Twelve of us from MNTV met Ranger Dan in the main Lyme Park car park at 9.30am, together with a couple of Lyme Park volunteers.
Although it was a nice day, Dan suggested we wear our wellies if we had them because it would be very muddy in the area of the park that we would be working.
We loaded his vehicle up with our tools and rucksacks and walked to met him up by the kennels, where we unloaded our gear and continued on foot to Coalpit Clough, in the Red Deer Sanctuary, through some exceptionally boggy area's due to the recent rain!
After a health and safety talk, Dan told us about the work that's been done in placing 80 bird boxes in the area. This is to encourage migratory birds, such as Pied Flycatchers, who travel from sub Saharan Africa to Lyme Park each year. He told us that some of the individual Pied Flycatchers use exactly the same bird boxes that they'd used the previous year!
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| Loading the fire |
Then, while a couple of us started a fire, the rest collected the tools and, in small groups, started cutting down the rhododendron, dragging it to the fire where it was cut into smaller lengths before being burned.
By mid-morning, the decision was taken to start a second fire which was nearer to a large clump of rhodi, so anything cut from it didn't need to be dragged very far.
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| In amongst the rhodi! |
Although it was a cold day (we had 30 seconds of hail at one point!), it stayed dry and bright, and we all enjoyed a great workday and a break from the rain of the past week.
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| End of the day group photo (two MNTVers had left before the photo was taken) |
Photo's from Tricia and Sue
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