Cutting season under way

Our second working party of the new season was a great success; the weather was fine and even a little too warm for some of us. Nonetheless, we completed clearing the central area, which had been cut before Grizzly broke down last time. It has been partially restored to working order, so progress has already been made on cutting the main reedbed ready for next time:

Or how's this for a fancy black and white shot?

Quite apart from the satisfaction of a job well done, the highlight of the morning was a brief visit from a magnificent female marsh harrier. The site is really not big enough to support these wonderful birds, so visits by them are few and far between; that it chose our mid-morning refreshment break was all the more wonderful.

Here is Chairman John's message:

Thank you one and all for your splendid effort yesterday morning.  Despite my anxiety over Grizzly’s substandard performance (not to mention its operator) we have made a sensible start at this year’s programme.  We know we can carry on with the reedbed and by the time that is done, hopefully Germany will have sent us the parts we need to finish elsewhere.  Next session is two weeks time, 2nd November, when we venture into nether regions , uncovering who knows what – more fun and more satisfying.

 

I have a black jacket, labelled “No Fear”, which somebody left behind yesterday.  Will the owner please own up and I will drop it round.

 

Regards

John

New cutting season about to start

Dear All 

Winter would not be the same without an e-mail every few days imploring you to do great things for the good of  Southrepps residents and visitors.  At last your patience is rewarded because the new cutting season starts at 10:00am on Sunday 5th October on the reedbed.  We will meet on the boardwalk between The Beck and the Chadwick seat and I look forward to seeing you there.

 

This year we have to cut  Area B which is the Warren Road section furthest from Lower Street, half the reedbed and the usual central part.  You may have noticed that the variety and proportion of species is changing, in particular Grass of Parnassus has proliferated, Cotton Grass continues to reduce, and there is a lot more reed in the centre, but I am probably most concerned about the losing battle we are fighting with alder and hazel saplings in Area B. We have discussed what all this means with Natural England but nobody really knows, so basically we’ll just carry on  doing what we do best in our own way.  This seems to tick boxes and won us a first in the prestigious Norfolk Bio-diversity Group Awards 2014. 

 

An addition to the regular working parties which will run every second Sunday, various jobs arise which are more suitable for small groups to manage, e.g. consolidation under the bridge, painting the Information Point, bulrushes in The Pit, renovating the Chadwick Bench (if the Chadwick’s don’t do it), etc.  Please let me know if any of this suits you.

 

I have attached two documents, viz. Working Party dates and Health & Safety Guidance.  The former needs to be taken straight to your calendar and the dates transcribed.  The dreaded H&S document describes your responsibilities under H&S law and is a reminder that we have a written H&S Policy (available on request) with which we endeavour to comply.  When you sign in at the start of each working party, it’s not just for Duncan’s benefit, consummate archivist that he is, but it’s also drawing your attention to the risk assessment which one of us carries out before each session.

 

Next year there is cause to celebrate because it’s 25 years since Southrepps Parish Council assumed ownership and responsibility for The Commons and 10 years since Southrepps Commons Trust became a Registered Charity.  We are having an event on Midsummer’s Day, Sunday 21st. June, when we shall make a fuss of all Volunteers past and present. 

 

I am looking forward to another successful season and I hope you are too. 

 

Kind regards

John

Proper summer weather

This hot weather has had a great impact on the butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies on the Common. Today, around midday, I found large numbers of gatekeepers, and still plenty of peacocks. Also red admirals and large whites were in evidence.

At last, Scouts' Pond is busy with dragonflies and damselflies. there were several mating ruddy darters, and one gorgeous banded demoiselle damselfly. I had seen one of these on the main Common last week, and managed to photograph it then.

Big butterfly count

I spent a pleasant hour today counting butterflies for the big butterfly count (http://bigbutterflycount.org/). I found 11 species in all, with the highlight as far as I was concerned being a painted lady. Lots of large whites, peacocks and gatekeepers, with single common blue, small tortoiseshell, small skipper and red admiral. Others found were ringlet and speckled wood 

Also spoke to a Warren road resident, who has seen some white admirals in her garden.

Great for butterflies at the moment

In all this hot sunshine, small skippers and ringlets are visible in abundance on areas A and B (the grassy bit of the Common between Warren Road and the bridge over The Beck). Also burnet moths, which I've had reliably identified as narrow bordered five spot burnet moths.

Should be plenty of lizards enjoying the sun too!

And the reed warbler has started singing again, so perhaps has a second brood on the go.

Himalayan balsam working party Sunday 20th July

Hello All

It’s time to wage our annual war on the Himalayan Balsam and the time to do it is this Sunday, 20th July, meeting at 10:00am at the car park.

There is very little in the usual place, thanks entirely to our vigilance over the years.  But the stuff is ever-resourceful, having moved down the Beck  to where it thinks we either won’t notice or won’t bother.  How wrong can a plant be?!

So there is a job for a some intrepid soul with a good pair of wellies and if that could be you please come along on Sunday morning.  I don’t think it will take very long.

Parts of the boardwalk are also getting overgrown, especially the spur to the cross-roads.  So there is a sweeping job there for somebody if I get it cut in time.

On this occasion it would be useful if you can email me back if you intend coming on Sunday morning so I can make the right preparations.

Kind regards

John

Update: John in the jungle with trophy:

In search of bog beans

I had a very instructive walk across the Common today with Margaret, one of our botanical specialists. She had told me that there were plenty of bog bean plants growing in areas hitherto un-colonised by them, but I had reported back saying I couldn't find them. This was because I didn't know what the leaves look like: I'd only noticed the flowers before.

So we trudged across the very wet fen to the bog bean area, and true enough, there are many plants there. I also learned what meadowsweet, quaking grass and valerian look like. There are still quite a few orchids in flower, but the cotton grass show has been very poor again this year.

We were also very pleased to see at least four common lizards on the boardwalk: they were very nervous of sound or movement, but this one did stay still long enough for a snap:

In the same area (the section between Warren Road and the Beck), we had a brief view of a small copper butterfly:

Whilst we were in the area, we checked under a few of the refuges set out for our reptile survey. As before, no reptiles were at home, but we found lots of snails, some beetles and woodlice. And under two of them were hiding young toads: here's one of them.