Bob a job?
Nah - have 'em on us!
Traditionally scouts have a day when they perform helpful tasks for the public for just a 'bob' (5p for the younger readers of this blog). This time it was the turn of the NCVs to do some jobs for the Scout Association, the Millenium Green Trust and St Cuthbert's school; however no bobs exchanged hands. The NCVs' gave their time willingly and all for free.
So - what jobs were jobbed? Read on and see....
The group split into 3 for the first half of the morning:
One group popped around to the barn to finish off two jobs left incomplete last week.
Well that was finished off. Nice one!!
Then there was the outdoor wood shed that was being refurbished.
David, the master carpenter, started sawing some wooden roof tiles.
These were added to the newly stripped roof.
Then it was a case of covering roof and side with roofing felt.
The installation of a hot-tub, filled with wild garlic
infused spring water, is now under consideration.
A second group began work on tree guard removal from the hedge in St Cuthbert's primary school playing field and the footpath leading into Millenium Green.
The first part of the task was relatively straightforward.
Removing the tree spirals...
...collecting them up, either in a single piece...
...or in a million shattered particles.
Luckily Ruth can bend double which helped
in the quest for retrieving microplastics.
Additionally the copious quantities of tree branches
and twigs were brash piled in three heaps.
Graham pruned around the school's sign...
...and Tom cheerfully picked litter up with a litter picker.
After coffee the smiles all started to slip as the group
saw what the rest of the hedge consisted of.
Slipped smiles disappeared altogether when the group
finally managed to penetrate the vegetation to get to the tubes
which were all firmly stuck into the ground
and intertwined with the trees.
By lunch time they were exhausted having removed
4 builders' bags full of plastic from trees
that simply did not want to be released.
The third team made a start on taking out the vegetation that has encroached the approach road to the scout hut, making it difficult for vehicular access at busy times. The first two groups joined in with this task once they had finished elsewhere.
"HEAVE! Somewhere in all of this is a row of street lights"
"There you go - told you there were street lights!"
Of course - it wouldn't be an NCV day without
brash needing to be processed somewhere.
It all found its way into the most well compacted brash pile
to be seen Pateley.
Sarah and Chris did a bit of trampolining to ensure
the pile was compacted even more.
After a bit of fiddling with the new strimmer...
...Osian and Dave tried it out.
This left the path side nice and clear for the
digger to come in to prepare the ground
for a new, gravel surface.
A quick walk around to check on
the progress of the new caterpillar
willow tunnel rounded off the afternoon.
It was found to be all in flower.
And a little extra this week...
On Sunday evening Ros E. had the privilege of joining NAONB's Priority Pond Project leader, Kate Wright, to help carry out a newt survey at Lime House Farm, near Grewelthorpe. It was a great experience (even though it meant a very late night followed by a very early start the following morning.) There were great crested newts in abundance - lovely to see them in real life for the first time. Here's how the pond was surveyed....
Unlike frogs and toads the newts lay their eggs singly,
wrapping them up in leaves.
A leaf with a straight end is a give away.
This is a GCN egg.
Next we set up the hi-tech bottle traps.
(Re-engineered plastic water bottles on bamboo canes.)
These were poked into the pond
edge in groups of 5.
Once it was fully dark we were able to use torches
to penetrate the water with light to illuminate any wildlife.
By the end of the evening (10:30pm) we had logged
24 newts swimming around (including 20 GCNs)
The following morning any newts that had entered
the bottles had to be released asap.
First they were emptied into trays for recording.
This little fellow, with the big, flappy feet and
a filament at the end of his tail, is a male palmate newt.
This little female is also a palmate newt,
as a check under her chin confirmed.
The throat was translucent,
Here is a handsome male GCN, a much bigger size and
sporting a great Mohican crest.
The female GCNs don't have such big crests
but they do have painted toe nails...
... and orange bellies.
All in all 20 GCNs and 5 palmate newts were trapped.
How good is that?!!
In addition Kate was able to allow us to hear the soprano
pipistrelle bats in the vicinity.
Click here to hear them if the link above does not work.
Magic!!
No comments:
Post a Comment