The Water Vole Scrape extension (before)

Another day of amazing weather and with seven volunteers we gathered to get out Reedmace from the extension to the Water Vole scrape and cut back the Phragmites to freshen it up for 2019. To make things easier the water levels were low with many of the ponds in the Reservoir Basin completely dried up but the scrape still had a couple of feed of water in places and dragonflies were still active. Unfortunately Judi managed to sit backwards in a deeper area and Masha had her phone camera handy as we pulled her upright again.

There were a couple of empty nests amongst the Phragmites hich we skirted around, but all the cuttings had to be carried off and skillfully hidden in the bushes as the cattle have been temporarily removed to graze Rawcliffe Ings.

We called it a day a bit early due to heat and hard work but the Reedmace had been much reduced again and the Phragmites cut back. On our October work party (7th October 10:30 – 13:00)  we may return to cut a bit more along with tidying up the Ridge & Furrow across the Blue Back from the Reservoir Basin.