Cothill Fen, 5th October 2019

By Andrew -
Eleven of us turned up for today’s session at Cothill Fen, led by Eleanor with Judy Webb and Steph from Natural England. It was quite a mild, grey day and we were assured that the high water levels had gone down a little – welcome news at a site where often at least one of us gets water in our boots.

We were split into two groups, with the majority of us moving piles of reeds that had already been cut and raked to fill a pond that had formed in a ditch on the edge of the woodland. Tussocks of reeds had deliberately been left across the fen to form a mosaic habitat structure for flora and fauna.

A smaller second party made their way to the other end of the site, to where the ‘evil spring’ is still bringing nitrate from the farmed fields beyond, which is leaching onto the fen. A dam has been formed along the stream edge but with all the duckweed on the fen water, it’s apparent that nitrate is still getting through. Our task here was to remove cut reeds from the stream itself, so that it can continue to run its course, and pile them up and tamp them down to reinforce the dam. There was a lot of sludge involved. It was hard going!

We had a welcome tea break where it was announced that the Radley Lakes quiz night will be taking place on 26thOctober. Then it was back to work, with more shifting of reeds, and Kevin also took to a large fallen log with a bow saw.

We were lucky with the wildlife, today, seeing newts and a water scorpion and a small furry mammal which remained unidentified as it hid in the reeds before we could properly see what it was. Judy also found two uncommon fungi, an earth tongue (Geoglossum fallax), which she planned to take home in order to examine its spores under her microscope, and the much rarer Stinking Fanvault (Camarophyllopsis foetus) which, although tiny, gave off an incredibly strong mothball-like smell.

We went home happy with our work, and pretty much covered in mud or, as Sally called it, ‘Eau de Fen’, which has a distinctive sulphurous smell with notes of water mint!
-Joanna



Judy gives us our instructions

Base camp

Starting work

A newt in a drag bag

Duck weed

Don’t tell the ponies but the electric fence isn’t actually on

Clearing sludge from the stream

Tea break

Earth tongue fungus

Tiny stinking fanvault

Rosie takes a whiff

Water scorpion

Blogger covered in eau de fen

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

Jarn Mound and Wild Garden, Boars Hill, 12th November 2016

By Andrew -
Image
Four weeks after our last session with the Oxford Preservation Trust at Boars Hill, we returned, albeit at Jarn Mound this time rather than the Elizabeth Daryush Garden; which had been our venue in October. We again met with  Rachel Sanderson of the trust, who along with our leader of the day, James, outlined the tasks for the morning.  Primarily, we were to clear the mound itself of scrub and tree saplings that had taken root there, with the intention of restoring it to its original state.  There were also some flatter areas of the garden that required clearing, for the less intrepid among us. Unfortunately, the day had begun a little on the inclement side.  Indeed as we arrived, the rain fell persisently, making many of us wonder if the session would go ahead at all!  But of course, the Green Gymmers are renowned for working whatever the weather, and the damp conditions did not deter us. A couple of problems were immediately evident due to the rain...
Read more