The work party on Saturday, 24th August was principally to spruce up the reserve ahead of the open afternoon the following week. 11 Volunteers arrived at 10 o'clock armed with loppers, secateurs and shears to walk round the paths removing intruding brambles, overhead branches and fallen thistles.
Stan Clucas had kindly mown the long grass by the noticeboard where the tent was to go during our Event and some of the Volunteers quickly had this raked off and transported to the compost heaps. Stan mowed it again later in the week and a couple of Committee members raked it off again.
Carrie again did a splendid job weeding the boardwalk while, rather than cut back self sown willows along the path for posterity, other volunteers dug them out and transplanted them elsewhere on the reserve where they could be more useful. It's possibly not the ideal time for transplanting them but we had nothing to lose and at least some of them may survive the move.
As usual we were revived around 11 by hot drinks and home made cakes - thank you, ladies! I strolled round again once the work party was over just to admire the butterflies which, like us, were enjoying the perfect weather. Shall we have such a beautiful day for our Open Afternoon? We await the 5 day forecast with great interest.
Very many thanks for the help of all volunteers today.
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| Sprucing up the boardwalk |
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| with a smile on her face |
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| to the compost heap? |
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| transplanting the willows |
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| they were quite tough to get out by the roots |
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| a victory roll? |
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| line of transplanted willows near the hide |
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| snipping back the brambles |
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| well earned rest in the sunshine...... |
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| .............time for a chat |
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| ....................tea and cake |
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| ...........and kick off the shoes for awhile |
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| time for a bit of a catch-up |
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| lovely in the sunshine |
All jobs well done .
Last word to the wildlife: SC208694 Common Blue Butterfly
SC208694 Small Copper Butterfly
SC208694 Red Admiral Butterfly
SC209694 GreenBottle Fly ( Lucilia sp?)
SC209694 female Eristalis tenax Hoverfly
SC209694 Shieldbug nymph ( Common Green?)
SC209694 Ichneumon Wasp
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| Common Blue |
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| on Greater Bird's Foot Trefoil |
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| Green Bottle Fly on bracken with first autumn tints |
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| resting female Eristalis tenax Hoverfly |
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| Small Copper |
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| Red Admiral |
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| Shieldbug nymph |
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| overnight raindrops still on the spiderwebs |
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Ichneumon Wasp?
With over 2000 species of these, they are hard to
identify from just leafing though a field guide!
That's an ovipositor, not a sting. |
Fingers crossed now for good weather on 31st for the Ballachury Open Afternoon.
With thanks to Steve Crellin for fly identification
