August 23, 2016 by Julian
In what is becoming an annual activity, this past Sunday we were out in Chorlton Water Park helping with the maintenance of the woodland walk. We got a good section of the path done, so thanks to those who turned out in what had been looking to be a weekend of variable weather!
Wheelbarrows on woodland walk
Speckled wood butterfly
Human and canine volunteers
The path before maintenance
Path maintenance in progress 1
Path maintenance in progress 2
Volunteers at work
Posted in Paths | Tagged Chorlton Water Park, Mersey Valley |
As in recent tasks, more Himalayan balsam to tackle yesterday, but this time with the Friends of the Bowdon Bollin! (Our planned constructional work on a gate or two, which the original idea for yesterday, has had to be postponed to the autumn.) The Friends have had some good success clearing balsam from some of their sites, including the woodland we worked in during the afternoon, where the previous very dense balsam is now greatly reduced. And it’s not often we conservation volunteers get to have lunch on a beach!
Himalayan balsam in the woods
Bridge over the Bollin
Lunch by the Bollin
Posted in Invasive species | Tagged Friends of the Bowdon Bollin |
Well it’s been a while since we put out an update, but that doesn’t mean SACV hasn’t been busy! In the last month or two we have worked in the quarry area at Tegg’s Nose Country Park (Sunday 12th June), when a damp day didn’t stop us from getting lots of heathland management work done; done some path maintenance work at Sale Water Park (Sunday 26th June) for City of Trees, taking care not to destroy some of the banks of wildflowers; and worked with the Cheshire Wildlife Trust at Birch Farm Ponds (Sunday 10th July) tackling the invasive Himalayan balsam. Here’s hoping the rest of the summer continues in the same productive vein!
Volunteers at Tegg’s Nose
Volunteers at work at Sale Water Park
Widening the path at Sale Water Park
Himalayan balsam at Birch Farm Ponds
Himalayan balsam at Birch Farm Ponds
Himalayan balsam at Birch Farm Ponds – after clearing
Posted in Heathland, Invasive species, Paths | Tagged Cheshire East Rangers, Cheshire Wildlife Trust, City of Trees, Sale Water Park, Tegg's Nose Country Park | 1 Comment »
We had a residential weekend in the Peaks back in January, when we helped clear encroaching hawthorn from a site which is being restored as a grassland habitat. Here are some pictures – courtesy of ranger David – of how the wildflowers have lately been looking on the hillside on which we worked!
Early purple orchid
Wood anemone
Cowslips
Lady’s smock
Posted in Grassland, Residential weekends | Tagged Peak Park Conservation Volunteers |
This past Sunday a few of us were out on the Middlewood Way with the Cheshire East Rangers. Our work was to clear the surface of a section of this popular walking and riding route to prevent encroaching grass and vegetation from narrowing it further!
Posted in Paths | Tagged Cheshire East Rangers, Middlewood Way |
This past weekend saw our second residential weekend of 2016, working with the Peak Park Conservation Volunteers. A nice bit of dry stone walling – and sunshine too!
The wall before
The wall before
Getting started
Work in progress
Walling hammer
Work in progress
Lunch
The completed wall
The completed wall
The volunteers
Posted in Dry stone walling, Residential weekends | Tagged Peak Park Conservation Volunteers |
Today we were back at Chorlton Water Park to continue work on the new wildlife garden being created here in conjunction with the RSPB. We planted a few wildlife-friendly trees and shrubs and finished building a flowerbed mound where our plantings included flowers such as cowslip and ox-eye daisy. We then helped finish the bog garden around the new pond – and added wetland plants such as marsh marigold, water avens, ragged robin and flowering rush.
It was good to see the willow arch (which we constructed in December) looking healthy and sprouting well, fulfilling its function as the entrance to this developing wildlife area!
Volunteers at work
Volunteer at work
A canine volunteer supervises
Volunteers at work 2
Marsh marigolds etc. in the new bog garden
Cowslips, ox-eye daisies etc.
Posted in Ponds and lakes, Willow structures | Tagged Chorlton Water Park, Mersey Valley, RSPB |
As with last year’s similar task, some of us were in action yesterday at Priory Gardens, on behalf of the Red Rose Forest, to help control the invasive rhododendrons here. Hard work dealing with some of them, but a sunny spring day for it! We’ll probably be back at this site over the summer for some other activities.
Volunteers clearing rhododendron 1
Volunteers clearing rhododendron 2
Volunteers clearing rhododendron 3
Cleared rhododendron
Wildlife encounter
Posted in Invasive species, Woodland management | Tagged Priory Gardens, Red Rose Forest |
The dark green fritillary has not been encountered at Tegg’s Nose Country Park, but has been seen a mile or two from the site. Volunteers from SACV and Butterfly Conservation were therefore out in lovely spring sunshine today to help with an experimental activity to encourage this butterfly to the site: the dark green fritillary is attracted by violets, so patches of the hillside were cleared of bracken litter to encourage the spread of violets from other parts of the site, particularly from further down the hill. It is not known how successful this will be, but is one in a series of activities that are likely to be attempted to attract the butterfly to Tegg’s Nose!
Getting started on the hillside
Volunteer at work
Volunteers at work
Volunteers at work
Cleared bracken litter
Volunteers at work
Volunteers at work
Posted in Heathland | Tagged Cheshire East Rangers, Tegg's Nose Country Park |
February 21, 2016 by Julian
Some more hedgelaying today – this time with the National Trust at Alderley Edge, working on an old hawthorn hedge. We also planted saplings to fill some of the hedge’s gaps. It was hard work carrying our tools and the saplings to the work site over some challenging terrain – but the rain stayed off and all in all it was a satisfying day!
Posted in Hedgelaying | Tagged Alderley Edge, National Trust |
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