Cothill Fen - Saturday, 3 May 2025

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Blog by Sally, photos by Julio, Margaret, Michele and Sally

On Saturday, 3 May, we returned to Cothill Fen, which is under the stewardship of Natural England.  Stephanie Wilson from NE met us in the Cothill School car park from where it was a short walk along String Lane to get to the first gate leading to Cothill Fen.  Kevin was our leader for the session, having swapped with Eleanor.  We had a super turn out with 18 Green Gymmers, too.  It was another glorious spring day and everyone was in good spirits, looking forward to the morning ahead, as we set off.

Looking across Cothill Fen and the new interpretation board

Steph from Natural England gives the briefing

We had three main tasks - the first was to do some scything of reed, sedge and rush to prevent it from becoming too dominant and blocking out light for other plants; the second was to pull up cleavers or goose grass as it is sometimes called from the wood where the bluebells were flowering.  We had to be careful not to trample on the bluebells because they don't like being crushed.  The third task was to cut back bramble which was overgrowing the board walk.

The reed growth well underway

One of the many cuckoo or lady's smock flowers - this is one of the food plants for the orange tip butterfly - with its delicate pink flowers.  

Marsh valerian

Scythers at work

Kevin the Pitchfork King with another forkfull for the bund

Helen and Henry with another load of cut vegetation for the bund

Operation Bramble underway

Meanwhile, back in the wood, Operation Bluebell, with the mission of removing as much of the cleavers as possible to prevent it from spreading further and smothering the bluebells and other plants, was taking place.  Cleavers is also called sticky bud because its seeds stick to the fur of passing animals or our clothes to help it spread.

A haze of Bluebells 

Break time is always convivial and a great time for a catch up or just the chance to soak up the sunshine!

We spotted this heron during our break, which soon flew down for his Elevenses

After break, we had the opportunity to change tasks and a few of us joined the Bluebell team, helping remove cleavers.

Roger carefully sticking to the path, pulling up cleavers

The native bluebell is far more delicate, with a sweet scent and graceful arching stems, than the Spanish Bluebell, which has larger unscented flowers on more upright stems and is often sold in garden centres.

Jim in full swing

The bund covered in freshly cut vegetation.  The bunds help filter the water and help with the water levels on the fen, as well as being a causeway for the volunteers

A common frog

Bluebells!

A huge heap of cleavers

A young emerging fern

And just because there can never be too many bluebells ...

It was soon time to pack up and head back along String Lane with the tools.  We look forward to returning to the site again.



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