Dry Sandford Pit, 30th November 2019

By Andrew -
Dry Sandford Pit Nature Reserve was the venue for today’s session, led by Sally. We were there to do work for BBOWT, continuing on from our last visit to the site in July. Sixteen of us turned up on a beautiful bright frozen morning with the grass and trees glittering with frost as the sun rose. It was so cold it was nice to imagine that millions of years ago this place had been the bed of a warm, coral-rich sea.

The nature reserve was once a quarry and our job for the morning was to carry on clearing the cliff faces of vegetation, in order to expose the strata of limestone and sand, and maintain the many habitats of solitary bees and wasps that nest there.

With a mixture of tools, including loppers and slashers for cutting back brambles, and trowels and small mattocks for hacking at the vegetation clinging to the cliff faces, we set to work, building up the habitat piles and soon warming up as the morning wore on.

By break time the sun was high in the sky and we drank our tea basking in its warmth.

Dry Sandford Pit is a fascinating site, as there are always fossils to be found and this time Carolyn also found a crystalized rock of some description. By the end of the session we had made good progress along the length of the cliff face and pathway, and look forward to carrying on in a couple of weeks time.  
-Joanna



Dry Sandford Pit.

Gathering tools.

On our way to site.

A beautiful morning.

Nearly there.

One of the cliff faces.

Chilly beginnings.

Workers in the frost.

Lesley takes her pick.

Woody nightshade.

Dieuwke, Joan and Sally.

Our progress.

Sally takes stock of our work at the end of the session.


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