be, oh no. The first area to be dealt with was Area B, the bit leading from Warren Road, furthest from Lower Street. This is cut every other year, and in its two years of freedom it grows rampantly, and clearing it is hard work. This year the job has had to be broken down into stages spread across three days.

The first task was to remove as many alder saplings as possible, to prevent them being coppiced by the mower, as this sets up problems in later years. Two stalwarts from the same household set about the task with the trusty ‘tree popper’ on Thursday, setting the scene for stage 2…

It is always essential to create a site for the material to be dumped, but this time that site needed extra care and room, as we have to ensure people dealing with the dumping are kept to a minimum and properly distanced. So that took up a lot of the second session, on Friday. At the same time, a significant portion of the area's vegetation was cut, and left where it fell, ready for…

Today’s third session, when six volunteers turned up earlier than usual (to avoid the heat, which didn’t materialise, but the humidity was uncomfortably high nonetheless), to transfer the cut material to the drag sheets prior to being winched down to the dumping site; all with fewer people than usual involved, and all keeping their distance from each other. The work is always quite energetic, so keeping a safe distance from heavily breathing colleagues was essential.

The first surprise was finding this frog on the first drag sheet to be laid out; did it hop on immediately, or had it been wrapped up in it for the last few months? If it had been, it was probably equally surprised!

We were joined for this session by George, the NWT warden for Southrepps Commons, so that he could satisfy himself that the work was being done safely. His extra muscle power was also very welcome, even though he is officially on holiday!

Here we are, eagerly waiting for the signal that the winch was ready for the first pull:

Winchman John was in his rope-handling element:

And we’re off! This is evidence that your correspondent does sometimes heave on bits of rope, although it appears in the opposite direction to Sheila. Note the interested spectators:

We usually create quite tall heaps, but that requires a couple of people helping to turn the sheets over in close proximity to each other, so that’s not possible at the moment. We therefore have had to make a lower, more spread out heap, but neat, we think you’ll agree.

One of the other casualties of the changed working arrangements is the lack of supplied catering; everyone must provide their own refreshments. A scurrilous rumour circulated that your correspondent had not brought squash as claimed - hiding behind a pile of cut grass won’t have helped:

At this point it is customary to have a photo of the assembled team enjoying the socially close refreshment break. It’s part of the pleasure of volunteering, but for now it’s a smaller and socially distanced affair.

We were very pleased with our efforts, and George was too. It might have been only possible for far fewer volunteers than usual to work, but with the tasks spread across three days we still managed to make an excellent start to cutting the area. Here’s how it looked at the end of the session: