Fortunately the dry weather has constrained growth of the vegetation so the small group consisting of Masha, Judi, Ian (visiting from Essex) and Mick managed to cut back quite well what was challenging the tansy clumps, along with trimming around those plants near the cattle grid and interpretation board that are flourishing.

Many of the New Meadow tansy plants are suffering from what has become known as “browning off” but we only found one sleepy Tansy Beetle in the whole morning. There were lots of different pollinators about, including a variety of butterflies.

A Roe deer was sighted in the Reservoir Basin as we were preparing to go.

The next work party is on Thursday 2nd August from 6:30 pm at the meadow in front of the Cricket Field Copse, over the Barrier Bank from the Pond at the south of the site. The EA and the farmer never manage to cut this thoroughly so we’ll have to tackle with scrub cutter and rakes and pile up under the Hazel copse nearby. On Sunday 19th August 10:30 am we’ll be back to managing the bee bank on the Cornfield Arable at the north of the site and seeing what the badgers and foxes have been up to!