Pretty flowers? Invasive Weed?
"HIMALAYAN BALSAM??? - MOST DEFINITELY AN INVASIVE WEED.
OFF WITH ITS HEAD!!"
This little exchange should give you a clue about the NCVs' task this week. We were definitely not carrying out a botanical survey. If only! No - it is the start of the Himalayan balsam pulling season. Time to rip this tiresome, invasive plant from the very ground in which it thrives (to the detriment of everything that is trying to grow around it).
The first batch of the year was growing, in abundance, on the Azerley estate - somewhere we have been doing battle with this species for a while now. It was two weeks later than last year's first visit to this venue, so we were hoping for some taller plants to get a hold of than last time (much kinder on the back muscles).
Let's have a little look to see what transpired,,,,,
Well - the good news was that, thanks to the good job
we did last year, we did not have to re-do the same area.
Instead we had to walk across to a SSSI part of the estate.
The bad news was - the balsam had not yet reached
the towering proportions that we had hoped for.
Once we had negotiated the fence...
...which was easier for the long legged NCVs ...
...everyone was down on their knees picking micro-salad sized vegetation.
Osian: "I should have brought my reading glasses."
Andrew: "Reading glasses? A microscope would be more useful."
Paul: "Do I get the prize for finding the smallest balsam plant?"
Trainee game keeper Matthew: "Ha! They are bigger over here!"
Everyone looked over, enviously.
Every so often you would hit a rich vein of taller plants.
These were pounced on with great joy and guarded, jealously from fellow NCVs.
The midges were biting and there were numerous flying insects that caught the attention.
Some were quite spectacular, like this Ichneumon wasp -
so ably snapped by game keeper Kevin.
The Hooded Claw did his best to coax another interesting insect into a better position for a snap but it was camera shy and zoomed off before the shutter fell.
Everyone enjoyed a delicious pheasant sausage and venison burger lunch, kindly provided by Kevin and his wife, Emma (thanks for that!!)
Lunch was eaten in a wooden hut, designed by the owner of the
estate and constructed by Kevin, using larch from the estate.
After lunch the rain set in so waterproofs had to be worn.
It was a lot less easy to bend over after all those sausages!
Slowly but surely what had first looked like this....
...began to look like this.
Lots of balsam free tracks into the area.
Balsam was heaped up and stamped down.
The piles got bigger and bigger....
...as the HB free tracks got longer and longer.
A good job was done - though still more to do of course!!
Back at base camp boots were cleaned to ensure
no balsam seeds were carried out to other areas.
Time to go home folks!
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