Fortunately for us the weather was not as bad as the forecast had warned, apart from a very short, light shower early on. So, thanks to Simon and Isaac, Annie, Helen, Pete, Ron and Mick we started off by scattering the Yellow Rattle seed a few of them had collected earlier in the year from the New Meadow that had been overrun with it onto the Cornfield Grassland that we started establishing in 2012. Yellow Rattle is hemi-parasitic on grass roots reducing their growth so we aimed the seed spreading to areas where there is more grass than herbs. We also had a variety of meadow flower seed that Martin had collected in 2015 but needed using up, for this we raked some of the barer areas of the sward (not that there were many) and spread it there, making a mental note of where that had been. The expectation is that the cattle will trample the seed into the soil when they next tour the field.

When the flower seed was scattered on the Cornfield Grassland, attention was turned to adding some, in a similar manner, onto the New Meadow.

In addition, the north-western and south-western corners of the Cornfield Grassland were cut back as they were getting encroached by nettles and brambles. The bullocks have done a great grazing job but are partial to the softer grasses and herbs. The bird feeder was also removed for repair as the bullocks appeared to have taken a dislike to it, or the squirrels become extremely aggressive.

Next outing is planned to be Sunday 8th October at 10:30 am in the Reservoir Basin pulling out the reedmace from the Water Vole Scrape as it is taking over from the Phragmites. Definitely a wellies and gloves job!