Ballachurry Reserve, Rushen, IOM.: Ballachurry Reserve, 20th October 2018 : Work Party.

Sunday 21 October 2018

Ballachurry Reserve, 20th October 2018 : Work Party.

10 volunteers arrived at Ballachurry Reserve on Saturday morning armed with a variety of rakes and a selection of barrows. Tricia's Muckers had already raked the cut meadow areas into piles for us so we set to loading the hay into barrows and depositing it on our two compost heaps. I was about to tip up my own barrow when I noticed fungi growing on last year's heap. Great excitement - I could see it was a new record for the reserve. We are fortunate to have a member of the Fungus Group amongst our volunteers, so hopefully they will be identified for us. It seemed a pity to bury them under this year's compost so I carefully dug them out deeply and replaced them later once we had finished. Hopefully they will shed their spores and continue to grow there in future.

Back at the meadow we raked again and as the sun broke through we started to shed the winter woollies . Our thoughts began to turn towards refreshments but we were determined to get the last few barrowfuls done first. Tea, coffee and home made ginger cake were then most welcome ( thank you, Sheila S. ) But our raking was not yet over. Richard N. strimmed both areas again and the raking/ barrowing routine began again until the compost heaps reached new heights, something appreciated by the local Robins and a couple of Goldcrests who came down to investigate.

Then Diane kindly did a one woman job deterring brambles from crossing the paths. While the petrol lasted Richard strimmed the boardwalk and bridge areas too as well as a spot of pipe unblocking into the bargain.

There was just time to show Karen some more fungi before we all headed homewards for our well-earned lunch.

"See you soon" and "weren't we lucky with the weather? " floated across the reserve to my ears as I locked up the tool shed.

A major, annual task well done and one which is starting to show benefits, not just in terms of increasing wild flowers but also numbers of butterflies and other invertebrates.

My personal thanks to everyone who came along .

Last word to the wildlife: SC208694 3 x Frogs; 2 x Goldcrests; at least 1 Robin; possible Kestrel; possible flock of Goldfinches; 2 x white-legged Snake Millepedes;