Cawston Greenway

Yes, we had some unexpected visitors in the form of a big red fire engine full of a load of beefy firemen. Unfortunately they didn’t come to help chop the path back. Someone had seen the smoke from our bonfire and called 999. This is the first time that this has happened and we have had bonfires every week. Luckily they were fine about it and went off to talk to the person who reported it.

Other than that, a mixed bag of a day with ten or so of us turning out, which I thought was really good considering the weather forecast. Rather than go all the way down  to Potford’s Dam and risk getting soaked if the heavens did open, we worked on clearing the path from the picnic clearing down towards Potford’s Dam.

The path before we widened it...

...and after widening.

This was really hard going using loppers and rakes. I will get some petrol for our brush cutter and finish this off with that. We also scraped away a lot of leaf litter to help any wild flower seeds get some warmth and start to germinate in the spring.

A bit of advice from Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, who came down on Wednesday to look at what we are doing. The glades need to be bigger, really a lot bigger, and the ground needs to be clear of all the twigs, leaves and vegetation, if anything is going to have a chance to grow. Trees on the south sides of glades need to be cut back and the path needs to be clear, then shrubs at the sides with trees on the edges, so it kind of  gradually gets taller towards the edges of the path.

Thanks to all who braved it today. Next workday tomorrow 10 am to 12. The following Sunday is not a workday unless anyone wants to organise one.

Thanks again,

Paul

A mini workday where we got an epic amount of work done!

We are still working on the coppice at Potford’s Dam. I keep scheduling what we will be doing and we keep falling way behind. This is my fault and happens for two reasons. Firstly, it’s easy to sit at home and think, “do this that and the other” in a kind of bish-bash-bosh way. And secondly, I am very impatient and want it all done now, plus I feel like we are against a tight deadline  that is when the bird nesting season starts at the end of March.

As time and experience kick in, I should get better at the first point. The second however, is just part of who I am.

We cleared the area on the west embankment around two majestic Oak trees. Pushed a lot of the brash down to the bottom of the slope and raked off the leaf litter.

I had a good poke around the brook and found where it goes under the greenway and runs on the east side of the embankment. It looks like there might be a small reedbed on the boggy ground at the bottom of the east side. I will get down to it for a closer look later this week.

Next workday is this Sunday, as per the blog a few days ago. Still at Potford’s Dam I’m afraid to say, however, if we want to split into two groups and one group pushes down from the picnic clearing towards Potford’s Dam, making sheltered clearings under large trees and opening up the natural glades, and the rest push on up until we meet somewhere in the middle, I am happy to do this.

My protective facemask and ear protectors arrived today so I can start to brush-cut the paths between the clearings.

Thanks to all that turned out today. Good work!

Paul

Maybe suggesting that we start at the end of the greenway was not such a wise idea. It seemed like a long walk to get there!!

However, the walk helps us to see what needs doing, and we also found the Lawford Brook , which is a fast running stream that is reasonably wide and deep. This brook starts in Long Lawford where it connects to the river Avon and goes under the greenway just before Potford’s Dam and connects to Cawston Reservoir. It would be great to clear all the dead and poor quality trees down the west-facing side of the embankment so that walkers can have a full view of the brook, and also maybe get some sort of bench so that the view can be properly enjoyed. This really is an exciting find because it opens up the greenway to yet another type of wildlife habitat.

Anyhow, back to today. Fantastic turnout with 14 or so of us. Good to see some youngsters mucking in too.

One of our younger helpers!

We took out a lot of the poor quality trees to make room for the established ones to really grow. We also raked the leaf litter into piles so the bare earth can hopefully yield us some wild woodland plants and flowers.

Cutting branches overhanging the path.

We are trying to get as much sunlight into this part of the path as possible, without losing  all of the canopy, so it will be through the sides as well as from above. There is very little scrub so the opportunity for small shrubs, flowering herbs and grasses to grow is ripe. We are lucky that the coppice is made up of Ash trees, which don’t have a dense canopy due to having small leaves.  We made numerous log piles and burnt off all the brash on a bonfire.

Managing the coppice.

The next workday is tomorrow, Monday, 10:30 to 12:30. Back at the Potford’s Dam end I’m afraid. We need to do a lot of work on the west-facing embankment to release a huge Oak tree of all the interfering trees that are shooting up around it, clear all the dead wood down the slope and open up the brook. This bank is covered in leaf litter so the soil will be high in nutrients. This might lead to a load of nettles growing on it once the sunlight starts to hit the ground, but if we manage it we should be OK. And remember, nettles are a fantastic food source for 40 different species of insect to survive, including several species of butterfly which include the Small Tortoiseshell, the Comma, the Red Admiral and the Peacock.  I am trying to think about food-chains and what will be the positive benefits to existing and new wildlife, from the work that we do today.

Great turn out today, our first workday of 2011 so thanks to everybody. Let’s really crack on and make the greenway something special!

Paul

Oh, and a Happy New Year!

I rode the length of the greenway today to try and plan the next few workdays. To say it was eye-opening would be something of an understatement. I will start at the Potford’s Dam end and run up the greenway and suggest what came to me. If you feel that there is something else that we should be doing, or something that we should not, let me know and we can look at the reasons and make the changes if we need to.

At Potford’s Dam there is a sheltered grassy area on the bridge and for a bit before the path becomes wooded. I think it would be good to cut back the scrub on the outer edges of this area and encourage the grass to grow. This will create a grassy habitat for a wide range of small mammals like mice, shrews and voles. This will then encourage a kestrel or two to visit. If however, the rabbits keep the grass grazed, then maybe we can look at planting Kidney Vetch and trying to establish a colony of Small Blue butterfly. Mike Slater can help us with the finer details.

Moving along the wooded path, the scrub is quite thin and it creates a really nice open wood feel.

It will be nice to maintain this scrub-free feel. There are a few fallen trees that are tangled up in the trunks of others. It needs thinning out and the better ash trees given room to grow. We can encourage woodland plants and flowers to grow on the ground.

Moving on, we get into the areas along the greenway where the scrub is quite thick. It’s important that we maintain this habitat because it has developed over the last 30 odd years. However, there are a few things that we can do to bring back the balance.

There are some fantastic oak trees that are begging to be released from the smaller trees that have shot up and entangled themselves around their lower branches. This then gives us an opportunity to cut away the scrub from under the oaks and create sheltered clearings. The path can be cut back with our new brush-cutter to allow walkers and cyclists free passage.

Moving on and we get to the picnic clearing. I will chase up the picnic benches and hopefully we can get this set up for the early summer, by the latest. We have done quite a lot of work in widening the path, and just need to finish a few bits off.

Moving along the path to the meeting point and the path is quite wide and scrub free due to it being on embankment. This area just needs to be maintained until we are back in cutting and heading towards the new underpass. This area needs the scrub cut back in shallow scallops. There were plenty of grey squirrels rushing about and lots of birds hunting in the undergrowth.

Going through the underpass and the feel of the greenway changes dramatically. It goes into deep cutting and there is a lot of tree cover, however there is little scrub.

 It would be a shame to lose this so my feeling is to break out into small glades every now and again, but keep the dense cover above the path between these glades. There is quite a bit of standing water and I wonder if we should direct the path around these and let them flourish. There are also some fallen trees that need to be cut into log piles.

Some pretty deep water is coming from somewhere and will attract loads of insects, birds and wildlife.

Moving past the area where we did our first proper workday by The Bear, you can see how we have become so much better. The chopping back is sloppy and the piles of brash unsightly. It’s great to see the marked improvement in our more recent workdays. As I travelled towards the bridge at The Bear I found a slow-running stream. This runs right in the middle of the path for about 30 or 40 metres. I spotted a Grey Wagtail hunting for food at this point. The challenge here is to get the path onto higher ground and allow this stream to flourish. It will attract a fantastic amount of differing wildlife to the more drier parts of the greenway.

Moving under the bridge at The Bear and along the path, it remains in deep cutting and is quite wet, but also scrub free. A couple of small clearings will help to bring some diversity to this habitat.

Lastly the path comes out of the cutting and there is a short area of scrub that needs to be cut back before we open out onto the Western Relief Road cycle path (Sustrans Cycle Route 41)

The spur where Sustrans Cycle Route 41 carries on along the Western Relief Road, or diverts into Cawston Greenway.

 So, quite a bit to do between now and March. But also some very diverse micro-habitats that we can encourage and sustain. What a fantastic place this is going to be. Like I said, eye-opening really understates what we have.

I have four video clips on our facebook page to try and show what I saw. Feel free to take a look, and join the page. 

January Workdays:

Gather at usual meeting point at the start time, or make your way up or down the path until you find us if you are later.

Sunday 9th: 1:00 to 3:00. Working on the entrance to the greenway at Potford’s Dam. Clearing the fallen trees and thinning out. Create a log pile or two and clear the ground. Clear scrub to outer edges of grassy section.

Monday 10th: 10:30 to 12:30. Working on the area between Potford’s Dam and the picnic clearing. Clear scrub from under established oak trees. Push back and widen the path where needed.

Sunday 16th: 11:00 to 1:00. As above.

Monday 17th: 10:00 to 12:00. Cut back the scrub between the meeting point and the underpass. There is a natural grassy glade that maybe we can lengthen. I spotted a Holly Blue butterfly here last summer so it makes sense to improve this area. There is also a superb view across the fields to the west.

Monday 24th: 10:30 to 12:30. As above.

Sunday 30th: 1:00 to 3:00. Revisit the path between the underpass and The Bear to establish a plan and create a small glade or two. Work out how to get around the wet areas and stream.

Plenty to do and quite a busy schedule. Hopefully we can keep on track and really crack on.

Hope to see you on the workdays burning off some of our Christmas excesses.

Paul

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,100 times in 2010. That’s about 5 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 37 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 86 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 30mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was April 25th with 63 views. The most popular post that day was The Litter Pick 25th April 2010.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were cawstongreenway.org, facebook.com, mail.live.com, obama-scandal-exposed.co.cc, and mail.yahoo.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for cawstongreenway.org, cawston greenway, rugby western relief road, offchurch greenway, and the stag at offchurch.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

The Litter Pick 25th April 2010 April 2010
4 comments

About April 2010

Where we are at… April 2010
1 comment

Meeting with Sustrans April 2010
2 comments

That was hard work!!!! September 2010
3 comments

Some say I have a brain the size of a walnut.

Others question if I was dropped on my head at birth.

And the rest just think I am plain mad!

Well that’s what Graham called me today because not only did I do a few hours on the WWT Ashlawn Cutting Local Nature Reserve, I then went and did it all again on Cawston Greenway. I ended the day looking like a vagabond who had been living rough for months on end. Rain, sleet and then snow, along with a bracing wind had to be endured throughout the day.

Looking north towards the bonfire, see the much flatter embankments and open feel.

It was a really good morning at Ashlawn with some new contacts made, and I was made to feel very welcome (thanks guys). We had a roaring bonfire and burnt off a whole load of brash.

Looking down the line.

We got the whole area cleared and tidy. Half way through the morning Rugby FM contacted me and interviewed me about progress on Cawston Greenway. Good to keep the momentum rolling and with this in mind, I can report that we are now the proud owners of our very own brush cutter. Hinckley and Rugby Building Society kindly gave us money to buy one and B&Q did a cracking deal, knocking 40% off one. This is going to make life so much easier. Hopefully we can get in The Rugby Observer with a story about the brush cutter, Hinckley and Rugby, and Cawston Greenway. All good news.

On Cawston Greenway we made a new glade, quite a small one with a specimen tree or two within the clearing.

A new glade is made.

The new glade is on a bit of the greenway where the cutting is turning into embankment, and the views to the west are pretty good. There was a natural break in the trees and I tried to make a feature of this window across open countryside. I also stumbled upon a natural log pile that was pretty rotted down and covered in moss. Still work to do, but yet another glade that is different from the others and will create a superb micro-habitat for a whole host of insects, spiders, wild birds and other wildlife.

The views across open countryside from the new glade. Making the most of a natural break in the trees.

Well that’s about it for now. Next workday will be after Christmas and I think we need to think about putting up the many bird nesting-boxes, bat boxes and insect houses that are cluttering up my garage. We also need to try and get as much of the path cut back between the glades as possible, so that we don’t have the thorny problem of brambles snagging the legs of walkers and cyclists. We have until March and then we are back into the bird-nesting season. It’s going to be fantastic to see what grows in the glades next year, and how the whole shape of the greenway changes.

Happy Christmas everyone, I hope you all have a great celebration and I look forward to cracking on next year!

Paul

Superb workday today. Six or so of us turned out and got the fire roaring almost straight away. We cleared all the piles of brash that were piled up on the banks of the main picnic area. Ed cut down a lot of the stumps from felled trees and we raked some of the fallen leaves into piles. This will create a good habitat for whatever insects rely on the leaf litter to survive over winter, and also encourage wild flowers to grow in the uncovered earth.

Next workday on this Thurday, and this is the last one before Christmas. I am joining the Ashlawn work party at 10am and starting the greenway work party at 12:30pm.

Hope to see you there, but if not thank-you for all your hard work this year. We have made a massive difference.

Have a great Christmas!

Paul

Did a bit this morning, tried to get the bonfire going but after a lot of smoke and a few feeble flames it finally died on me, but moved a lot of the brash onto it so it is ready to go next time.

The greenway was a whiteway today with all the frost on the trees. Quite a magical feel but also a little eerie..

I did a lot of work on the next clearing, which is under a large oak tree. I untangled a load of hawthorn and blackthorn trees from the oak’s lower branches and tried to cut a window in the neighbouring trees, to create a shaft of sunlight that will hopefully fall onto the ground under the oak. It will be interesting to see what grows in this corridor of light next year.

Also tried my hand at dead-hedging. It was not a pretty sight. Way too little patience for this sort of activity!

Not much else to report, kept busy and never felt the cold until I walked home. A productive morning.

Until next time!

Paul

About ten of us turned out and got on with the path widening. A really good stretch done and it made a huge difference. This will pay dividends in the summer when the uncut side starts to push in on the existing path, forcing people to walk on the newly cut bit and this will keep growth trodden down.

This is the old path that we are cutting wider so walkers and cyclists can have a clear passage in summer.

Mike’s words of wisdom came back to haunt us today. Remember that sage advice, “stack the brash right away from the path..” Well today we started to untangle a big pile of it and burn it. It really is a horrible job and if we had stacked it much further away from the path, they we could have just left it. All part of the learning curve that we are on!

A couple of other learning bits today. Keep the newly cut brash in managable piles so that it makes it easy to pick them up and carry them to the bonfire. Stack the logs on the bonfire all the same way. This makes the wood dry out quicker and gets the fire burning really quickly.

Great effort today so thanks to all. Got some news regarding a couple of picnic benches in the pipe-line. Watch this space!

On our last workday before Christmas (Thursday 16th December) Warwickshire Wildlife Trust are having a workday on Ashlawn Cutting, with another one on Sunday 19th too. I would like to push our workday start time back a bit (12:30) and spend a couple of hours at Ashlawn with the Trust so I can learn some things that we can use on Cawston Greenway. Meet at 10am at the Ashlawn Road carpark in front of the football club.

I am going down to the greenway for an hour or so to burn off a bit more of the brash tomorrow. Look forward to seeing anyone else who fancies it.

Paul

…or was it just a mad eight of us who turned out today in such freezing conditions that even the bonfire took almost two hours to be coaxed into life.

However, what superb progress we made. The whole south side of the bridge is now clear and the beautiful oak tree is free from any hawthorn that was badly tangled around its lower branches.

The superb oak tree that overlooks the central picnic clearing

We made two more log-piles and these are going to be fantastic habitat for insects such as beetles, woodlice, spiders and such like, as well as lichens, fungi and mosses. We also made another “bench” or resting place out of a large log. 

Just seven or so more trees to come out on the north side of the bridge and we are finished. I have already started work on the next clearing which is down the line and under another large oak tree. I reckon the clearing should be the same size as the reach of the oak, so we get a different habitat to the open glades that we have been creating.

Well done to all who made it today. They say that you get warm twice from wood. Firstly when you cut it down and secondly when you put it on the fire. Never a truer statement made!!

Next workdays:

Mike Slater from Butterfly Conservation is meeting me at 10am tomorrow (Monday 29th) to look at what we need to do to attract endangered butterflies to the greenway. Feel free to join us and share in Mike’s expertise. We can do a bit of work whilst we are there. One thing that we need to address is stumps – I know it’s a pain but we need to be cutting the stumps as close to the ground as possible. Far too many are left too high and it looks odd at the best of times, plus it becomes a trip hazard. Also cutting branches need to be right up to the trunk or we will get a mass of shoots off the cut end that will look untidy and weigh the branch down.

Tuesday 30th November – 2pm to 3.30pm – dead-hedge around the top of the next clearing.

Sunday 5th December – 11am to 1:30pm – meet at the original meeting point and work towards the new underpass making clearings and clearing scrub.

Monday 6th December – 10am to 12:30pm – dead-hedge any brash from the Sunday workday.

Sunday 12th December – 11am to 2pm – start to cut back the outside curves of the paths between the glades. Remember we are looking to get the path as wriggly as we can to stop a wind-tunnel effect being created that will discourage butterflies. If we keep doing this and leave the inside of the curve to encroach onto the existing path, then eventually it will be really curvy and the puddles will be well away from the new path. We need the path to be about one metre wide.

Thursday 16th December – 11am to 2pm – continue with cutting back of the outside curves of the path.

I think that’s about it until after Christmas. Great work today, plenty to do, plenty done this year so far. If you haven’t been down for a while please come along. It really is looking good. If anyone knows where we can get a pub-style picnic bench from (for free) please shout out (no jokes about robbing one out of The Bear’s beer-garden!!!), or can we make one from all the wood that we are chopping down??

Paul