Back on the Balsam again

 Perhaps because the Spring was quite cold this year, insect life has taken a long time to get going, but at last it now seems to be in full swing. Butterflies have gone from being almost completely absent to very much present on the roll call, with plenty of Speckled Woods, Ringlets, Meadow Browns and Red Admirals about. Very excitingly, just this morning a White Admiral was seen at the edge of School Common. This rather pleasing Speckled Wood was on one of our local footpaths.

In the last week or so I have been noticing lots of Gatekeepers along the hedgerows, while this splendid Tortoiseshell has been so far the only representative of its species to cross my path (also not on the Common however.)

The trouble with butterflies is that they often won’t stay still long enough for them to have their pictures taken, but on a recent visit to the excellent RSPB reserve at Strumpshaw fen this Gatekeeper did pause its fluttering long enough for a quick snap, showing its under-wing.

The other summer standby for spotting, when birds have gone into hiding, is the Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies); also at Strumpshaw was this obliging Broad-bodied Chaser, one of which we found on the Common a few weeks back.

We’ve had Hornet mimic Hoverflies on the Common previously, but this is one I saw on one of the nearby lanes. I trust it wasn’t the one that blundered into my house late one evening soon after; they’re very active and noisy, and not a little alarming (though harmless of course).

Hogweed is now in flower, and therefore the Hogweed ‘bonking’ beetles are swarming all over them. Think Love Island for beetles and you’ve got it!

The warm and slightly wetter weather lately has caused the Common’s vegetation to take off in spectacular fashion. Our current focus remains trying to prevent Himalayan Balsam from swamping the place, so today 13 of us turned up to rebuke the wretched stuff growing near the Lower Street car park. This particular area is quite hard to access, so Team Leader Margaret gave us stern warnings before we set off into the jungle. It’s important to dress to protect yourself from nettle stings; we were particularly impressed by the sensible but beautifully ironed boiler suit modelled by Louise. Wellies are essential too; sadly for Noel, his sprang a leak.

Careful selection of the right plant to pluck up is key; here Andrew illustrates the correct technique.

Due to the problems caused by the terrain, we were urged to work in pairs. Your correspondent and the aforementioned Andrew bravely opted to cross the Beck to deal with some of the hardest to reach and largest specimens. This one has grown tall enough to peer over the neighbours’ fence.

Once the allotted hour was up we reluctantly (ahem) dragged ourselves away. Now that the bigger plants are flowering, it’s important to try to stop them setting seed. There is unfortunately still plenty left to do, so there will need to be at least one more session.

Between us we put in another 13 hours work today: so far this year we’ve collectively done 55.5 hours on Himalayan Balsam control alone!

Here is Team Leader Margaret’s message of thanks:

Hi all.

A very heartfelt thankyou to the 13 volunteers who came this morning to continue the never-ending battle with the balsam. It was particularly challenging today as the bindweed, hop and stickyweed were determined to block our path. It was very hard work so thank you all.

The good news is that I do think there was less balsam on the main site than last year but not unfortunately across the Beck. With your fantastic efforts we are managing to control it.

I would very much like to have yet another go in two weeks’ time so hopefully see anyone who is willing then.

Margaret (on behalf of the team leaders).

 

Balsam Day = Groundhog Day

 

The third in the seemingly never-ending series of “special” working parties to subdue the persistent efforts of Himalayan Balsam to dominate, if not the Universe, Southrepps Common at least, came round again today. And at an alarmingly early hour, the better to spare the Balsam Pickers the worst of the pitiless sun. In the event, the sun did display some pity, and it was actually a pleasant temperature. That’s partly because at 9.00 a.m. even the chorusing birds were still rubbing their bleary eyes.

Finding much news to pass on is actually a bit tricky, and your tireless tired correspondent is tempted to refer hopeful readers to the previous two postings for deathless prose and startling images. However, nothing daunted, we present to the world a bit more…

The session got off to a poor start for Team Leader Julie, who cycling along at a no doubt impressive speed, her cap blew off and lodged at the top of a tall hedge. A hedge taller than the said Team Leader, who was grateful to a passing pedestrian of more extended growth for plucking the errant headgear from its prickly landing place and returning it to its correct position on Julie’s head.

The day had got off to an even worse start, and indeed conclusion, for an unfortunate shrew, whose lifeless body lay on the boardwalk. I have no direct experience of this, but I believe that shrews are unpalatable, so we can assume that it was spat out by its disgusted killer; scant compensation for the shrew however.

We were only going to work for an hour, but the first quarter of that was used by a few of us in plucking out newly emerged small plants in the area we had cleared a fortnight before.

Further on, the going was a bit rough under foot!

A site has been established over the past few weeks for the dumping and decomposition of the removed plants, but with the reeds now so tall it’s elusive.

 

Here some intrepid explorers are trying to find it.

Moving on to the edge of Area A, we were out of the shadows and back in the sunlight. Here the Balsam was growing strong and thick.

Great care was needed, as this wretched plant insists on hiding itself amongst nettles and thistles, all of which seem to have it in for our crack team of super-weeders. Poor Sheila at least found plenty of nettles able to sneak in between her gloves and the bottom of her sleeves – ouch!

This was the area where we found a broad-bodied chaser dragonfly last time: this time it was a solitary Peacock butterfly caterpillar.

With the hour up, we convened at the dumping site to empty our heavily laden sacks. The pile has grown to enormous proportions. Contrary to what was said above in connection with the temporary loss of her cap, Team Leader Julie is in fact jolly tall, and the Balsam plant she is holding was a champion one (ahem)

On the way back out, we stopped to admire the central area. Your correspondent was snapped finding out why a fragrant orchid gets its name.

Here is that splendid orchid, which certainly does have a smell reminiscent of cloves.

Also in that area are good numbers of Marsh Helleborines:

That area is great for its flowers, and is currently dotted with many beautiful orchids. 

Here is Julie’s message of thanks:

Hi all

Hope everyone has made the most of the rain in their gardens! It was very welcome.

It was not noticeably wetter on the common this morning when 8 of us tackled the undergrowth in search of the elusive (I wish) Himalayan Balsam. It was still appearing in the area we had done before, albeit smaller ones but further round in the sun they were getting quite big. Easy to spot, but not easy to get to nestling deep in the nettle and sticky weed! 

However, a great job was done and yet again bags of uprooted Balsam were put on the dump site where the previous lot were already well rotted down.

We will be back in two weeks' time, though we may shift our attention to the area by the car park where they are starting to gain some height we believe!  We will let you know in due course.

Thanks once again to the hardy group that keep turning out to do this - it is very much appreciated.

Regards, Julie (for the TLs)

Dancing with nettles

 In keeping with this season of drought the well of excuses has run completely dry, so your correspondent returned to the fray against Himalayan Balsam this morning. I’d like to say it was to great acclaim, but in truth any acclaim was hard to spot.

11 of us turned out today, which is a good number for this time of year. Here is a selection of that mini-throng, queuing to collect the bags for holding the extracted plants.

Looking like a troop of tea-pickers, we set to with a merry song in our hearts.

Some stayed in the shade, whilst others ventured out into the sunshine

                  

It was at least as hot as it had been for many days, but with the added joy of higher humidity thanks to some overnight rain, the main function of which was to wet the long vegetation through which we had to wade. Getting wet trousers is not the only hazard; HB as we like to call the enemy likes to grow amongst nettles, so a great deal of graceful pirouetting went on. Either we’re a stoical lot, or simply nobody got a face-full of stingers as they bent down to carefully uproot the target plants, as no agonized yells were heard. 

The inevitable contest for finding the tallest plant got off to a shaky start. 

But it looks more like a tree trunk on this one! 

This is quite tall, but… 

How about this one?

It’s quite easy to get lost in here!

It’s been noticeable how few insects there seem to be about, but a male orange-tip butterfly was spotted, and it was especially nice to find this female broad-bodied chaser dragonfly. 

We did well, with two people needed to carry a full sack…

... but there’s plenty left for next time.

And here’s Team Leader Margaret telling us how much fun that will be. 

Here’s her message of thanks

Thank you to the 11 volunteers who turned out on a hot and humid morning to take part in our continued battle against the Himalayan Balsam. Some volunteers sensibly stayed in the shade pulling up plants we had previously missed or had grown in the last two weeks. Others ventured further into the reed bed in the full glare of the sun. After an hour we had to drag ourselves away from the cries of just one more! So if anyone would like to join in we will be back, same time, same place, in two weeks when the plants will be even easier to spot.

Thank you all so much as we have never managed such a good clearance.

Margaret (for the team leaders)

A couple of summers ago work began at Pit Common to create an area to be rich in wild flowers. The seeds to get this started were brought to the site in ‘green hay’ from another NWT reserve, and it’s great to see that this summer that work is bearing beautiful fruit. There are many Ox-eye daisies, some yellow rattle and red clover, and no doubt many other species for identification by the more botanically-aware than me.

Elsewhere, a great sighting recently has been this fabulous Bee orchid. 

If you wonder how well or badly different bird species are doing in your locality, the British Trust for Ornithology has launched a new feature on their website allowing you to see just that. Using data from the Birdtrack sightings reporting database and the most recent Bird Atlas (a stocktake of all UK birds conducted during 2007–11), it reveals that since 1970, 11 breeding bird species have been lost from the Southrepps area. A further 4 species have declined in abundance since at least 1990, when they first started measuring abundance in atlases. It’s not all bad news however, as the system also reveals the breeding species that have actually increased in abundance locally.

It's well worth a look, at data.bto.org/doorstep-birds/

Balsam bashed some more

 

The well of tissue-paper thin excuses not having quite run dry yet, your usual correspondent was once again fortuitously absent from the delight torture that is known as ‘The Bashing of the Balsam’. As previously explained, this involves the removal by hand of countless emerging Himalayan Balsam plants before they get the chance to catapult their seeds into the surrounding area and watercourses, facilitating their relentless spread. Quite frankly, it’s best left to those who derive the most pleasure from it, and so today’s report comes courtesy of Team Leader Julie, who we can be sure had a thoroughly enjoyable time…

Ten volunteers arrived for today’s extreme weeding session. We started back where the team worked two weeks ago as more Himalayan Balsam had shown itself:

We then moved over towards the site boundary - lots of nettles (I can vouch for that - ouch!).

Some of the plants are definitely hunting in packs in this area: 

….and getting bigger.. 

A bit of father-son competition emerged -“mine’s bigger than yours” -  not judging from that one! 

After an hour of being bent double we called it a day with the agreement being that there is another work party required in two weeks - there is plenty left to be pulled! The bigger ones will probably be around 3-4 foot by then! So, looking like Snow White’s dwarves singing “Hi-Ho” we headed off to empty our bags at the carefully controlled dump site. 

What a haul again!! Literally thousands of HB plants pulled. 

The central area of the SSSI is looking beautiful with an array of plant life. 

Unfortunately, where there were a lot of marsh orchids appearing a few weeks ago - very few have made it to flowering - deers nibbling the heads off is suspected. But I did manage to spot one peeking through. Though it’s the Ragged Robin starring at present I think. 

Here is Team Leader Margaret’s message of thanks:

Thank you to the ten volunteers who came this morning to continue the great balsam fight. As predicted the plants had more than doubled in size but despite this many thousands were pulled and shoved into the waiting bags. We really do appreciate the help you give. I hope all spines have uncurled and you are all having a well-earned rest.

We return to the fray in two weeks’ time, when they will have doubled in size again.

Thank you

Margaret  (for the team leaders)

Balsam bashed already

 “Don’t cast a clout until May is out” as the saying goes. If that refers to the May blossom, that’s well and truly out now; to me its perfume is the smell of Spring.

Happily, we seem to have good numbers of swallows in the area, but so far as I can see swifts and house martins are in worryingly short supply. Blackcaps and whitethroats are singing from almost every bush, but the Common’s ‘signature species’ of reed buntings and warblers are not so evident. My best bird of the spring, albeit only fleetingly, was a ring ouzel that popped in on its way to its upland breeding grounds. It wasn’t reported on the Common itself, but it was in a garden adjacent to it, and I had excellent views of it on the recreation ground.

No doubt some clouts were cast on today’s working party to keep the Common’s Himalayan Balsam in check, the weather being warm (despite a nagging wind) and sunny. HB as it’s not particularly affectionately known is, as its name implies, native to the lush lower slopes of the Himalayas. It’s in Southrepps not because of our high elevation, but because some bright spark thought it would make a nice garden plant, ignoring its propensity to spread along watercourses the length and breadth of the land. It out-competes native riverside vegetation, which is bad in itself, but when it dies off in the winter it leaves denuded banks vulnerable to erosion, which is worse, especially if you’re a water vole.

So it has to go, and when eagle-eyed team leader Margaret saw that it had raised its undeniably pretty head, a balsam-bashing session was hastily convened. Eight doughty volunteers turned up, suitably attired to ward off stinging nettles and squishy ground. Your usual correspondent was not among them, having come up with yet another tissue-paper thin excuse for absence, but they were joined by our two latest volunteers, Sam and Gary. The following update therefore comes courtesy of the said team leader:

“The area was in the trees at the bottom of area A nicely sheltered from the wind.

Our youthful new volunteer was disappointed by how small the target plants were, anything from 4 cms high to 30 cms; we have promised him taller ones as the season progresses. There were however plenty of them.

Due to the extreme bending involved we only worked for an hour and pulled up literally thousands of the wee beggars.

We seek it here...

... We seek it there 

The final haul 

Nothing eventful happened (no-one falling in the mud, chased by wasps or anything very exciting), so instead here are photos of some of the plants out at the moment.

Orchid

 

Ragged robin here

Sedge 

We are going to hold another HB party in two weeks’ time: same time, same place.

And finally, here is the recently cut Area B, already growing back vigorously.”

Here is Margaret’s message of thanks:

Good afternoon.

A huge thank you to the 8 people who turned up at short notice for our first Himalayan Balsam pull of the season.  I hope none of you have suffered from being bent double for an hour. We were trying to get as many seedlings as possible. We will be repeating the exercise in two weeks time when I am sure the height and number of plants will also have doubled!.

Thanks again

Margaret (for the team leaders)

 

I’ve read a few great nature-related books lately. George Monbiot’s Regenesis: feeding the world without devouring the planet is extremely thoroughly researched, as one would expect from this highly respected author. The first part of the book sets out the many catastrophic problems caused worldwide by intensive agricultural practices and the food production industry. Once those have been set out, the remainder of the book explores some of the more optimistic developments which might, just might if adopted around the globe, save us from some of the worst effects of global heating and biodiversity depletion. It’s an important book, and well worth the read, even if it’s a tough one.

The Flow: rivers, water and wildness by Amy-Jane Beer is a beautifully written account of her explorations in the last couple of years of many of Britain's rivers; some in better condition than others. Beer was previously a very keen white water kayaker, but after the tragic death of a close friend she fell out of love with the activity. However, she still looks at rivers with a practised eye to assess their suitability for the sport. The book was published last year, but now that some politicians have woken up to the dire condition of our seas and rivers,  it’s very topical.

The Meaning of Geese by North Norfolk resident and Norfolk Wildlife Trust Wildlife Ambassador Nick Acheson is another delight. This is his first book, published this year, in which he recounts his travels by bicycle during the Covid lockdowns along the North Norfolk coast in search of the geese he has loved his entire life. It's not just for bird lovers - he describes the coastline he knows so well perfectly. And there’s a connection with our little group: soon after NWT took on the management of Southrepps Commons, Nick visited us with a film crew to include us in a film as part of the ‘Wildlife in Common’ project: it can still be seen at https://www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/news-and-articles/films/all-films/wildlife-in-common-people-and-wildlife or on Youtube at Wildlife in Common: people and wildlife - YouTube