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| Wood chip delivered in February |
Our previous Work Party at the Reserve was 28th November 2020! At first Christmas preparations, then bad weather and poor ground conditions had prevented our volunteers undertaking a number of necessary tasks in the weeks that followed. Then just as things improved we were back in Lockdown, with all Work Parties cancelled. So it was a real pleasure to see everyone back at Ballachurry once more on Saturday 24th April.
The priority task was to spread the wood chip (kindly donated several weeks ago by rootstoshoots.im) along the paths which had been quagmires throughout the winter. With 18 volunteers on hand we soon had some good teamwork going and it was even possible to have a second team rubbing down the hide and giving it a first coat of wood preservative. Let's not forget Helen who cut back encroaching brambles along the paths, Peter who took the hide shutters home to work on them with his power tools and Ian who was initially doing interesting things with decking planks before joining in with the main tasks.
The wood chip had stood there so long that it was steaming inside when we disturbed it! Fortunately it had not composted itself completely and was soon spread along most of the paths.
We had three new volunteers on site and we'd like to extend a warm welcome to Chris, Catherine and Jarod, our Duke of Edinburgh Award student. All three worked really hard and hopefully will return next week when, guess what, we shall be spreading another load of wood chip and adding a second coat of paint to the hide!
Here are a few photos taken on the day - not quite as many as usual perhaps - but they do give a flavour of our morning.
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| loading the barrows |
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| nearly ready to go |
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| I thought we had a one way system? |
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| new recruit, Chris, being put to work |
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| Jarod with one of very many barrow loads |
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| Raking the wood chip along the paths |
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| New recruit, Catherine, doing a good job |
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| it needs to be trodden in too |
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| left over decking from the bridge soon to be put to good use |
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| meanwhile at the hide the wood was being sanded down |
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| it's quite a large area to prepare and paint |
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| painting under way |
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| abandoned spades can only mean one thing- tea break! |
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| Ian took some photos of the green roof for me - Reed Buntings have been seen feeding up there recently |
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| the pile of wood chip has finally gone - but watch this space! |
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| 7-spot ladybird |
Final word goes to the wildlife:
SC209694 7-spot ladybird; 2 x Mallard; Moorhen; Kestrel hovering; Willow Warblers singing throughout reserve.
A huge thank you to everyone who came a long to get these overdue tasks completed.
Incidental Report 2nd May 2021
I spent about 90 minutes on the reserve on Sunday afternoon at a site meeting with others. Out of the corner of my eye I could see butterflies flitting about and we all noticed the birdsong on this sunny afternoon. Before going home I quickly walked round once more to note the following:
SC210694 male Orange Tip Butterfly + 2 x Small Tortoiseshell; male Chaffinch.
SC209694 3x Mallard on pond + Moorhen; Peacock Butterfly; Orange Tip butterfly. Sedge Warbler heard but not seen.
SC208694 female Chaffinch
SC209695 Great Tit; Chaffinch; three Gorse Shieldbugs.
Willow Warblers singing throughout reserve
please click on photos to enlarge them
Fingers crossed for a return of the good weather next Saturday for our May work party!
