Cawston Greenway

Cold Weekender

Posted on March 5, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

It was certainly a cold one today but we managed to dodge most of the rain, which was a bonus.

The first thing that needed doing was a litter-pick. The litter has been bugging me for some time now, but when I really got into it, I was starting to wonder what drives people to do the things that they do…

My bag was stuffed full of empty beer cans and pop bottles, sweet wrappers and crisp packets, not one but two bike inner-tubes, and loads of little plastic bags containing dog poo!

Please have a bit of respect for the path that you are enjoying and take your litter home with you and put your dog poo into the bins provided on the estate.

We started ripping out the scrub in the Bird Box clearing and found all the bird boxes and bug houses that we put up ages ago. We also uncovered a log pile.

This is what happens to logs over the years. Loads of moss and slowly rotting away. Great habitat for loads of bugs and small mammals.

We have a whole load of brash to burn off on Monday. We could really do with a dry day tomorrow after all the rain today. I will bring some dry kindling to get a fire started quickly.

Looking back up the greenway, we need to cut scallops into the left hand side of the scrub. This creates warm and sunny south-facing micro-habitats. This is kind of manufacturing south-facing aspects to maximise butterfly and bee colonies on a path that runs on a north-south axis.

A poignant reminder of a lost friend..

Back on it on Monday. Feels like we are making good progress but still feels like there is loads to do.

Good work today.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged butterflies, cawston, cawston greenway, conservation, conservation work, greenway, national cycle network 41, nature, outdoors, volunteer work | 2 Comments

All About The Hedges Today

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Today, Mick, Aaron, John and myself continued to push down towards the last clearing.

We cleared out the brush-cut scallops and burnt off the brash from these, along with a load of other piles that were left from the last brush-cutting that we did.

Rather than cutting this bit right back, we decided that we would leave a blackberry hedge running adjacent to the path. We still cut away the scrub in front of it, but just tidied it up. This will allow birds and mammals to have some ground cover, and also be a fantastic food source in the Autumn.

Looking back, we can see how wide and open the path is. If we just keep pushing back every year, it will slowly get a nice wide flat path that is dry.

The bird-nesting season starts at the end of March, so we do not have a lot of time left for cutting back the scrub. Four weekday workdays and one weekender. In April everything will start to grow and a lot of the bramble that we have cut back will start to sprout new shoots. We decided today that it would be a good idea to dig out the roots and replant the bramble on the dead-hedge on the tops of the cutting. This will make the hedges a lot more dense and create a super food source for birds, butterflies and bees.

We had a good old bonfire that kept us all warm.

Great work today and great ideas for our blackberry hedge and our dead-hedges.

Next workday is our monthly weekender – Saturday 5th March at 12:00 in the same place.

Paul

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

Reduced Numbers Today

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Just Aaron and John today. Mick had the dreaded dentist and I had a poorly child who needed my care.

Good work done on the merging of the two clearings.

FullSizeRender (2)

Nice wide path to allow the wet bits to dry out.

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The challenge at the top of the bank is to get the dead-hedge, alive. Whilst it will provide protection for all sorts of wildlife as it is, if we can get wild flowers and tree saplings intertwined within it, then it becomes a wonderful food source for a great many mammals, birds and insects.

Just five weekday workdays and one weekender before the bird-nesting season starts. This means that the work we do shifts from cutting back stuff, to managing what is growing in the clearings, and keeping the path between the clearings trimmed back. One of my aims this year is to get a load of Kidney Vetch growing on one of the banks of this clearing. This is the food plant for the endangered Small Blue butterfly.

Next weekender is Saturday 5th March at 12:00.

Great work today, back on it next Monday.

Paul

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

Sunny But Cold Workday

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

John, Mick and myself today and we pushed on southwards.

John worked on the bank and Mick used the brush-cutter down in the Bird-box clearing.

Looking back towards the bridge. This area is going to be so hot in the summer when the sun is high in the sky.

I mainly raked all the brash up from Saturday and burnt it off.

Next Monday we are in the Bird-box clearing and working northwards to get the two clearings to meet.

Great day today.

Paul

Weekend Workday

Posted on February 13, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Great weekender today. Mick, Aaron, Chris, Tim, Jude and myself all mucked in and managed to clear a good section on the south side of the bridge.

A rare picture of me, tending the fire.

Mick and me brush-cut a lot of the scrub right down to the bird-box clearing. All the brash will need to be raked up on Monday morning.

I am trying to cut scallops into the scrub so that there is plenty of south-facing pockets that will serve as micro-habitats for an abundance of wildlife.

Next workday is same place on Monday morning with a 9:30 start time.

Great day today.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged cawston, cawston greenway, conservation, national cycle network 41, nature, volunteer work | Leave a comment

Us Four v. Storm Imogen

Posted on February 8, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Well what a workday!! John, Aaron, Mick and myself battled against Storm Imogen to get the job done. And boy, did we get that job done!

greenway bridge

This is the south side of the bridge, you can see that we are stacking up the brash under the bridge to dry it out. Today was so wet that the fire just did not want to take, without constant babysitting.

We are well on our way to clearing out the whole of this cutting, however, we are leaving little sections of scrub so that we have wind-breaks and, also gives us micro-habitats with the south-facing sides of the clumps. The north-facing sides will attract fungi and a host of insects that like damp and cooler habitat.

greenway me

A rare picture of me on the right!! You can see how wet it is. We brush cut the higher path on the left, and scalloped the scrub on the right. We need to have a big tidy up in this area, which is just raking off the ground, but we could do with some sunshine to dry it out a bit.

Great day today where it would of been so easy to have left it.

NEXT WORKDAY IS OUR FAMILY WEEKENDER ON SATURDAY 13th FEB. SAME AREA AND JUST PUSHING ON. 12:00 START.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged butterflies, cawston, cawston greenway, community, conservation, cycling, greenway, national cycle network 41, nature, volunteer work, wildlife | Leave a comment

Log Piles and Dead Hedges

Posted on February 1, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Today Mick, John and myself made it. We decided to not burn everything and instead, build a few piles of logs and brash, and also add to the hedging at the top of the clearing. We burnt off the really thin brash and just cleared, and cleared, and cleared…

This clearing is looking really good now. I think we can say that we are finished here and can move on to the other side of the bridge.

We had about three minutes of sunshine and it did look good as it hit the bank on the right.

The piles of brash are way off the path and will provide good habitat for a host of insects and spiders.

We just pulled as much as we could up the slippery banks and shoved it on top. In time the whole lot will drop down and be compact.

The hedging is not pretty, we simply don’t have time to make it so. But it acts as a great barrier and also is habitat for mammals and other wildlife.

Same place next week, but other side of the bridge pushing on.

I have changed the start time to 9:30 because I am struggling to get there for 9:15 after the school run.

Great day today!

Paul

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

Three Men, Two Fires, Lots Cleared.

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

John, Aaron and me today and we started to clear all the brash from last week. It just seemed like endless toil, but we got two fires going and piled them high.

There is still a little bit left to do next week, but we can crack on with that whilst Mick starts brush-cutting the scrub on the other side of the bridge.

The whole cutting on this side of the bridge is open and starting to dry out. There will be plenty of sunlight and dappled shade in the summer.

Looking down the path as the fires die down. We felt today that we had made huge progress in this cutting. It really started to feel well managed and ready for spring.

Same place next week, probably an hour on this side and then start pushing down on the other side of the bridge.

Great work today.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bees, butterflies, cawston, cawston greenway, conservation, cycling, nature, NCR 41, outdoors, volunteer work, wild flowers, wildlife | 2 Comments

Now that is a clearing!!

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Lovely workday today with Aaron, John, Mick and myself getting stuck in. We cleared back the Picnic Clearing northwards until we were out of the cutting and on flat ground.

You can see how wide we have made the path. This will allow people to walk on higher ground ans let the muddy bit settle down a bit.

Looking south, down the path. The fire didn’t really get going today due to everything being so wet from the snow. We put the brash to the left of the path ready for burning off next week. The scrub on the right hand side creates a bit of a wind-break so we will probably keep this.

This is the bit before the clearing goes into cutting. We can trim back the left hand side so that there is plenty of width.

Last week Mike from Butterfly Conservation did some work on our other cutting.

This south-facing bank is going to be seeded with a wildflower mix that will attract butterflies and bees. This might look like total carnage at the moment, but it will be superb come summer.

This runs from where we were cutting it back in September, down to Berrybanks.

We can probably clear the rest of this cutting next season. For the rest on this season we are going to push on down towards the Bird-box Cutting. We have until the end of March until the bird nesting season starts and we have to stop cutting back. So ten more Monday workdays and two weekenders.

Thanks to all who made it today.

Paul