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!
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!
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.
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!
Posted in Heathland | Tagged Cheshire East Rangers, Tegg's Nose Country Park |
Today SACV members teamed up with the Friends of Chorlton Meadows (FoCM) for some hedgelaying on the aptly named Hawthorn Lane. The long stretches of hedge alongside the lane have been neglected for many years but FoCM and the wardens have started laying parts this autumn and winter. Because of the age and thickness of the stems, this was a challenging hedge to work on (but it wasn’t all manual work – we did have a lot of assistance from a chainsaw!). However, some good progress was made and there was even some root-laying done. FoCM might manage more work on the hedge in the remainder of the winter and doubtless SACV will perhaps be back to work on it next year too!
Posted in Hedgelaying | Tagged Friends of Chorlton Meadows, Mersey Valley |
Our arrival at Brunt’s Barn on the Friday night of this, our first residential weekend away of 2016, was like something out of And Then There Were None. The original eight for the weekend had over the previous couple of days reduced to six due to illness and other adverse circumstance; and then one by one these six postponed their arrival at the Barn, for one reason or another, from the usual Friday night until early Saturday morning, until in the end only a hardy couple of attendees were in the Barn on Friday. Still, against the odds, everyone (even the habitually late) arrived in good time on Saturday – in time for breakfast, no less, probably lured by the promise of a vast vat of excellent porridge.
The work for both Saturday and Sunday was to be out with the Peak Park Conservation Volunteers, on a hillside between Tideswell and Miller’s Dale, to remove young encroaching hawthorn from a site which is being restored as a grassland habitat. As part of a Higher Level Stewardship Scheme, this hillside will in the future be grazed between August and February, the grassland habitat and wildflowers then being allowed to flourish for the rest of the year. It was hard work, teetering on a steep slope and pitchforking bundles of hawthorn down to a bonfire at the bottom (shades of Indiana Jones sometimes, dodging the rolling bundles), but fine home-made cake from a very generous PPCV volunteer on both days helped to sustain us!
At the end of Saturday’s work, there was much enjoyment of Brunt’s Barn’s new showers (a great improvement in comfort) and then a trip to the bar of The Maynard for an evening meal, followed by drinks and games back at the Barn (endless rounds of Bananagrams and Dobble proved the popular choice this time).
The next residential weekend will be in May!
Posted in Grassland, Residential weekends | Tagged Peak Park Conservation Volunteers | 1 Comment »
Last Sunday (10th January 2016) saw SACV’s first activity of the new year! After Saturday’s heavy rain, we were delighted to find we had a sunny winter day to be back at the Woodland Trust‘s New Moss Wood, where our principal task was cutting and clearing to prevent the narrowing of one of the wood’s rides.
Posted in Woodland management | Tagged Woodland Trust |
A day at Chorlton Water Park on Sunday 13th December marked the end of SACV’s activities for 2015. We worked on maintaining the willow groynes at the edge of the lake, which provide an important habitat for birdlife and spawning fish; using the cut willow, we then created a willow arch which will provide a living entrance to the new wildlife garden being created in conjunction with the RSPB. Then, to finish the day, we had our annual Christmas get-together with plenty of mulled wine and seasonal delights – all of that, plus a 40th birthday to celebrate!
Posted in Ponds and lakes, Willow structures | Tagged Chorlton Water Park, Mersey Valley, RSPB | 2 Comments »
SMCV 