Cawston Greenway

Trouble With The Waterworks

Posted on April 11, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Just John and me today – trying to sort out the brook that is leaking down the greenway, when it needs to go across it and drain into Lawford Brook, which then eventually goes back under the greenway and drains into Cawston reservoir.

We want the water to create a good sized pond, so as to attract a whole new and diverse type of insect. There is already lava of some sort hatching out. We are creating a hedge around it so that the children who play in this area don’t fall in.

We are just on the cusp of this area really greening up. Now that we have raked the bank off things are starting to shoot up.

Great day today. Back in this area next week to see how permanent this weeks work has been.

Paul

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

Saturday Weekender

Posted on April 9, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Me, Mick and Tim today and we just spent the day burning off as much of the brash and chippings as possible. We are trying to leave the leaf mould and the smaller stuff, and just get rid of the horribly big chunks.

Our bluebell has bloomed into something else!!! Worried now about what we have planted…

Whilst the fire was burning away, I did a quick litter pick. Loads of empty pop bottles, beer cans and dog poo in bags!!

Utterly disgusting that people use the greenway presumably because they enjoy it, but choose to leave their rubbish behind to spoil it for everyone else…

Anyhow, next workday is Monday at 9:30. Same area.

Cheers for all who made it today. Way nice to see so many people using the path as we worked away.

Paul

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

Three Broken Rakes, Multiple Blisters – But Job Done!

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

At one point we had six of us working today. Aaron, Mick, Mike, John, me and a cameo from Sarah.

Boy-oh-boy was it such hard work today. Butterfly Conservation cleared the area last year and the contractors put all the felled trees through a shredder. This has left the whole area covered in rough chippings. Today we started to rake it all off the bank to get back to bare earth.

My initial thoughts were to cover the path with all the chippings, but ended up just heaping up piles, so that all sorts of insects can use them for habitat.

The end result was very satisfying to look at though.

The plan is for Butterfly Conservation to seed the bank with a wildflower called Kidney Vetch, which is the sole food plant for the endangered butterfly called the Small Blue. If we can get a colony established it will ratchet up our importance massively.

NEXT WORKDAY IS OUR FAMILY WEEKENDER ON SATURDAY 9th APRIL at 12:00.

Same location, just burning off a load of the brash dumped into the bottom of the north facing side.

Massive thanks to everyone today. It was tough. Special thanks to Aaron who fixed two of the three broken rakes. It will be good to get another six years service out of them.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bees, butterflies, cawston, cawston greenway, conservation, Endangered Butterflies, kidney vetch, lias line, small blue butterfly, volunteer work, wildlife | Leave a comment

Great Cawston Rake-Off

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We started on the section by Berrybanks today and started raking the chipped wood onto some sort of piles. I figured that this would create habitat for insects, whilst bearing the earth for wild flowers to grow.

A bit messy but better that it looked before. We also had the added complication of a blown down tree.

We stripped a lot of the smaller branches off today. We will need to saw it up next week.

The bluebell bulbs that Chris planted last year are starting to come up.

The first one to flower is pink! The others that are about to bloom look like they are blue.

This whole area will be a blue carpet of bluebells in a couple of years.

Great day today.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged cawston greenway, conservation, nature, volunteer work | Leave a comment

Sad to be moving on..

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

It is always hard when we finish an area and move on to another. Today was one of those moments. You kind of get attached to the area as you discover more and more about it, and of course, transform it from an unruly mess to a blank canvas where nature can start to do her thing as spring starts.

Nice wide path with low shrubbery leading to higher mature trees on the edges. When this lot greens up it will be perfect. Lots of coppiced wood and piles dotted around for wildlife and loads of clear ground for wild flowers to grow.

John and Aaron meeting up after each of them tackled opposite ends of the last bit of scrub that we wanted to get rid of.

Mick inspecting his hedge-laying. We have certainly created an area that is incredibly diverse, with warm open sections, dappled shade in other places, sheltered bits and mossy damp areas.

Next week is just a final tidy up in this area, and then we need to tackle the area by Berrybanks.

Basically we need to rake up all the shredded wood and bare the earth. This will be a toil, but worth it.

Great day today.

Paul

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

Crossed the Rubicon

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

It really did feel like we had crossed the Rubicon today. From a few months back, it seemed like ripping out and joining up the Picnic Clearing and the Bird-Box Clearing was an impossible dream. Even this morning, with all the piles of brash that needed to be raked up just seemed an endless, and very prickly, task. But towards the end of the session today, we stood up straight and looked around and saw that we have finally broken the back of our work on this section.

A very smoky fire that was burning well. The smoke was making the sunlight go a funny colour.

We discovered log piles that we had laid down years ago, a proper dead-hedge on the east side of the cutting and Mick’s live hedge on the west side.

We have a bit of brash to burn off next week, a little bit left to cut, probably give the ground a good old rake over, and then we are finished.

The next job will be working in the section by Berrybanks. We need to rake of the ground ready for Kidney Vetch seeding. This will attract the endangered Small Blue butterfly. We will need to keep down any nettles and other things that try and compete, so that will be interesting to see how this section develops. I am also looking forward to seeing the bluebell bulbs that we planted start to come up.

Great work today.

Paul

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

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.

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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