BEES Urban Nature Reserve

Today’s tasks were to clear some of the vegetation from the ponds and the pathways and verges. 

We want to make sure some open water is maintained in the pond to suit some of the dragonfly species and other aquatic life. Waders and long gloves kept us (mostly) dry. We concentrate on the Bogbean as this is dominating both ponds and forms a dense mat of roots, hard to remove. We replaced as much of the Marsh Cinquefoil as we spotted. This lovely plant has colonised well which we are pleased about. 

The land based team did a great job in cutting back comfrey, thistle, bindweed and grasses from the entrance section, around the ponds and into the woodland. 

There is a theme emerging this autumn. The hungry midges. This time we had the Skin so Soft to hand, but couldn’t get it out of the bottle! The midges are definitely not the worst thing. There is continued drug use on the site. We avoided the area beyond the medlar tree, where a significant number of needles were identified. The clearance is going to take a more focused approach. Luckily we are receiving help form the police and the cleansing department so we hope that the problem will be resolved by next spring. 

Returning the Laisteridge Lane site we set about today's task of general pathway clearance and general maintenance of the nature reserve.

A broken bench within the seating area beside the ponds was dug out and replaced with a home-made one thanks to the efforts of some of the team.

Removing some of the more dominant plant species, our volunteers concentrated on improving the wildflower diversity by planting the varieties we brought to the site, along with redistributing some of the wildflowers from different areas of the nature reserve.

However the management of the railway line and meadow area had to be cut short due to the discovery of an overgrown secluded spot which appeared to show signs of extensive drug use. Efforts to do a good litter clean-up was further hampered due to a large amount of waste which seemed to contain rotten down cannabis plant matter and needles.

A day to wash away the cobwebs! 

Our task was to increase the amount of sunlight reaching the pond and meadow areas. This involved felling sizable ash and willow trees, and removing spreading branches from the hornbeam next to the meadow. The long handled saw was very useful for removing ash growing over the path and pond. We practised our bird’s beak cuts in order to control direction of felling, and were pleased with the amount achieved through the day. We also removed piles of compost left from our autumn pond clearance day.

It was a pretty wet start to the day, and despite the rain clearing by mid-morning, the paths became very muddy and slippy through the day. Long-tailed Tits buzzed around above our heads, the thrushes were vocal, and we were pleased to have good site and sound of a Great Spotted Woodpecker calling loudly from a tree adjacent to All Saints Road. 

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Our last pond work of the year, and a good job too as the quite a few of the waders seem to be leaking, or just wet (sorry Amy!). Despite the conditions (wet feet, rain, pond) both ponds had a good clearance with the focus being ono the bogbean which forms a dense root mass which can be hard to remove. 

Tesco say they will come and collect the trolley that was in the pond. And we hope the ‘beavers’ don’t return to put all the logs back in the pond.

All the paths, meadow and parts of the railway cutting were cut and raked. 

In the winter we will be thinning some of the trees to let more light into the ponds and woodland floor.

15th May 2015The tasks today will include path clearance (especially around the pond), management of the railway line and meadow, digging out the burnt remains of the bench and hopefully replacing it with a homemade one. we may also have some bark to barrow to replenish the paths. 

We planned to tackle several tasks on the nature reserve, today. After introducing the site to new people we divided into small groups to tackle the work. A group cut back the Laurel bush that we had started to cut several years ago. This will bring in more light to the site and allow the native whips planted to thrive. The decking platform which had become slippery and nearly unusable was covered in chicken wire to provide a non-slip surface. The tree identification signs were cleaned, replaced and repaired ready for visitors. Litter and fly tipping was collected from around the site, being winter it was more visible and unsightly than usual, so the place looked a great deal better with it gone. Finally we cut back some of the limbs of the Willow tree overhanging the top pond, this again will allow more light into the site and in turn benefit the pond habitat.

Today we worked with 11 volunteers.

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Working in heavy rainToday was dominated by the heavy rain that fell throughout the day. However we perserved and continued with our work schedule. This was to work in the ponds to remove the dominant plants, these were bog bean and new zealand pigmyweed. The result will be to produce open water which is required by the dragonflies. Other jobs that were carried out were the cutting and raking of the meadow areas and the removal of flytipping.

The photo is such poor quality due to the rain.

Today we worked with 15 volunteers. 

clearing the pondToday 14 volunteers undertook autumn management task on our nature reserve on the University campus. We worked in both ponds to remove some of the vegetation so that we keep enough open water to suit the dragonflies. We were surprised, and delighted, to see a dragonfly patrolling the pond, probably a brown hawker.

We also cut the meadow area and raked off the vegetation to prevent a build-up in fertility. There are rather too many nettle and docks in this area but we have been waiting to see what happens with the development of this land (it is no longer officially part of our reserve) before embarking a more radical change of management.

We also cut the vegetation around the ponds and on the railway line – this involved clearing a few birch seedlings that will overshadow the wildflowers.

A couple of volunteers remained at Culture Fusion with Nick to continue the tool storage construction.

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We returned to our outdoor projects with a visit to the Urban Nature Reserve. We worked on several different areas of the site, like clearing more of the snowberry and replanting with Rowan in the woodland area. Wildflowers were planted in the woodland and the slopes around the ponds; these will provide good nectar sources for insects. Insect and mammal trapdoors were put in place around the site, pruning of the beech hedge which will allow light to the ground flora and litter removed. It was a good days’ worth of management tasks that will benefit the wildlife on the site and add to the experience of visiting groups in the coming months.
But the endless winter continues and we worked with snow on the ground, there were at least a few signs of spring appearing like flowering primrose.

Today we worked with 10 volunteers.

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