Boundary House Fen - Saturday 28th June 2025

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 Blog by Eleanor, photos by Sally and Eleanor

We met, as usual, in the greenkeepers' compound and made our way down to the fen, where Rod d'Ayala gave us our instructions. The scythers were asked to scythe along the stream and leats ( a leat is a man-made watercourse. I didn't know that. It sounds like something you don't want on your cabbages.) They had to avoid an area where reed warblers were nesting. 

Another task was to pull up creeping thistle from the grassy area on the edge of the fen.

Pulling up creeping thistle





A creeping thistle




Scything along the leats

Barbara adding to the heap





Judy Webb arrived with her insect catching net and went looking for sphagnum moss among the pond sedge and hemp agrimony. She asked Sally to cut this area in order to uncover the sphagnum moss and allow light to get to it.

Looking for sphagnum moss




Sphagnum moss



At teabreak Judy showed us some fascinating insects she had caught, including a robber fly. These flies prey on other insects, which they pierce and suck dry.

Tea break. We get nicer food than robber flies!



Here are some of the plants we saw:
Common spotted orchid


Bog pimpernel




The weather was warm and sunny and there were plenty of butterflies, and cinnabar moth caterpillars on ragwort.



There were a lot of gatekeeper butterflies.

Gatekeeper with wings folded





Mating ringlet butterflies


Rosie found a fascinating web-lined hole in the grassy bank. Judy told us that it belonged to a labyrinth spider and is its method of trapping its prey. I had heard of funnel web spiders in Australia, but fortunately this one is not dangerous to humans.

Labyrinth spider hole


It was time to finish, so we carried the tools to the gap in the hedge next to the road where our leader, Adrian, had parked, and made our way back to our meeting point.

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