A similar title to a blog I did the other week but not quite the same! It covers a few different small things this time too.
First off, we’ve had time to do some small jobs around the place again. When you get the chance to do small jobs, the ‘to do’ list gets a good crossing off which always feels good (to me anyway – I like lists!) Following on from the tasks completed by the volunteers last Thursday, Dave and I finally got the chance to head down to Botany Bay on Friday afternoon, ticking off some jobs on the way. Things like checking the rain gauge. Unsurprisingly, not a lot in there and the small amount that was in there covers the whole of June so far. In fact, I think it all fell in one monsoon-like event that happened last Thursday just before closing! We also did things like trim trees overhanging vehicle tracks. Our grazier is starting to move livestock back on to the reserve grazing marshes so we need to make sure he can get his truck and trailer down without encountering barriers.
When we got down to Botany Bay, we had a nice surprise – dragonflies, damselflies and all sorts of other intriguing invertebrates were everywhere. It was quite distracting! David provided a list of everything we saw in his blog on Sunday but here are some photos that Dave took of those small things.
Photo credit: Dave Rogers – Large red damselfly
Photo credit: Dave Rogers – Scarce chaser
Photo credit: Dave Rogers – Banded demoiselle
I think you'll agree they are stunning photos!
Finally, we’ve had a very busy day with some more small things today – but these took the shape of small human beings (ie, children!) This was the first of three visits we are having this week from the Raleigh Infant School in Thetford. The children managed ever so well today in the heat, the weather has been really oppressive and muggy but they were very well behaved and enthusiastic.
As well as the usual (but extremely fun!) pond dipping, bug hunting and guided walk, we had an indoor crafty session. This session was run by volunteers Su, Hazel and Karen and it looked like a lot of fun! The pupils were split into four groups that rotated round the different activities throughout the day and the groups were called The Moths, The Butterflies, The Dragonflies and The Birds. When they reach the craft session, they each decorated a picture relevant to their group name and these all came together on large collages at the end. To aid my poor explanation, below is a photo of two of the collages. The top one created by a Bird group (birds around a tree) and the bottom one by a Dragonfly group (dragonflies around a pond). I think you’ll agree the children did a fantastic job with their pictures and full credit to our volunteers who created the background pictures of the collages.
Photo credit: Ali Blaney - Raleigh Infant School crafty collages!
We’re looking forward to the next set of pupils on Thursday. Fingers crossed that the weather forecast changes though.....