The past week has been very busy, with volunteers putting in extra hours outside their usual days, staff trying to fit in outdoor tasks as well as indoor data work and of course, the Big Wild Sleepout. Sometimes there are just not enough hours in a day (I think I’ve said that before...)
I’ll give praise first to our volunteers, who have really been putting in the hours above and beyond recently. Volunteer Roger has almost finished painting the visitor centre decking, which he has done virtually single-handedly. He’s been in every morning beavering away and it looks amazing. Tomorrow morning should see this job done. Our work party volunteers have also been busy painting the viewpoint shelters, with a little help from Tuesday volunteer Nigel. The hot, dry weather has really helped us get these tasks done quickly and the viewpoints are looking nice and refreshed with their lick of green paint. The photo below shows volunteer Darren painting away at Joist Fen viewpoint last Thursday afternoon, after a hard morning pulling common ragwort – an ongoing task! The volunteers did get a nice reward at the end of the day however, which involved a jaunt down to Botany Bay to marvel at the butterflies on the hemp agrimony. The numbers of butterflies, particularly peacocks, really is something to behold this year.
Photo credit: Ali Blaney – Volunteer Darren sprucing up Joist Fen viewpoint shelter
Another two volunteers, Nigel and David, have been hard at work finishing off the painting this morning and are now out raking up cut vegetation along the main track through the reserve. Our grazier has been helping us out with some vegetation trimming along the sides of the main track on his way to and from hay cutting on site, which gets a lot done in a short space of time but does leave behind a bit of tidying up! Dave and I also took some time yesterday to open up the bays along the southern side of New Fen North reedbed as far as possible, although these will need further action.
In between all this hard practical work we’ve had the Big Wild Sleepout, which has taken place across many RSPB reserves and back gardens. As well a guided walk with bat detectors as darkness fell across the reserve we also had a campfire. I was very pleased with my fire site, so I took a photo of it ready for action! Volunteer Martin and I got the fire going while the walk was taking place and it was ready for marshmallow toasting when the walk ended. Marshmallow toasting took some practise, to avoid the dreaded ‘flaming mallow’ – there's a fine line between nicely toasted and an inedible, gloopy mess! Luckily, there were plenty of marshmallows to go around, especially as they mysteriously always seemed to come out of the bowl as two stuck together, or so the younger campers said.... Nothing like a big sugary intake before bedtime anyway, especially after a mug of hot chocolate! As David, volunteer Martin and I waited for the fire to die down before retiring to bed, the clouds cleared from the sky and we were treated to an amazing view. Hopefully any campers who rose in the night for a call of nature took the time to look up!
Photo credit: Ali Blaney – Big Wild Sleepout fire site – ready for action with pre-whittled marshmallow toasting sticks (thanks Dave!)
The camp out was a huge success and after a continental breakfast and the checking of the moth trap in the morning, our happy campers went home. For more detail on the moth trap and the guided walk, check out David's blog from Sunday. I’ve just about caught up on sleep, ready for another ragwort pulling session with the volunteers tomorrow!