Two Pines Fen, Frilford Heath Golf Course SSSI - Tuesday, 9 and Thursday, 25 April 2024

By Margaret - April 28, 2024

Blog and photos by Sally

With prior agreement with Frilford Heath Golf Course, we returned for two mid-week "specials" in order to carry out the spring cut and rake of Two Pines Fen, which is bordered by the red and green courses and can only safely be achieved mid-week, when there are fewer golfers thus reducing the possibility of being hit by a flying golf ball! This little calcareous fen is home to about a dozen types of orchid, Grass of Parnassus and both common and broad-leaved cotton grass as well as some rare mosses and sedges. Without the spring and autumn cuts, reed and hard and soft rush would take over and the rare plants cannot compete with them and eventually, the fen would turn to scrub. Part of our task was also to remove birch, willow, hawthorn and bramble which have begun to encroach in recent years.

On 9 April, six volunteers (Adrian, Graham, Jim and Sally from AGG joined by friends Rich and Guy) managed to cut and rake the red course half of the fen, both sides of the stream. We continued to remove scrub by using a mattock, although we took care to leave the guelder roses and avoided a precious patch of a rare sphagnum moss (which sadly is being attacked by badgers). Guy was pleased to be able to have the chance to practice his scything. The rain soon eased and the tail end of Storm Kathleen blew in so we got a free blow-dry! It was lovely to see the fluffy heads of common cotton grass along with the delicate pink cuckoo (or lady's smock) and rosettes of emerging orchids as well as the tiny pom-pom heads of marsh valerian, looking like a sprinkling of marshmallows. We were very pleased that we were able to complete the cut and rake of the red course side.

On 25 April, there were seven of us (Adrian, Barbara, Jim and Sally from AGG, with Richard and Rich and ecologist, Dr Judy Webb, who wanted to do a flower count.) The weather was kind up until lunchtime, when it started to rain, as forecast. We made the most of the morning, but efforts were hampered with the added frisson of golfers tee-ing off over our heads, so we had to take shelter under the two Scots pines or run to the edge, out of the line of fire! Adrian mattocked out a substantial birch stump which had started to resprout.

Although we had agreed dates etc with the Golf Club, the message had not filtered through on this occasion and the hole was kept in play. We decided to go the furthest side near the boundary wall out of the danger zone to set up our base and trod carefully as we soon spotted that there were so many orchid rosettes around our feet. Judy was delighted to record over 200 cotton grasses - the most she has ever seen on this fen. It is not sure how much our efforts have contributed to their success this year (with successive spring and autumn cut and rakes and re-wetting the fen by slowing down the flow of the stream), as it has rained so much more than normal this winter, which has contributed to the general wetness, but we like to think that we've made a difference.

Unfortunately, we spotted that hemlock has started to encroach and this can spread rapidly. We did not have the time to dig it out this time, but we scythed the tops off, so hopefully, it will not flower and seed this year. We will make a note to dig it out when we return in the autumn.

We disturbed a male grass snake on the hunt for a female as it kept lifting his head and sniffing the air with his tongue. Judy collected an ant and associated aphid from an anthill, which she is pretty sure is a yellow meadow ant - an unusual find on a fen as it normally prefers drier conditions.

Marsh lousewort, an ecosystem engineer, has been working its magic on suppressing reed and rush growth, making our task easier. We even had time for Rich and Judy to cut some newly emerging reed on the "Between the Fens" area by the red 16th as we try to get this area back into condition.

As usual, on both visits we found lots of golf balls which we put to the side of the tracks and the golfers were very pleased to be reunited with any that they had lost on the fen! They, like us, are looking forward to a good display of orchids in the months to come.

I would like to thank everyone who gave up their time to work on this and the "Between the Fens" area in recent months as it is great to see the progress made each time we visit and we can only do this midweek in addition to our normal programme.