Cawston Greenway

Bird and Bat Boxes

Posted on October 21, 2018 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Our good friend, Andrew, made us some more bird boxes and bat boxes. Thank-you, Andrew. Aaron, Mick and myself got the bird boxes up around a nice clearing south of the bird-feeder area.

Two are directly on the path, and high up, and the other two are off the path so will be useful for birds that are not bold enough to use the ones on the path.

The four bat boxes need a slight modification. The slit at the base is too wide and will allow predators to enter the box. The slit needs to be 15 to 20 mm wide. By chance we found a length of timber that we can cut up and reduce the width of the slit. We can then mount the boxes on the oak tree at the start of the big clearing. They need to be 12 feet high and face the sun between south-west and south-east. This will give the bats four different places to roost, depending on the time of the day and time of year.

I have changed Wednesday’s workday to get us back in the clearing to finish off.

Andrew also gave us a sack of bluebell bulbs so we need to get these in pretty quickly.

We have the last few berries on the shrubs and trees so I will order the meadow seed mix and we can start to roll back the scrub, and seed the bare ground. It is very noticable how our widening work last year has created rich grassy areas and a nice open feel.

A tool that we all agreed that we need is a pole saw. We really need to keep the overhanging branches cut back. I will see what I can do.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bat boxes, bats, Bird-boxes, Cawston Greenway Nature Reserve, community, conservation, cycling, flora and fauna, friendship, mental health, Mountain-biking, nature reserve, photography, rambling, running, wild birds, wild flowers | Leave a comment

A Way Out…

Posted on October 8, 2018 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We all need a way out sometimes – so today we created another way to get off the greenway. This time it is just before you get to the old Dunchurch railway station.

The picture really does not do it justice. When the chopped back vegetation dies away it will be a bit more defined. This picks up the path that runs all the way to Cawston Lane on the edge of Dunchurch.

We snipped back the bramble from Potsford Dam to the station. It just seems too early to start clearing the fruit-rich scrub.

Quick look up and down..

And side to side..

Gives us a flavour of where we are and how lovely it is.

Future dates for this month are – Sunday 21st 10am to 12, Wednesday 24th 10am to 12, Wednesday 31st 10am to 12.

Good work today.

Paul

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Our last day of the summer in 2018

Posted on September 19, 2018 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

The greenway did have a feel about it, that it had given its all over the hot summer and was now rapidly falling into a sleepy rest over autumn and winter.

Chris, Marcus, Aaron and myself started at Potsford Dam and worked south just gently snipping back the scrub to get a bit of width.

The scrub needs to be pushed back one metre on each side, on an alternating basis, This will create a wavy path with little hot-spots for wildlife. We cannot do this yet because there is a rich harvest of fruit and nectar still on offer to wildlife that need to stock up for the winter.

Plenty of fruit on offer.

Nectar still available from some late flowers, but getting rare.

Cawston Reservoir is still looking very sorry for itself. I wonder when the levels will be back to normal.

Great day today.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged cawston greenway, Cawston Greenway Nature Reserve, Cawston Reservoir, Cawston Wood | Leave a comment

We are getting a huge amount of use…

Posted on September 17, 2018 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

….which is a great thing. Marcus and myself must of seen about 40 people in different groups, on Sunday. This is great news and shows how we have progressed over the years. A nice wide path brings in the users.

Nice fungi photos as the season starts for this.

Still plenty of berries for birds and others to fatten up on before winter.

A quick up and down shows how we are looking. Pretty good!!

Next one is Wednesday. Come along and get involved!!

Paul

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Feeling summer is over

Posted on September 4, 2018 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Marcus and myself made it this week. We topped up the bird-feeders and then headed south just snipping back any bramble growing across the path, and picking up any litter. We got to the Potsford Dam bridge so a lot of ground covered.

What we need to be doing next month is rolling back the scrub, digging out the bramble roots, and seeding the bare earth with our wildflower meadow seed mix.

This month is where we are caught between the seasons and cannot really do much. The bird-nesting season is over, but there is no way that I am going to cut back the fine crop of fruit that is there for the wildlife. They will fatten up on this as they get ready for winter.

Being so close to it, we can really see how the madly vigourous growth is now really slowing down as the summer ends. Really quite interesting to see.

Next one is Sunday 16th and much of the same.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bird feeders, conservation, flora and fauna, meadow, mental health, nature, photography, wildflowers | 1 Comment

Two workdays rolled into one

Posted on August 13, 2018 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

A lady walked past today and suggested that we had been working all night, because we were here yesterday as well, and she had seen us. I found myself agreeing and saying “I wish”. The greenway is such a nice place to be at the moment.

So Sunday was with Marcus, Steve, Mick and myself and we just cut back any bramble that was looking to come over the path. This was from the bird-feeder clearing to the steps down to the reservoir.

Monday, it was Mick and myself and we did the same from Berrybanks to the bird-feeder clearing.

Amazing how theraputic this is.

We found a whole new colony on bloody-nosed beetles down past Potsford Dam and also this.

Love on the rock…

We put it in another hidden place, but not too hidden.

And lastly we topped up our bird feeders.

We are just trying to create a place where people can meet, share a flask of coffee, chat about the birds that are feeding, or whatever, develop a common interest and hopefully forge a bit of a friendship. It really is as simple as that.

And if anybody would like to join us on a workday, we are just a relaxed group who keep this little slice of wildlife accessible and open.

Thanks all,

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bloody-nosed beetles, community, conservation, cycling, friendship, mental health, Mountain-biking, nature, photography, running | 1 Comment

Back on the hedgehog trail

Posted on July 31, 2018 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Lovely day on the greenway today. We had Debbie from Warwickshire Wildlife Trust helping us to do some hedgehog monitoring.

Food is placed in the middle and non-toxic ink either side of the food. The nocturnal hedgehogs are regognised by their footprints left on the white paper.

We have three tunnels set up and it will be interesting to see what the results are.

We also fixed a couple of the lose steps that head down to Cawston Wood.

And lastly, we seem to be tripping over bloody-nosed bettles at the moment. Five spotted last week and six spotted today, and we are not actively looking for them.

So a pretty productive workday.

Paul

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Routine Maintenance

Posted on July 10, 2018 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Mick, Linda and myself made it today and just cleared around all the benches, and snipped back any bramble that was making a run for it over the path.

Cinnabar moth caterpillars on ragwort are always a welcome sight.

Mick has spotted ladies bedstraw, a wildflower that bloody-nosed beetles like.

This is looking south from the last bench. The scrub stops and the rabbits keep the grass short.

This is a good example of how it can look.

Paul

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We have created something really special

Posted on July 3, 2018 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Due to posting up the workdays for July just a few minutes before the first one (internet problems) I found myself on my own at the bird-feeder clearing. It was nice to just potter about, sit at the bench and just take in the beautiful area that we have created.

We have yellow rattle and it is spreading. This wildflower is semi-parasitic to grass so will help to open up the ground and allow more wildflowers to germinate.

Unfortunately another camera user error caused 90% of my pictures to be totally over-exposed, but hey-ho.

Here is a picture of the bench.

Next one is Monday 9th at 11am.

Paul

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First Marbled White Butterfly Spotted

Posted on June 28, 2018 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

It is probably not something to shake the world, but to me it is a great find. I spotted a marbled white butterfly for the first time on the greenway. Lovely to see something new.

marbled white

Four of us today, Linda, Marcus, Ruby and myself. You have to start them young to get their interest…

We started where we left off on Sunday and our first job was to bend the hooks to close them up a bit. This should stop the squirrels knocking the feeders off the posts so easily.