Cawston Greenway

Cutting Back

Posted on July 19, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

I got to Berrybanks on time and thought I was on my own. Rather than start to pull up more Sow Thistle, I just wandered southwards and cut back any brambles that looked like they were heading towards the path.

It is quite strange how one can become so relaxed and at peace, as you gently meander along. The path becomes wide and then becomes narrow and then is wide again, it is open and then it is closed and then it is open again. Such a diverse environment.

Loads of butterflies and other insects buzzing around.

As I made my way back to Berrybanks I caught up with Mick and we identified a load of new wild flowers that have come up in the cleared area.

The whole path is looking really good and very diverse in terms of habitat.

Something for the future, we need to mark out areas where we sow wild flower seeds, so that we can easily identify the areas and weed out anything that should not be there. I suggest meter-wide strips with pegs in the ground at the corners. We can sow Kidney Vetch and Wild Strawberry and keep everything else out. At the moment we are struggling to find what we saw a few weeks ago because it has greened up so much.

Great to be out there today.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bees, butterflies, cawston, cawston greenway, community, conservation, conservation work, cycling, greenway, grizzled skipper, national cycle network 41, nature, outdoors, small blue butterfly, volunteer work, walking, wild flowers, wildlife | Leave a comment

Bye-bye Sow Thistle

Posted on July 11, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Three of us today and we set off snipping back any bramble that was creeping onto the path. Aaron went southwards and reached the end of our bit, whilst Mick and myself headed northbound and again. got to the start, which is adjacent to Henry Hinde Junior School. From start to end is two miles, so a fair bit of ground covered.

Looking up and down the greenway near to where it starts. It has a very woodland feel to it. There is a load of litter that needs collecting up by The Bear pub very soon. However, more pressing jobs need to be done first.

The first of these is pulling up all the Sow Thistles in the Berrybanks cutting.

We started today and basically need to get the bulk of them up before they go to seed. If we spend a whole workday session on this, it should not take too long and, will give our Wild Strawberry and Kidney Vetch a better chance of getting established.

Great work today, same again next week.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bees, butterflies, cawston, cawston greenway, community, conservation, conservation work, cycling, greenway, grizzled skipper, national cycle network 41, nature, NCR 41, outdoors, small blue butterfly, volunteer work, wild flowers, wildlife | Leave a comment

Today was buzzing – literally!!

Posted on July 5, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Aaron, Mick and me today and we ended up walking down to the end of the greenway (the bit that we look after) and back to Berrybanks.

There were butterflies, bees, hoverflies, and all manor of things buzzing around collecting nectar.

Berrybanks has come back strong on the cleared bank.

Looking up and down the path. Our Kidney Vetch and Wild Strawberry are still there but a whole load of Sow Thistle has come up. Massive nectar source for bees, butterflies and other pollinators. I guess we will have to make a call on whether we want to keep this, or try and control it and let the other plants flourish.

Another new plant that we found down the other end of the greenway was this:

Some sort of Bell Flower and great to discover.

Loads of Speckled Woods, Small Skippers, Small Whites and Gatekeepers about today.

Next week we are down past The Bear pub. Just to have a look at what is down there and what needs doing.

Good day today.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bees, butterflies, cawston, cawston greenway, community, conservation, conservation work, cycling, greenway, grizzled skipper, national cycle network 41, nature, NCR 41, nettles, outdoors, small blue butterfly, volunteer work, wild flowers, wildlife | Leave a comment

Buzzards came to visit us today

Posted on June 28, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Nice to get on the greenway today after a nice holiday last week.

Joined by Mick and Aaron and we did all that we could at this time of year, which is keep any sprouting brambles cut back off the path and, pick up the small amount of dropped litter.

It was a little damp under foot but not in a bad way. There are loads of wild flowers coming up and the path was literally buzzing with insects and bird-song.

It is amazing how quickly it has blossomed and we are now fighting some of the more aggressive growers back off the path.

At one point three buzzards were mewing to each other as they circled on the thermals above us. And then one came down to the field next to us and then slowly glided back up to be with his friends. To be so close to nature is so uplifting and the fact that this is all on our door-step makes it even more special.

Feel free to come along and join us. This is the easy and most enjoyable time of the year to get involved.

Next Monday we are clipping back the section from the underpass, to the picnic clearing.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bees, butterflies, cawston, cawston greenway, community, conservation, conservation work, cycling, greenway, grizzled skipper, national cycle network 41, nature, NCR 41, outdoors, small blue butterfly, volunteer work, wild flowers, wildlife | Leave a comment

It’s getting colourful

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

With the onset of summer, the greenway is starting to become very colourful. It is such a lovely place to be.

Myself and Mick spent the morning chopping back brambles and generally keeping it tidy. We have a good variety of wild flowers. This will attract a diverse range of butterflies and other insects across the summer months.

I did a litter pick and checked the wild strawberry plants down at Berrybanks.

Everything is growing well.

Next workday is the family weekender on Saturday 18th June at 12:00.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bees, butterflies, cawston, cawston greenway, conservation, conservation work, cycling, greenway, grizzled skipper, national cycle network 41, nature, small blue butterfly, volunteer work, wild flowers, wildlife | Leave a comment

Wild Strawberry In

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Four of us today. Mike, Aaron, Mick and myself. It was a pretty back-breaking task but we got the remaining 500+ Wild Strawberry plants into the ground and, gave them a good watering to give them a fighting chance.

Everything is growing well and it should prove to be a good spot over the summer months.

The Wild Strawberry will help to attract a diverse mixture of insects, but the main things that we want are butterflies and bees.

Next week we are down in the other cutting just chopping back any new bramble growth and keeping the path clear.

Our family weekender workday is on Saturday 18th June at 12:00.

Great work today.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged butterflies, cawston, cawston greenway, conservation, conservation work, Grizzled Skipper Butterfly, national cycle network 41, volunteer work, wild flowers, Wild Strawberry | Leave a comment

Prickly Start to the Day..

Posted on May 30, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Woucha!! Today we had Mike from Butterfly Conservation, me, Mick, Tim and Mike and we started pulling up the new bramble growth. Boy are they prickly and defensive, but we pulled up loads and roots too. We also got rid of all the clumps of nettles.

Mike supplied us with 600+ plugs of Wild Strawberry. Six trays of them!!

This plant is the preferred food plant for Grizzled Skipper caterpillars.

We also have Kidney Vetch growing.

This is the sole food plant for the Small Blue caterpillars.

And lastly, we have Bird’s-foot-trefoil.

This is the preferred food plant for Dingy Skipper caterpillars.

All of the above butterflies are high priority because their numbers are in decline. All we need to do is help the right plants grow, and limit the growth of invasive plants like bramble, nettle and thistle, and we will hopefully have a sanctuary for these butterfly breeds to thrive.

Next workday is Monday 6th June. Back at Berrybanks getting the rest of the Wild Strawberry in. Just 500 to do!!

Great work today and great turnout on a bank-holiday.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bees, butterflies, cawston, cawston greenway, community, conservation, Dingy Skipper Butterfly, greenway, grizzled skipper, Grizzled Skipper Butterfly, national cycle network 41, NCR 41, outdoors, small blue butterfly, volunteer work, walking, wild flowers, wildlife | Leave a comment

Messy old job today!!

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Me, Mick and Mike made it today. We basically pulled all the brash out of what was the pond, but is now just a muddy bog.

We burnt off the smaller branches and made a log pile with the bigger stuff.

Slowly this area will dry out and green up.

All the brash was cleared but the ground was way too wet to put any seeds down.

The fire at the end of the morning. The stuff on the top is the remains of the bath tub that had been dumped down there.

Everything is starting to grow on the cleared bank. There are a lot of brambles starting to grow so next week we will start pulling them up.

Great work today.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged butterflies, cawston, cawston greenway, community, conservation, conservation work, cycling, greenway, national cycle network 41, nature, outdoors, small blue butterfly, volunteer work, wild flowers, wildlife | Leave a comment

I pulled the nettle pulling workday!

Posted on May 21, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Slight change of plan. I looked at the test area of nettles that I pulled up a couple of weeks ago and nothing is growing. Rather than pull up this valuable food-source, I decided that the best strategy would be to grow Kidney Vetch plugs and plant them in the areas where we pull up nettles. We will need to make rabbit protectors out of chicken wire, too.

The good news is, there are loads of other wild flowers growing alongside the nettles, so it is still quite diverse.

So instead the workday was spent just pottering about, picking up litter and enjoying being outside in the peace and quiet surroundings.

Very small amount of litter, mostly drink cans. No dog poo bags!!

The contractor has put a new pipe in the leaky bit at Berrybanks. It now needs a major clear-up, but Lawford Brook is no longer flowing onto the greenway – yay!!

Next workday is Monday at 9:30am, down at Berrybanks clearing off all the brash and burning it. We can try and make this bit look OK and I might get a wildflower seed-mix to give it a fighting chance over the summer. The banks that we cleared are starting to green-up but I don’t know what it is that is growing. There are a few small clumps of nettles and I think it will be worth pulling these, just to stop them going to seed. It just gives everything else a chance.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged ash trees, bees, butterflies, cawston, cawston greenway, conservation, coppice, cycling, grizzled skipper, litter picker, national cycle network 41, nature, NCR 41, nettles, path, railway paths, small blue butterfly, volunteer work, walking, wildflowers | Leave a comment

Paradise

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Or so it seemed today. Mike, Aaron, Bill and myself this morning and we just beat back the nettles on the edge of the path. With the sun shining and next to no litter, it felt like a really good place to be.

You can just about make us out. We need to get the edges chopped right back in the winter and get rid of the canopy. The path will then resemble a woodland ride with grass underfoot, and a host of wild flowers on the edges.