Whinney Hill: 27:03-2018

Once more with feeling!!

This week the NCVs visited Whinney Hill, Warsill for the last time. Their task was to complete the rhododendron removal job they started a few weeks ago, burn all the brash and rake up the rhodie leaves that were lying around and likely to be eaten by sheep (not good!!)

8 turned out, in spite of a rainy start to the day, (four others were deployed elsewhere - see lower down) and the job was efficiently done by 2:30pm, despite a rather slow start to the bonfire in the damp conditions.

The pictures below show the final stages of the rhodies' demise.....

State of play at 9:30am.

Andy decides to go straight for the jugular.

Gradually an oak tree trunk was revealed.

 As rhodies were cut so Alistair...

 ...Ruth, ...

...Ros K,....

....Anita and Andy started 'conveyancing'.

As brash piles slowly built up so Alistair switched roles....

....and turned into (drum roll) Superhero FIREMAN.

The rhodie patch shrank and shrank and the fire grew and grew..

Break times were periods when important choices had to be made.

The flapjack or the Yorkshire tea loaf?

Thanks Anita - and  a very Happy Birthday. Hope you enjoyed the singing!

After lunch everyone was busy either 
processing brash for the fire or...

 ...taking it in turns to try to achieve an impossible task...

...namely raking up the individual rhodie 
leaves that were lying around. 

By close of play the site looked 

very different to what it did when we first visited.

Three good days' work.

 The final log is thrown onto the fire...

...and FIREMAN is happy with a job well done.
Everyone set off for home smelling like kippers.

ADDITIONALLY

Four other NCVs spent the day erecting two of the four tawny owl boxes that NCV nest box makers to the gentry, Jan and Tony, constructed two weeks ago. They were monster sized and needed to be put very high up, so not an easy task. Tony takes over the story:

We started at Heathfield, a small wood on a steep slope. Phil was the star of the day, bringing his climbing gear and doing all the high tree work secured by harness to each tree with the ladder also tied on. Carabiners and ropes were needed to haul the boxes a minimum of ten feet up as required by tawny owls and Phil did the laborious work of aligning the boxes under the branch and securing them with rope. David and Will were the ladder carriers and steadiers, and the haulers on ropes.

All very enjoyable and very successful, with the bonus of a green woodpecker calling repeatedly at Heathfield and my first singing chiffchaff of the year, perhaps newly arrived from Africa? 

 The box at Heathfield was the first one erected.

 It all looked a bit hairy but everyone was safe.

Well done chaps - a very des res for a lucky owl.

 At least the ground at Mayfield Farm was much flatter.

 However - a tree is still a tree when you are up it!

David uses his head to hold the box in place 
while Phil ropes it onto the branch.
Des res number 2!