Boundary House Fen, Frilford Heath Golf Course SSSI - Saturday, 28 December 2024

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Blog and photos by Sally

We returned to Boundary House Fen on Frilford Heath Golf Course for the last session of 2024 to continue with the cut and rake of reed, rush and other vegetation, working under the direction of consultant ecologist, Rod d'Ayala.  The weather was not promising as the air was thick with moisture when we arrived, but it did not rain and it was not long before layers were being removed once we got working and the weather brightened a little - our spirits were not dampened.

With eight trained scythers on the team, we managed to cut a lot of vegetation.  Rod reassured Lesley, "The Lone Raker", that she did not have to rake up all the cut vegetation as he would be helping, too and that it would be enough for her to rake it into sausage-shaped bundles as we would be returning in a few weeks' time.  The priority was to get the vegetation cut to allow light to seeds and other smaller plants, preventing them from being smothered, thereby increasing biodiversity of the flora of this calcareous (or alkaline) fen.  

It was soon break time and we enjoyed some Christmas treats from Susan before we returned to our work.  We spotted some purple jelly disc fungus (Ascocoryne sarcoides), one clump of which had some common eyelash fungus (Scutellinia scutellata) growing under it, on a moss and lichen covered tree stump.

Next time we return to the site in mid-January, we will be doing an all day session, which will be a first for the Green Gym programme and optional as to how long people choose to stay.  Rod will be returning in the interim with a colleague to rake up much of what we could not manage this time.

We left the site feeling as though we had achieved a lot for 11 people. 

Happy New Year to our blog readers.

It's a-scything we will go!  Everyone hard at it at the start of the session

"The Lone Raker" ... Lesley, undeterred, soldiers on

Break time!

The three clumps of purple jelly disc fungus.  If you look closely at the top one, you will see a couple of orange fungi peeping out from underneath - this is the common eyelash fungus.

At the end of our session ...

... showing the progress made.

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