Ellington Banks: 10-03-2020

SMOKED KIPPERS ANYONE?

There was no getting away from it. It was definitely going to be yet another day of going home reeking of kippers - a common theme of 6 of the last 8 tasks. Yes - one of the two jobs of the day was to be brash burning. Getting rid of the piles of scrub that had been removed from the magnesian grassland at SSSI Ellington Banks during the NCVs' last visit - that and cutting down some more! Let's see what transpired....

The day started with a wonderful rainbow which emerged as 
NCVs travelled to work and stayed for a good part of the morning. 
No gold was found however.

Volunteer co-ordinator Liz had had help when collecting the tools.
Young Harry sorted out the admin for his mum before heading off to school

Good book keeping Harry - not too shabby for a just 6 year old!

This was the area to be cleared this week. 
Plenty of wet patches to travel through when dragging brash off to the bonfire.

 A group of NCVs got to work like a swarm of busy bees...

...unlike this real buff tailed bumble bee that spent most of the 
time holding on to a jacket to stop itself being blown away in the high winds.

Liz impersonated a bee all day, chainsawing 
her way through the larger stems. 

Meanwhile two teams of brash burners got on to the setting of two fires.

One was fairly quick to get started.

This one, however, didn't really get going until noon.

Perhaps because it wasn't laid out quite so neatly as the other?

These two ladies worked their socks off and managed to burn these two heaps 
from last time by close of play, with just a little help from some others.

Up at the other end of the site the back of the brash pile was slowly 
but surely getting further and further away from the proto fire. 


 Hurry up firemen - get that bonfire blazing. 
There is no room to drag any more brash through!

At lunch time, seeing as the fire had actually started to look like something,
 it was decided to stop cutting scrub and concentrate on clearing the brash back log.


Everyone was on dragging or stoking duty.

Dave practised his caber tossing in readiness for 
his next trip up to the Highland Games.

And then, amazingly, all the brash was gone.
All that was left were the smouldering embers of the fire.

It was time for a sit and a relax - and a chance to get to know 

mountain rescue dog Gus who had joined in the fun all day.

And what of the work site?
Well - I think you'll agree that it was looking decidedly 
clearer than it did at the start of the day.

Not all the brash was burned. Larger logs were set to one side to make a log pile.

This meant that some of the invertebrates survived.

It's a pity that this brash has to be burned, rather than made into our usual habitat 

piles, but, when there is so much to get rid of, they would take too long 

and cover too much of the grassland.

Other NCV action this week.....

Longstanding readers of this blog may remember when a group of NCVs went up to the banks of Gouthwaite Reservoir, in March 2015, to plant about 130 trees as a screen for the newly constructed sand martin wall (SMW). On Monday of this week, during a SMW maintenance visit by 4 volunteers, it was decided that, as the trees were all so big, all the tree tubes should be removed before the plantation became impenetrable.(With 100% success rate, and so many of the trees being hawthorn and blackthorn, this point was fast approaching!) No sooner had the decision been made than the SMW was cleaned out and all the tree tubes were stripped off and cleared from the site - all before lunchtime. Well done that team!!

Tony went through the site like a whirling dervish, 

tossing unwanted tubes and posts to one side as he went.

Sue, too, removed tubes but then swapped to clearing 

up the sea of plastic that Tony left in his wake.

Having cleaned out all the SMW breeding holes single handedly,
Barry then joined in methodically separating out all the posts, tubes and tree ties.

Yes - you have every right to feel chuffed but just move out of the way please.

That's better - now we can see just how 

successful this tree plantation has been.