Tuesday 27 August 2013

Hackfall Woods: 27-08-13

Editor's note: As the turn out this week numbered 24 (Paul, his 15 NCVs and 8 others from Wolseley PLC), the volunteers split up into three working groups, each with a different task. Consequently the blog entry consists of three, separate parts, each written by a different NCV.


Hey ho, hey ho, it's off to work we go...


Paul holds everyone in thrall with his plans for the 
day and his health and safety information.
The path layers' tale.........

There were two parts to this task - the hard bit and the harder bit. First we had to insert a number of planks to act as retaining walls for the gravel. This sounds easy until you try it. There were lots of large stones and roots to clear as we dug a trench and sparks could often be seen flying as the pick axe hit rock.
Planks put roughly in position first  - then Dave and Graham got busy with the pick. 

Each plank was then secured with two wooden stobs. Unfortunately a number of these split under the force of the mell so Dave tried an alternative approach with the pick axe.....

Sally puts her absolute trust in Dave. 

By lunchtime the retaining planks were all in place - phew! After a break we got started on the less technical but much more exhausting part of the task, namely, carrying trugs filled with gravel across the stepping stones and up the steep, woodland path. Occasionally Dean (the self-appointed trug filler-upper [he's no fool!]) needed reminding that the trugs should NOT BE FILLED TO THE TOP!!!!!!! 

Everyone gritted their teeth and smiled for the camera - it was such fun. 
How many more buckets full did you say we needed Dave? Only 10? No problem.


The end result was very pleasing  and will ensure that visitors to the woods will not have to negotiate a mudslide on their walks during the winter. We joined the group at the Alum pond and enjoyed some tasty biscuits that Howie discovered in his rucksack (thanks Pat!!)


 
Howie celebrates reaching the end of the task 
by demonstrating moon dancing on the brand new path.
Ros E.

Meanwhile - down at the Alum Pond the stream clearing team were busy .......


The 8 Wolseley volunteers, Hannah and Joanne spent the day in the Alum Pond.  A stone bridge had to be dismantled and the stones moved further upstream and hidden, as best we could, to stop the next influx of children building yet another pond and blocking up the free flow of water.  But will it work?  
 
The Wolseley volunteers start to get damp and muddy - 
a theme that continued throughout the day.

We worked in teams as best we could, shovelling stones and silt into barrows that got heavier and heavier as the day wore on and as we got more and more tired. Some of us wore waders and some had on boots, but generally most of us ended up wet and dirty. All went well apart from three incidents of going for an unexpected swim. But we did find the larvae of a stonefly, which was really nice, and stopped work for a while. 


Hannah wonders if the waders are a 
touch on the small side for her. 
NB - at one point the insides of this fashionable footwear were full of water 

The water cleared quickly so we could see what we had done which is always satisfying. The day was warm, passed very quickly and there is something very calming and healing about working in fresh running water. All in all a good day.

Hannah

And finally - the vegetation clearing / fence fixing / Alum Spring re-directing teams' stories ....

The stream is re-directed by Jan and Osian to ensure that the footpath remains dry.
You can always tell when the pace hots up - Osian puts on his headband.


A quartet of ladies, otherwise known as the ‘Hackfall Hackers’,  chose as their task for the day the clearance of the footpath from the Banqueting House to the Alum Spring.  Having decided we needed to pace ourselves on this warm sunny morning we quickly found a suitable piece of dappled shade for the first coffee stop of the day.

Suitably refreshed we upped the pace and set to to clear a section of path of brambles, overhanging branches and the odd sycamore sapling. Particular attention was given to the various benches along the path, where it was considered prudent to sit, preferably with thermos in hand, and establish whether views to the various follies were clear of extraneous vegetation.  If not, then the loppers were brought into action.

After lunch, and now assisted by Paul and Jan, we cleared  the encroaching trees and brambles around Kent's Seat which gave the ‘boys’ a chance to climb trees and lop big branches! 

To add even more variety to our day we finished off with a ‘belt and braces’ repair to the fence posts by the Banqueting House which involved bits of recycled binder twine and the destruction of an AONB hammer.  Still, it seems to have done the trick!

Having run short of vegetation to trim back, benches to sit on 
and coffee to drink, the third team now branch out into fence repair. 

A final meander back to the car park, lopping and clearing as we went ended another satisfying day.

Julia

Saturday 24 August 2013

Even MORE Bracken Bashing! - Bryan's Wood: 20-08-2013

There have been 3 recent reports on bracken bashing (and more on balsam pulling) which leaves very little to say about the work that hasn’t already been said. So what else can I tell you about the day which can be posted for posterity? ....

Paul, our doughty leader, found that after a half hour of bashing he had to go to see Kit at Sparrowhawk Farm but bravely returned after lunch to join us. On his retreat from the wood he came across two distressed volunteers who had arrived a little late, got lost, and whose cries for help had gone unheeded by the workers who were some way away. Meanwhile, the rest of us laid waste to some large areas of bracken in the clearing round the hut.

Not a single frond left standing in this particular area.

Paul and Will face each other, preparing to demonstrate 
to other NCVs how to do-si-doh across the bracken. 

 Lunchtime:
  • Food: Audrey’s flapjacks, those that were left after the morning break, were consumed in short order.

Even out in the wilds NCVs try to maintain high standards. 
You just cannot sit down to lunch without the right furniture.
  • Scintillating conversation: Following a mention of the time that we were joined by a young female volunteer bearing a gold handbag and wearing unsuitable clothing, Will pointed out that no attractive female turning up for the first time ever came back for a second work day. The three ladies who were with us didn’t react favourably to this remark, but we understand that Will will be out of hospital fairly soon.
  • Wildlife: apart from the 9 humanoids who turned up (yes, bracken bashing and balsam pulling does take its toll) we heard one robin, one wren, one jay, and saw and heard a buzzard. No mammals, but at lunch time, sitting among the bashed bracken, Ros K. was startled to find that a toad had joined her, walking over her legs but not evincing any interest in her sandwiches. Pat made a lunge for her camera but the toad disappeared before she could get a photo. There were no particular problems with flying insects, which was a mild surprise, but on getting home after work I found that I had unwittingly brought out some wildlife – a tick which had decided that my leg would make a useful home. It was fascinating watching the visible end of it waving around. I hope no one else was hosting any wildlife.

We continued with the work after lunch. Three of us went up to the coppicing area to check the fencing, beat down the bracken around the area and assess the state of coppicing to plan out work for the winter. The area not previously coppiced – we plan to coppice one third of the area in alternate years – needs at least two days of work, and the area first coppiced five (?) years ago will need further treatment in the 2014/2015 winter. The good news is that the work we did to reinforce the fence is proving durable and although there are deer signs near the fence there have been no deer incursions.


By 3 o’clock wrists and arms were getting tired and after a retreat to the hut for rehydrating drinks we headed back to the car park, bashing on the way. 

Will's hopes of featuring in the next B&Q shed catalogue 
(p.32 Bracken bashing rehydrating unit section) 
are dashed as Julia and Jan are photographed for the 2014 edition.

A very useful day’s work, and thanks go to everyone who turned up.

Tony K.

Wednesday 14 August 2013

Here Be Dragons: 13-08-13

Editor's note - you will find a very special addition at the bottom of this week's entry. Anita's 6 year old grand-daughter, Charlotte, has written a blog related story. Her brother, Tom, may also send us a tale. He has, apparently, already embarked on chapter one so watch this space!

This week was a real treat - no work to do! Instead seven of the NCVs attended a dragonfly training day run by David Alred from the Wharefdale Naturalists Society (see the following link for their website: http://www.wharfedale-nats.org.uk/11.htm ). 

David started the day in the Pateley Council Chambers with a slide show of wonderful photos to illustrate his very interesting and informative talk about dragonflies. During this time the love life of the dragonfly was a recurring theme. It was hard core stuff, even for seasoned NCVs who are used to seeing nature in the raw.

All kinds of facts were passed on. Did you know, for example, that:

  • there are 6500 species of dragonflies in the world, 20 of which can be found in the north of England? 
  • an adult 'Hawker' can weigh in at 900mg and has a thorax the size of a blackberry?
  • young dragonflies are patterned but their colouring doesn't develop for a couple of weeks?
  • dragonflies can take up to three years to get the the adult flying stage but are then dead within about four weeks?
For those readers who are interested you can find out all about dragonflies by visiting the BBC Nature site via http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Dragonfly.

At about 12:15pm we set off to see the real thing flying around the ponds at Timble Ings. It was great - the weather was just right to tempt the dragons out to perform for us and we saw hundreds of them. We tried to photograph different specimens but ended up with more photos of pond water and reeds than dragonflies, as they tended not to keep still for very long. Quite how David manages to photograph them so well is beyond me. Below are some photos of our afternoon out...... enjoy!

 First of all the most important part of the day - the NCVs have 
some lunch before they go hunting for dragons.
Ros K. decided her ankles needed an airing.

Ros E. was sure there had been 
a banana there a minute ago.

Will demonstrates the effectiveness of his new contact lenses. 
He is able to see Pat's feet from an impressive distance away.

My mistake - he was just taking a close up of a shield bug.

And here it is (A Forest Bug by name)

 The intrepid dragon hunters have to negotiate a raging torrent.

Pat decides to wait and see what happens to 
Anita before committing to the dragon quest.

David strides out and leads the way to the first pond.


He has the uncanny knack of seeing things that normal 
humans would not notice. He regularly stopped and used
 his handy walking stick as a pointer.

Many dragons tempted us very close to the 
water's edge by their noisy fluttering in the reeds.

We did manage to get some half decent photos of these beautiful creatures.....

Two damselflies

Two damselflies getting friendly

Two dragonflies getting equally friendly

An  Emerald Damselfly 

 
A female Common Hawker 

 
A Black Darter.....

.... and a Large Red Damselfly which landed on Anita's arm

 We also saw lots of butterflies of various kinds. This one shut its wings just after being photographed and changed completely as a result.....


 Now you see me.....
Now you don't!

Here was a beauty, basking in the afternoon sun.

This fellow has some way to go before gaining his wings.

Howie and Ros E. watch as a dead damselfly 
sails below them in the stream.

Off to pond number 2 where we found lots of 
empty nymph cases such as the one below ....

Nobody at home any more 
(this empty case was the inspiration for Charlotte's story below)

A newly emerged adult, wings still very shiny in the sun.

And finally .... on the walk back to the cars here was a 
male Common Hawker just asking to be snapped.

Many thanks to David Alred for a great day.

Now - look below to read 6 year old Charlotte's tale of a very particular dragonfly......

Once upon a time there was a dragonfly who lived in a pond and he was called Drooling. His friend was a spider and his name was Spinner. One day he was stuck, he couldn't climb out and he was going to Spinner's that day.

Meanwhile, Spinner was waiting for Drooling. So Spinner got in his car and attached a trailer and he packed a web and a boat. WIT-A-WOOSH! He was gone in his Spider MHE4 [Note to Nana: this is the name of his car]. When he got there he did a ginormous leap but got to the other side. Now they were both stuck, Drooling on one side and Spinner on the other. 

Now along came a tiger and leaned across and his hand just got to the other side and Spinner climbed on and got to the other side safely to the dragonfly, Drooling. They lived happily ever after with the Tiger.

Spinner, Tiger and Drooling live happily ever after.
I think you will agree - this is an excellent story to add to our blog. Charlotte is a talented writer and a very good artist. She will go far in the literary world!

Ros E.