Frilford Heath Golf Club, 21st October 2017

By Andrew -
We met in the car park at Frilford Golf Club and then headed off to park by the green keepers buildings from where we made our way, looking out for flying golf balls, to Boundary House Fen. Here, our task was to rake up cut reeds from the fen under the direction of pond and freshwater habitats expert, Rod d’Ayala.

 This is an alkaline fen, home to a number of rare species of flora and fauna and it is important to cut and rake the reeds every year. Rod had spent some time damming a ditch that runs through the middle of the fen. This will help to prevent the fen from drying out.

We set to work raking the reeds and Rod told us that, as well as transporting the reeds to designated places on the very edge of the fen, we could rake them into the ditch. We enjoyed doing this as it was easier than carrying heavy loads of wet reeds to heaps on the edge and some of us were brave enough to step on top of the reeds and see how far up our wellies the water came and whether more needed to be piled into the ditch.

After a break for tea and coffee, when we used Rod’s wheelbarrow to hold the mugs in the absence of a table, we carried on with our work. The weather stayed fine, though it did cloud over briefly. We will be back again in early December to rake the other half of the fen.
-Eleanor


Photos by Eleanor unless otherwise stated:

Work commences.

Lesley rakes.

Getting stuck in.

Matt with a pitchfork.

A welcome break!

Some bracket fungi.

Carolyn and Kevin on beverage duty. (photo by Margaret)

The fen at the end of the session. (photo by Sally)

Another view of showing the morning's progress. (photo by Sally)

Looking towards the Boundary House just before departure. (photo by Sally)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pinkhill Meadow Nature Reserve, Farmoor Reservoir, 16th March 2019

By Andrew -
Image
Another week, another new site for the Abingdon Green Gym! We met at the car park at Farmoor Reservoir, a healthy turn out of 17 of us, including French father Sebastien, and his eleven-year old son, Maelo, who was joining us for a school project. The session was led by James under the instruction of Hanna Jenkins, the warden of Pinkhill Meadow Nature Reserve, so called because it is right on the banks of the River Thames, just near Pinkhill Lock. It was another blustery day. Will this crazy wind ever let up? We followed Hanna in convoy round the edge of the reservoir, which was choppy to say the least, and parked up on the other side where it was thankfully a little calmer, the high banks of the reservoir providing some shelter. Equipped with our tools, gloves and goggles, we made our way onto the spot on the nature reserve where we were to do our work. Hanna told us that the reserve had been formed in 1991, but some aspects had been neglected over the last ten years. The aim
Read more

Kennington Memorial Field, 29th October 2016

By Andrew -
We have been working at Kennington Memorial Field for a number of years now, clearing scrub from the slopes so that the valley remains an area of grassland and wild flowers. This time Rachel from Oxford Preservation Trust was in charge and led us down to the lower end of the field, where we were to cut back the trees and bushes by several metres and burn the scrub on a bonfire. We were joined by some families with children of varying ages, the youngest only three, who had answered a local appeal for volunteers. We set to work and soon we had a bonfire going. Even the children who were too young to use loppers and saws joined in, carrying branches to the bonfire pile. Despite the drizzly weather they all worked cheerfully. At tea break time we enjoyed some delicious snacks that Rachel had brought and a tin of chocolates supplied by Michele. We found two old birds' nests in the course of the morning and cutting back the scrub revealed a log pile with a rabbit hole under
Read more

Ock Valley Walk, Town End, 22nd June 2013

By Andrew -
Image
Quite a small group gathered for this session and the weather didn't look promising. However, we were pleased to welcome a new member, Laura. We set off for the woodchip path,where we made our encampment. The nettles had grown high and dense since our previous visit, almost concealing the young trees, compising beech, oak, silver birch, cherry and rowan, which we had planted as whips almost two and a half years previously. One of our tasks was to clear the nettles and other vegetation immediately around them. As you can see from the photo of the young cherry, most of the trees are flourishing. Other tasks were to cut up and clear fallen branches into piles and the inevitable litter picking. There was a sharp shower shortly before 11 o'clock but it had stopped when we gathered for a welcome tea break. By the end of the morning we had finished clearing round the trees, tidied away the dead wood and picked up quite a respectable amount of litter, though I suspect t
Read more