Saturday morning, 26th August, saw 18 volunteers at Ballachurry Reserve's "Green Gym". We bent, we stretched, we swung left and right, walked round in circles, lifted and swung mallets, did step-ups and step-downs in and out of the streams, pushed and pulled barrows, dug and delved docks. By one o'clock the Reserve had paths strimmed, hurdles in place, saplings weeded/carpeted, streams cleared of vegetation and excess silt. And all so much cheaper than a gym membership! Tired but toned we enjoyed refreshments in the sunshine and a real sense of satisfaction at jobs well done.
We also saw flitting butterflies, numerous water creatures and a swimming frog, as well as hoverflies and some beautiful wild flowers.
Many thanks to you all for your hard work and to our Baking Sub-Committee for the most welcome refreshments. Also to Stan Clucas for loan of an additional strimmer which really helped get the jobs done quickly.
I went back after lunch to retrieve some forgotten tools and take a few "after" photos and added the following wildlife notes to this morning's tally:
SC210694 Common Blue Butterfly
SC209694 Green Veined White Butterfly
SC209695 Speckled Wood Butterfly
SC208695 3 x Speckled Wood Butterflies
SC209694 Grey Heron in pond
SC208694 Swimming frog
SC209695 about 50 Water Crickets & several fresh water shrimps
SC209694 Large mixed flock of gulls and corvids flying over reserve ( photo shows about one third)
SC209695 Leaf Cutter Bee with section of leaf sitting on tool shed roof ( flew off with it before I could take a photo -New Record)
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| a spot of gardening with weed-suppressing carpet at the ready |
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| making good progress |
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| job done and young Hawthorns can breathe again |
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| strimming |
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| more strimming |
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| can you see the stream? No, nor me! |
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| Yet more strimming beside that stream |
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| Hand tools at the ready |
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| team work |
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| finally found the water! |
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| what a difference! |
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| Looking back along the stream towards the Hide before.... |
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| ...and after |
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| wasn't there a dam here once? |
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| visible again |
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| path along gorse boundary before.... |
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and after,
no more getting wet when walking through the vegetation |
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| main stream not visible before work |
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| getting stuck in ( but not in the mud, hopefully?) |
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| raking out cut vegetation |
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| that's better! |
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| this is where the water comes in - looking along the stream! |
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| Same view a few hours later |
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| "the final hurdle" |
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| This is where the stream runs into the reeds |
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| finally visible again |
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| we can now get round the back of the notice board again |
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no more brambles scratching the back of your neck
when sitting on the bench |
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time for tea at last!
( our very cool-looking Baking Sub-Committee!) |
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| welcome break |
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| in lovely weather |
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| tea, coffee and cakes all round |
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| doesn't fresh air make you happy? |
And finally, a reminder why we work on the reserve
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| this is where water runs into the reserve |
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there were soon 50+ Water Crickets enjoying the open water
right by this pipe |
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| close up of Water Crickets |
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| frog swimming upstream |
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| large mixed flock over reserve |
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| female Wall Brown butterfly |
Just some of Ballachurry's wonderful wildlife
Details of next Work Party follow shortly.
(P.S. I was tempted to continue the alliteration in the title by substituting Boot Camp for Work-Out, But it wasn't quite that bad - was it?)
