The audit took place on Sunday 29th July and a lot of plants were found. This gives us great encouragement to keep clearing the scrub and letting wild flowers colonise the cleared ground.
The more wild flowers that appear means more insects, which means more birds and mammals, etc, etc..
Here is a link to the list:
Plants at Cawston 29 july 2012
Nothing particularly rare, but a massive variety and thank-you John, Monica and team for taking the time to do this audit.
Paul
This is a workday with a difference. Warwickshire Flora Group are doing a wild flower audit along the greenway and we can join them if we want.
They are parking up at The Bear and starting at the bridge and will be heading south towards Potford’s Dam. They start at 10am but we can join them at any time in the morning.
I will be taking the bag full of clippers so we can knock back the brambles that are starting to encroach onto the path.
It’s probably a better idea to walk down to The Bear rather than drive, because the Flora guys will be taking up a lot of car parking space.
Look forward to tomorrow.
Paul
We spent a bit of time cutting back brambles that are encroaching onto the path again today, but also had a really good look at what is growing on the cleared banks when we are in cutting, and also what was growing on the embankment sections.
The wild flowers are really fighting for space and the insect life is literally buzzing.
Bird-box clearing looking north.
Bird-box clearing looking south.
I think that it would be a good idea to simply clear all the scrub in all the areas that are in cutting. We can leave the quality trees on the edges and a few of the mature standard trees, but everything else is simply poor value and is stopping wild flowers growing, like they are in the pictures above where we have cleared to the edges.
The section between the bird-box clearing and the picnic clearing.
The biggest sections that are in cutting are the one in the picture above, and the one that runs from the new underpass, all the way down to The Bear pub. Where the greenway turns to embankment there are a huge number of mature trees so there will be no great loss of tree life on the edges and on the sides of the embankment.
In terms of the path, I think we need to keep a 2.5 metre wide strip that we keep short somehow, maybe get some swishers like what Aaron has? This will hopefully encourage people to not walk on the narrow muddy part of the path and give it change to recover somewhat.
Encouraging day today and things are going the right way for us.
Paul
Quiet day on the greenway yesterday with just a bit of cutting back any brambles that are encroaching onto the path and general maintenance.
Path all narrow again.
We cut back the path so much last winter and we are still struggling with the narrow muddy strip. But nice to see a lot of diversity along the greenway.
A new addition.
And this bank was completely covered in scrub two years ago. It now has so many plants and flowers competing with each other.
So much trying to grow on the cleared banks.
I went to the section past the underpass and pulled a load of nettles up. I have seeded this area with a seed mix but the nettles have taken over. Hopefully if we pull a load of them up we can make room for wild flowers as well as nettles.
Next workday is Tuesday 26th June. Pulling up nettles and general tidy up.
I planted a few winter bulbs in the picnic clearing in memory of Edmund. Probably a little bit self-indulgent but it will be good to remember him by them.
Thanks to all who made it yesterday!
Paul
It is with great sorrow that report that Edmund lost his battle with cancer this morning. Edmund was a popular volunteer on the greenway and touched a lot of us with his kind nature. I have sent my condolences to Sally, his wife.
In terms of today’s workday, it was all about trying to connect with the cycleway that runs along the Western Relief Road. This is part of National Cycle Network 41 and as soon as we connect with it we can then connect with the rest of the route at Draycote village.
After trying to work out how to put steps into the very steep slope by the bridge, we eventually gave up because it would be more of a ladder that steps. We then tried to make a ramp but with no retaining barrier it was just not possible with spades.
Eventually we went to the area where the field next to the greenway narrows, and cut a small tunnel through to the edge.
Small tunnel leading to the edge of the greenway.
From the edge is a small bit of land that hopefully the landowner will give us access over and then our connection with the outside world will be made.
View from the edge to the gate. Just twenty yards.
The rest of the workday was spent pulling up nettles around any other wild flowers to give them a chance to establish themselves and spread a bit.
The cows found our nettle pulling quite amusing!
And just as we were finishing we found a Kidney Vetch plant. This is the sole food-plant for the Small Blue butterfly. If we can get this plant to spread we can hopefully have a Small Blue colony establish itself. This would be fantastic because the Small Blue is on the endangered species list in Warwickshire and needs as much habitat creation as possible.
Kidney Vetch.
Good day today up to the point where I learnt about Ed. I will put some more workdays on in the next couple of days, but in the meantime, I hope everyone has a great Jubilee celebration.
Paul
Really good session pulling up nettles on the greenway. This is to give other wild flowers the room to spread and get a good mix of colours and variety.
One of the piles of nettles that we pulled up.
There are quite a few wild flowers starting to appear and a lot of insects and butterflies buzzing and fluttering around.
Bird-box clearing.
Wild flowers are everywhere.
Blue, purple, yellow and red seem to be the colours that we have.
Another wild flower that is becoming quite abundant.
We still seem to have a problem with nettles encroaching onto the path and we cannot just swish them because of all the wild flowers intermingled with them. There is also a lot of hawthorn trees that we have cut back but left the top overhanging. This means that there is still a lot of shaded dead areas. The profile of the greenway needs to be in the shape of a V but with a flat bottom.
Butterflies spotted included Speckled Wood, Orange-tip, Small White and Large White.
Next workday is Thursday 31st May starting at 11am working at the bridge that goes over the Coventry Road. I want to see if we can cut some steps into the rough and very steep path that goes down onto the Coventry Road, and also look at the verge that runs up to the path along the Coventry Road to see what it would take to clear it.
Thanks all who made it today.
Paul
Rugby Borough Council have asked us if we can help them to seed the three wild flower borders in Cawston. If you remember last year, the wild flowers were an absoloute riot of colour and attracted a lot of wildlife to the estate.
If you would like to help seed the borders then meet at the play area off Cawston Grange Drive at 3PM on Saturday 19th May. Bring a rake and gardening gloves and suitable footwear. We aim to pull up a few of the weeds that have appeared, then sow the seeds and rake over.
Weather permitting of course.
Look forwards to seeing you there.
It was a lovely day for our workday today and about time too, after the last few have been rained off.
We returned to the picnic clearing that we made all that time ago and have been pushing out wider and wider to let the sunlight hit the ground. Remember that this area was covered in scrub and trees three years ago.
Well today we were rewarded with a truly fantastic riot of wild flowers, as well as a lot of nettles.
The picnic clearing, the picnic bench is behind the shot.
We need to pull up as many nettles as we can so that the wild flowers can spread and create as much diversity as possible along the greenway.
Red Campion. Last year this was scrub.
Forget-Me-Not has made a huge comeback this year.
Don’t know what these white flowers are and really need to take the book down with me to identify them. See the nettles around them that need to come away.
So there it is. The job that we started is really starting to pay dividends. The more we push on with pulling up the nettles in the summer and pushing back the shade in the winter, the greater and more diverse our greenway will become.
I cannot stress how exciting today was. From looking at bare earth for so long, it seems that things are starting to wake up and grow. We spotted loads of Orange Tip butterflies and I am sure I saw a Small White.
Thanks to everyone who has got us to where we are today.
Paul
Oh what fun on the greenway today!!!
We tackled the flooding that has been causing us problems and finally made some headway. Andy and Adam discovered an old drain going over the culvert and we were able to route the water overflowing from the other drain into this one, so effectively we dammed the flooding and made a stream across the greenway.
We dammed the bank on the left and dug out a stream.
The standing water slowly started to flow into our new stream and drain away and, the water that has been flowing down the greenway and into the farmer’s field finally stopped. We continued to rod the culvert to try and unblock it but there seems to be a section that is totally blocked. Personally I think it is better to have the water running over the top so that we can create a pond. This will be fantastic for wildlife and we saw today that the standing water was full of tadpoles and frogs, as well as other creatures.
Quite hard to see but a lot of tadpoles in there.
We can route the path around the stream on either side so that people won’t get wet feet like we all did today. It feels really good to have gotten this bit sorted out today. I think there is a huge potential to make something of this area and I really like the idea of a pond. We need to cover the first drain again to make it safe and then work on the stream to make it permanent.
Good turnout.
Great turnout today and whilst it was wet, horrible, muddy and smelly – it was really good fun!
Next workday is next Sunday 1pm to 3pm at the same section. Working on the dam and try and create a backwater. I will put some more dates through May onto the blog so that everyone can plan, and I will try and mix them up a bit so that people with other commitments can join in. CANCELLED DUE TO BAD WEATHER!!!
Cannot stress how much I enjoyed today!
Paul
Aaron, Mike and myself did a lot of nettle pulling today in the picnic clearing. There are loads of shoots coming up underneath the nettles and we just need to give them a helping hand.
Lots of wild flower seedlings coming up.
It’s going to be really exciting to see what these wild flowers are, and what wildlife they attract. We saw an overwintered Peacock butterfly today and a lot of Orange-Tip butterflies, as well as bees and a Buzzard feeding on a dead rabbit.
We have the pleasure of John Walton, the Plant Recorder for Warwickshire Flora Group coming along with a group of Botanists on Sunday 29th July to record all the plant life on the greenway. I have suggested they park at The Bear and work southbound. They start at 10am and we are very welcome to join them. I for one will be going.
Things are really starting to look good in the cleared areas and I think this summer will be a good time to see what a difference we have made.
Usual bonfire.
My fire starter skills are getting better because we soon had a roaring fire.
The next workday needs to be at the section where the brook runs under the greenway and has flooded (Next to the housing development called Berrybanks opposite The Bear). Matt has done a lot of work here already, but we still have not solved the flooding. Bring a spade and suitable footwear and remember, many hands make light work. There is some piping that had been left from when they were building the houses and maybe we can utilise this?
Sunday 22nd April at 11am is a good a time as any and will leave the afternoon free for anyone who wants to watch the Formula 1 on Sky.
Lastly, if you want to know what is going on with other paths and cycleways visit www.sustransrugby.wordpress.com and see how we link up with the bigger picture.
Thanks for today!
Paul
Cawston Greenway 