Dry Sandford Pit, Saturday Feb 11th 2023

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This week's blog was written by Eleanor D

This Saturday we were at Dry Sandford Pit, which is managed by Berkshire Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust. The reserve used to be a quarry and there is an area of sandy cliffs containing many fossils. There is also a fen, grassland and woodland. 

At this session our task was to clear vegetation from in front of the cliffs. We set to work cutting down brambles, briars and small sprouting trees while the scythers tackled the long grass. We transferred the cut material to an existing brash pile or on to a dead hedge blocking entrance to the fen. This was to discourage visitors from going on to the fen, especially with dogs, as there are rare species of orchids there as well as nesting birds in Spring.

We had to watch out for passers by as a well used footpath runs alongside the cliffs but, as it turned out, there were hardly any walkers, mainly because we had taken up all the spaces in the small car park!

Not long before the break, Judy Webb arrived to look for signs of very rare fragrant orchids in the fen. After the break she took two brave volunteers into the fen to cut down two sprouting alder trees in order to give the orchids more chance to grow. Joan fell over for the second time that day and this time got a bit wet!

Having finished clearing in front of the cliffs, we cut some encroaching brambles from the other side of the path and made sure we had raked all the debris off the footpath before heading back to the car park.

the sandy cliffs

nesting holes

Green Gym-ers hard at work clearing vegetation




the before photo!

well earned tea break

intrepid adventurers going into the fen

whoops!

Joan got a bit wet in the fen




after a good morning's work

the after photo







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