Jon and Rick, assisted by Jacob for the first half, spent a soggy day digging 'oles in preparation for constructing a new cattle handling facility at the back of the Wildlife Garden (not open to the public). A myriad of different elements will come together to make this essential structure: a post-hole auger borrowed from our Minsmere reserve (the big yellow thing at the back of the tractor); posts made from sweet chestnut trees felled last winter in Stour Wood, near Harwich; and a Team Challenge from Ford Motor Company who will arrive next monday to put it all together.
Following our attempts at knocking a few fence posts into the ground to help secure a gate temporarily, during the autumn - the posts only went into the extremely dry ground by about 15cm! - we thought it might be quite hard going, but the ground proved to be just right for the auger. We wanted to make the cattle corral as strong as possible, with holes of around 90cm deep, which is plenty.
Although the meadows aren't open to the public it's nice to be able to tell you about them a little bit. They're really important for biodiversity, being the richest meadows in this part of the valley plant-wise, and probably insect-wise as well. The meadow in the background is called Skate's Meadow and used to be open to the public many years ago so that locals could skate, after paying their sixpence or so.
Rick Vonk, Site Manager Stour Estuary reserve