Hackfall Wood:28-11-2017

As November came to an end so the NCVs came to Hackfall Wood for their last visit during 2017. Due to there being no fewer than 5 separate jobs to be done, everyone split into small groups and went their separate ways. Consequently today's blog is compiled from the material that was sent in from all corners of the wood.


Team 1 sent in the following...

The four strong environmental Dyno-Rod team went walkabout, clearing any culvert that happened to cross our path. By lunchtime, we had managed to lose the other pair and never saw Nick and Hilary again. These two pictures show the quality of Janet's culvert clearance work.

                                          Before                                              After

NB The editor has it on good authority that Nick and Hilary hadn't skived off. They had been sidetracked when they spotted a set of leaf covered steps near Mowbray castle that were well in need of a good clear.

   Before                                              After

Nice clean steps.Last saw the light of day in 1872!

Tony, in team 2, filed the following copy...

The bags used to carry the dirty spades home 

shows that the AONB cares about us and 

is willing to provide us with lunch once in a while.

Our two strong team were tasked with constructing a grip across the path to help drainage.

A muddy problem to be solved.

Andy sizing up what to do next

We built the framework using limited tools in an idiosyncratic way.

We couldn’t find flat stones to create a base so filled the 

frame with stones which would allow water to percolate.

Not very pretty but it will hopefully do the job.

Team 3 were on the lookout for bench areas that needed sweeping clear of leaves and litter that needed picking up....

 Yes - there's one or two leaves here.

Now that's what I call leafless!

Anita utilised a plastic bag she found lying around to
fashion a mobile shower unit, using water from the stream.

Angela was then able to follow up behind with
 her super scrubbing brush to clean off Kent's seat.

Three little maids from school are we.

Coffee break on a bench in the sun.

And here's the litter that was collected - mainly in the car park.

Why don't people take their litter home with them?

Team 4 focused on the weeping rock...

First we needed to lop off all the scrub 

that was blocking the view to the weeping rock.

 Ash saplings and brambles were in plentiful supply.

Conor was very thorough.

Then we had to find the weeping rock's feeder pond and channel

and rake out any dead vegetation to 
ensure the outlet pipe didn't get blocked.

And from team 5 Osian sent in the following about another feeder stream.....

Somewhere in there is a forty 
foot falls feeder stream - honest!

David found the feeder stream at the cost of an over-topped welly or two. 

C'mon David - stop mucking about 

and get out of the bog of doom.

After much, much digging & dredging a 

free flowing(ish) stream of mud was revealed.

Whilst clearing the lower part of the forty foot falls we discovered one of the other feeder streams. It was clearly a purpose built channel to encourage water in the right direction. 

The channel measured more than one rake's length,

 the ancient measuring unit of the NCVs.

And some other news from Tony....

Last Thursday a group of 3 NCVs and two Nidderdale Brdwatchers met to prepare the pre-cut sections for 40 nest boxes for the 6th Ripon Scout Group, who will assemble them in January. 40 planks were marked, cut, drilled and sanded and the rubber hinges and the wires to hold down the lids were cut to size and all the sections stored in boxes. Another very satisfactory day in the box making factory. We think the scouts will very much enjoy the work, and the information they get about birds will be useful. Each box will have instructions on siting, avoiding disturbance, and cleaning out at the end of the nesting season so that the boxes can be used as a des res for roosting in the winter months.

At start of play...

...by the end of the day.

All it took was a bit of team work.

(Note - Jan' keeping a close eye on Ros E's drilling!)

Fishpond Wood: 21-11-2017

While the cat's away......

In spite of Coordinator James being away on holiday for two weeks it was certainly not a case of 'the mice will play' this Tuesday. No - not a bit of it. Now some of our readers will say that this is because volunteer task leaders Osian and Ros E kept everyone's nose to the grindstone;  that the team were worried that if they did play then they would get reported; their pay would be docked. Those readers would, of course, be wrong. The NCVs are far more professional than that. They work hard every Tuesday - even if no-one is in charge!

They were back in Fishpond Wood again to help Peter Brambleby clear an area of ground in preparation for an eco learning shelter he is planning to construct near the ice house. Here's how the day panned out....

The team waited at the lakeside for Peter to arrive.....

...and used the time to do a bit of bird watching. 

Can you spot the heron? Perhaps not a photo to enter 

into the 'Wildlife Photography World' magazine's competition!!

Up beyond the ice house the nature of the problem became apparent. 

Brambles and nettles had to be cleared.

We started with loppers....

...but then found it more effective to simply 

pull (or dig) everything up by the roots.

Lots of NCVs spent the day bent double.

Alistair demonstrates the nature of the beast 

that we were battling against.

Nettle rhizomes spread underground for metres!

A number of Muffets sat on their tuffet 

to eat up their curds and whey at lunchtime.

After lunch we each adopted one of the new trees that encircled 

the area and focused on clearing the ground around them.

Each one breathed a sigh of relief as it was freed of the strangling vegetation.

Gradually the team dwindled in numbers as backs became stiff.

These were the last ones standing (just about).....

...who then left wood owner Peter to deal with a nasty case of piles.

Whilst the above was going on, Osian and the students used the afternoon to light a fire to burn some rhododendron brash at the other end of the wood:

An impressively quick and promising 

start to fire lighting by the students.

But in wet conditions no amount of blowing, dry cardboard, 

encouragement or praying can get you a roaring bonfire. 

A damp squib that promised much but delivered little.

So - no partying after all. I never thought there would be with such a team of hardworking, conscientious mice. I'm sure that the cat will be pleased once he returns from his trip abroad.

Tit Bits:

Thanks must go to Jan, Phil and Colin who spent all Monday morning sharpening tools. They should be paid overtime this week.

Additionally:

The wonderful owl box that Jan constructed recently was collected this week by the Summerstones Estate game keeper. It is now to be erected somewhere near the top of the dale. Let’s hope that a pair of barn owls, which we know are regularly seen in that area, approve of their new premises, made to the specification of the Barn Owl Trust.

A very pleased Roy with his smart new owl box.

It's almost big enough for him to camp out in!

And finally - an update.

The second day of hedge laying training last week saw the completion of 45m of the Longside hedge. A good start for this winter's laying task.

Before...

...during...

...and after.

Another day well spent laying around in a hedge.....

...or getting to grips with your phone.

Dave - will you put that mobile away and go get busy with a bill hook?

Longside Farm and Fishpond Wood: 14-11-2017

This week the team was split. The main task was to continue cutting down rhododendrons in Fishpond Wood, but a small splinter group were working with Jasper Prachek, at Longside farm, Ramsgill, on a two day hedge laying course. Both tasks involved cutting through woody stems but one group had to go a little further than the other.

At Fishpond wood the job involved the usual lopping, sawing, dragging and burning......

It was a lovely day so coats were abandoned quite early on. 


Brash was soon being generated in large quantities.
Can you spot three faces peeping over the brash pile? 

Please note the fire was built by women 
and a brilliant one it was too. 
(Just a little help from Peter B. and his parcoal)  

Laura made sure that every last bit of rhodie was removed.

 The brash was thrown on the blaze and soon got rid of.

Ruth joined in the branch tossing fun with gusto.

A nice little spot for coffee and lunch 
(and Audrey's flapjack - thanks Audrey!)

The area was cleared by lunchtime.

After lunch the NCVs moved pondside to tackle 
some of the rhodie creepers that are sneakily 
trying to establish themselves around the fringes 
of the main rhodie block.

Footpath officer Peter. picked off a couple of folk at the start of the day to help with putting in marker posts and a bit of drainage up at Nought Moor before coming down to Fishpond Wood to put in a few more posts in the afternoon. 

When David and Will appeared with Peter in the afternoon they wore the marks of a few hours digging and were hungry for flapjack!

Up at Longside farm the trainees worked hard to hone their pleaching skills and managed, by the end of day one, to finish laying the next section of the hedge they started laying last winter. To see a 10 minute You Tube video of a hedge being laid and find out about the skills that Jasper was so ably sharing with us, click HERE. (The man in the video is called, amazingly, Digby Pleacher. Can you believe that!!)

The hedge to be laid.

After a bit of tuition from Jasper....

...everyone split into 4 teams of two and 
got busy separating out the trees.

Andy started pleaching under the watchful eye of Jasper.

Coffee and lunchtime were taken on the tarpaulin...

...which gave us a grandstand view 
of the rainbow during the morning.

 Coffee over and everyone was busy with axes or billhooks.

It was often a two man job to keep the 
stems pushed over whilst pleaching..

Jasper did a bit of trench cutting to make it all look tidy.

Dave wielded a giant size mallet to knock in the stakes for the rail.

Now this rail will need to come down a 
long way to meet the other one.

A final last minute pruning frenzy....

...and there you have it. 
All the stems laid to a height of 3' at the same angle.
(Ignore the pile of brash at the back - the top of the hedge came up to the rail.)

More of the same tomorrow!!

Additionally...

Over the last couple of weeks a small group of NCVs and Nidderdale Birdwatchers have been out on four separate days emptying and refurbishing the nest boxes in Upper Nidderdale. They also visited the Sand Martin Wall at Gouthwaite Reservoir  in order to check which of the 100 holes had been used and clean them out.

Tony re-numbers the box whilst Barry stands at the ready 

with a specially adapted spoon for scraping out the inside.

Then it's off up the hill to find the next box.

At the sand martin wall an endoscope 
was deployed to see inside the holes.

In goes the tube containing the camera.
29 holes were logged as being used to rear sand martin chicks.
(NB Barry is considering applying to Harrogate hospital to see if they will take him on as an experienced gastro-intestinal examiner.)