A Mixture of Jobs

Today was Tuesday. Tuesday as always, means volunteer day, when we get lots of useful outdoor tasks done. Today was no exception. Everyone was relieved to hear that we were not going to pull trees on the heath as we have done for the last few weeks so set to work with enthusiasm. The day largely revolved around the hay meadows. John and Eddie strimmed some footpaths, the smaller hay meadows on the reserve, and then continued the rather large task of strimming round the very edge of our large hay meadow, clearing the bits that yesterday’s tractor couldn’t reach.

Meanwhile other volunteers (too numerous to name individually) raked up the hay from the smaller meadows and cleared some small trees that were threatening to turn our meadows into woodlands!

The Dales School are now back at Foxglove on Tuesdays, as their summer holidays are over. Today they helped out by cutting back gorse bushes near the outdoor classroom.

Elsewhere on the reserve, Ron and John strimmed the net rides, because despite the major CES bird ringing programme being complete for this year, the normal bird ringing continues through the winter, and the grass seems to be showing no sign of stopping growing. Bob and Anne spent some time weeding the back garden, filling bird feeders, and weighing out the bird seed into smaller bags to be sold in the field centre.

Finally we took advantage of the sunny weather to continue painting the portacabin. It is looking rather smart with its new brighter green coat.

We achieved huge amounts today. Thanks very much indeed to all the volunteers who helped out. Without your hard work none of this would be possible.