This month’s guest author is Cumbria Coast’s very own Estate Worker, Megan, who found herself responsible for the bulk of October’s work parties.
Our first work party saw us up at Rogersceugh on a glorious sunny day in order to plant devil’s bit scabious plug plants. These plants support our efforts to increase habitat patches for marsh fritillary butterflies as well as other pollinators. It was a tough day as the clay soil and long grass did not make for easy planting but the vols got stuck in and we managed to get 800 plants in place at the base of the Drumlin, on the south side, by a watercourse. I headed up the next day to finish off the further 400 plugs, these I planted in groups on top of the Drumlin which will hopefully mean visible to visitors as well when in flower.
The following week we were back out on the salt marsh with our first go at the gorse cutting this winter. We were working on the perimeters of an area we had cleared at the end of last winter and continued to nibble the edges. With gorse processing and stacking methods adjusted the vols made light work of it out there and within a few hours we had our usual big piles of cleared gorse towering on the saltmarsh. We also cut a corridor behind some willow trees that will be felled. This corridor will allow for better access to complete the chainsaw work required to get the willows down. Everyone was rather knackered by the end, we all chatted over lunch about how physical but satisfying a job the gorse cutting is!
In the middle of September one of our work party days was spent clearing some willow from one of our pools in Paisley field. Now our job was to get this willow brash out of the Paisley field. We’d had a fair bit of rain since the willow had been cut and I was only able to get the tractor and trailer into the field a wee bit beyond our gate. Therefore willow had to be cut and dragged up to the gate to meet me and the tractor to move it to the carpark for chipping. It made for a muddy day but 8 trailer loads later the wood and brash was no longer surrounding the pool…it had now filled the carpark! Now to get the chipper going…
The sun always shines at Hodbarrow! A lovely day to be at Hodbarrow focussing on our spikey friend; sea buckthorn. In this case unfortunately a non-native in these parts so a friend that has got to go as part of our scrub management plan at Hodbarrow. We targeted some of the smaller areas we encountered with loppers and saws. It was interesting to discuss with the volunteers the impact the sea buckthorn scrub management over the years has had, with them all commenting on a huge reduction in coverage because of the consistent efforts. Hurrah! We also scoped out some larger areas that will be of good size to tackle in some of our next Hodbarrow work parties. The day finished with lunch by the hide.
And finally…. Back on the gorse of course , willows down , big blazin fire.
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.