Happy New Year! This is the first Campfield Marsh work party blog of 2024, a year which will no doubt see plenty more hard work from our invaluable volunteers resulting in further improvements in the state of nature on the Cumbrian Coast reserves. For an insight into this work and the wildlife on offer on the reserves, look no further than this blog!
The first work party of the year was more gorse coppicing on the salt marsh edge. We began work on creating a ride through an area of some of the deepest and most established gorse on the marsh, an area that was therefore in desperate need of some coppicing to restart the growth cycle and expose the ground to sunlight for the benefit of wildflowers, invertebrates, and birds. In fact, as we were removing the gorse, we noticed numerous foxgloves waiting to flower. The ride runs north-south to allow maximum light levels and to shelter it from the prevailing westerly wind along the estuary. Everyone worked really hard - presumably motivated to burn off the Christmas excesses - with sweat literally steaming off backs at one stage, and the area cleared in one morning was impressive!
The next week we returned to a stretch of hedge we stripped in the large arable field during the final work party of 2023 in December. This time an army of 12 volunteers finished stripping the entire 75m stretch of hedge and completed the process by laying the hedge in the north Cumbrian style described in the November blog. This will result in a healthy new hedge developing over the next decade or so, with lots of dense growth close to the ground which creates a natural barrier that simultaneously benefits wildlife!
The third work part of the month took place at RSPB Hodbarrow. This time the focus was on scrub clearance on a bank that will see more kidney vetch – the foodplant for the small blue butterfly – planted to help the species spread across the site. There was a particular focus on removing sea buckthorn, a spiny shrub native to sand dunes on the east coast of Britain. However, it has been planted elsewhere in the country to help stabilise dunes but can out-compete and shade out other species so is therefore considered invasive. You can see the bank in question in the shade on the right of the aerial photo whilst the group – sat in a circle to the left of this – enjoys a well-deserved break!
The final week’s work party saw us return to the gorse coppice plot from the first week of January. The team managed to finish the main ride, exposing a fabulous view (pictured) out onto the salt marsh and Solway, reward for another morning of hard work!
We are always on the look-out for new volunteers to join us at Campfield Marsh (and Hodbarrow). We meet on Thursday mornings. If you are interested in helping with the sort of tasks mentioned above, meeting new people, developing new skills, and enjoying the outdoors, click on the following link to find out more and apply: Practical Reserve Work (Campfield Marsh, Bowness On Solway) | RSPB Volunteering.