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At our Cothill Fen session we were joined by members of the 4th Abingdon Scouts, both boys and girls, with their leaders and some parent helpers.

Sadly, the weather was not kind to us at first. After making our way along the footpath to the site, we had to shelter under a tree from the heavy rain. Fortunately, the rain eased off and Steph Wilson from Natural England briefed us on our tasks.

 

The Friday Cothill volunteers had done some scything of the reeds and we were asked to rake these up and put some on the reed causeway across the water and the rest into drag bags, which were then transported to the woodland on the other side of the boardwalk.

 

Some rotten fence posts needed to be replaced and Steph took a group of Scouts to be introduced to the art of bashing in new ones.


Another task was to pull up nettles and one type of thistle and Margaret showed a group which to pull and which to leave.


We all worked hard until break time, when Steph explained the importance of this calcareous fen and why we needed to do certain tasks such as cutting back the reeds. The fen gets a lot of agricultural run-off, and the nitrates and phosphates encourage too much reed growth. Regular cutting back keeps the reeds under control and allows the typical flora and fauna, such as orchids, marsh lousewort and soldier flies to flourish.

 

Break time
After the break we moved over to the board walk side, raking up the reeds there. These we piled up on the bund by the board walk and the scouts were encouraged to walk back and forth on them, a task they very much enjoyed.



There was more scything to be done on the opposite side of the water on the edge of the woodland and Sally and Barbara set off to do that.

We had a very brief shower, but the sun also appeared for a short time.

It was time to finish, so we thanked the scouts for their hard work and gathered by the gate for a group photo, before heading back to the car park.  


Orchid
                         
Sedge Warbler's nest

Ragged Robin

Bracket fungus on log







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