Boundary House Fen Saturday 20th June 2026

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We met , as usual, in the Greenkeepers' compound at Frilford Golf Club, while Barbara and Dieuwke, who were joint leaders, waited by the gate with the tools for us to collect. 

We made our way down to the fen, where Rod d'Ayala was waiting for us. 
There was a lot of scything of the reeds to be done, as well as the bracken on the bank at the edge of the fen, but fortunately there were several scythers among us.
We set to work on the areas indicated by Rod, while some people went to rake up the material which had already been cut.
Rosie, Barbara, Michele and Carol setting off
 
Working on the fen
Jim's expert scything
Rod trampling down the cut vegetation on the bund
For the rest of us, there were creeping thistles to be pulled up, a seemingly never ending task, and a very small patch of hemlock to be cut back before it could seed and spread.
The weather was warm and there were a number of butterflies around, mostly ringlets. We also found cinnabar moth caterpillars on ragwort, their main food plant.
cinnabar moth caterpillars on ragwort.
Ringlet butterfly
Tiger moth butterfly
Spider's web sac
A banded demoiselle
A large red damselfly 
The thistle pullers went to join the rakers, as there were plenty of reeds to be raked up. These were put on existing heaps or on top of bunds around the fen. 
The idea is to spread the water over the fen as much as possible.
A well earned break
Marsh Lousewort - an ecosystem engineer.
Common spotted orchid
Finally, we collected up our tools and made our way back to the gate. The golf course was remarkably quiet and we didn't have to wait for any golfers to tee off. 
Light rain began to fall as we walked along the wooded edge of the course, which was really quite refreshing.

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