Boundary House Fen - Saturday 26th April 2025

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 Blog by Eleanor, photos by Julio and David

We were back after our Easter Saturday break, this time at Boundary House Fen, with Adrian as leader. It was a beautiful sunny day as we assembled for Rod d'Ayala to give us our briefing. There was the usual scything and raking up of the reeds and rushes, but an alternative task was to dig up hemlock. We had done this at previous sessions and had learnt to distinguish it from other members of the carrot family, such as cow parsley, and, of course, carrots. The stems of hemlock have purple splodges. On no account should you eat this plant!

Pre task briefing




The fen before




Rhian digging up hemlock





Lesley with hemlock






On the fen, the scythers set to work scything in two different areas.

Scythers get stuck in.





Jim scything near a tempting tree swing



Then it was time for the rakers and carriers (the infantry) to come in, Sadly we have no photos, but I can assure you we worked very hard and avoided being cut off at the ankles by the scythers.

Tea break





After the break we carried on with the work and were joined by the hemlock pullers, who had pulled all the hemlock they could find.

The fen after




Here are some flora and fauna photos. The gorse and hawthorn around the golf course were in full bloom. We saw a number of butterflies, mainly orange tips but also a brimstone. Orange tips are one of the earliest butterflies but by mid June they will all be gone until next Spring. We saw  a medium size frog and David managed to get a photo of a common lizard.

Common lizard




Some of the flowers, such as marsh lousewort and marsh valerian are fen specialists, which is why it is important to restore and maintain calcereous fens.

Marsh valerian




Marsh lousewort




Lady's smock (cuckoo flower)





Common spotted orchid


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