Nope, we've not been piling on top of each other this week but rather putting a concerted effort into cutting reeds and bundling them up for the boardwalk screening. It's great to be putting our cut reed to use. Both the work party last Thursday and the one yesterday were focused on this and we're making excellent progress. Yesterday alone the team made 153 bundles of reed and got the vast majority down to the hide. The estimation is that we need at least the same tomorrow, so they'll be back down in Joist Fen South cutting and bundling away. The hope is to complete the cutting tomorrow and finish off with a burn up of any reed that isn't suitable for bundling. The work party next week will then aim to complete the screening down at the boardwalk, which will be a big task!
Photo credit: Dave Rogers - volunteers Phil and Roger bundling reed and loading the truck
Photo credit: Dave Rogers - reed bundles alongside the boardwalk, ready for next week
Further work is being carried out on the raised plant beds outside the visitor centre. Suzanne and Tom took advantage of the sunny morning to get out there, treat the sleepers and finish digging out the bed that will soon become a pond.
Photo credit: Ali Blaney - Suzanne giving the sleepers an extra protective treatment
Photo credit: Tom digging out the pool bed
Path alterations continue near the visitor centre so make sure to pop in and get the most up to date information from us. You'll also notice other tasks being carried out around the eastern end of the reserve - as I speak the hut near the car park is being taken down. It wasn't really put to best use where it was and also blocked the view of the visitor centre from the car park, so we're going to reuse it elsewhere. Who knows where it will pop up again soon, we have a couple of ideas. We will also soon be filling in some annoying potholes that have developed in the car park and up the entrance track, so if you've had to avoid those recently they will soon be gone!
Finally, our volunteers will be pleased with the next photo.....our friendly contractor Paul has saved us all a very tough job by taking the new benches up the hill near the visitor centre for us. The two benches that have been on top of the mound needed replacing so we bought a couple of very solid oak benches before Christmas.
Photo credit: Ali Blaney - benches passing the visitor centre
These benches weigh an absolute ton and even though they were not going too far from the workshop, I don't think any of us had been looking forward to carrying them to their new location. Luckily, it's taken so long for us to get round to putting them out, that it's coincided nicely with the digger being available - phew! They are now in place and look very nice indeed. They are a great place to sit and look out over to the washland and Brandon Fen. We were also lucky enough to see four cranes from this very spot at midday - a beautiful sight. And to add to the excitement, we don't think these four cranes were our resident birds and potentially nine cranes have been seen in and around the reserve today - we've had very happy visitors today!