Wednesday’s work party

This week’s work party began with an official heat warning from the Countryside Team:

If you wish to continue with the working party tomorrow, please try and stay in the shade where possible, take plenty of fluids with you and have lots of breaks. Sunhats and sun cream advisable. Please review whether it would be better to postpone for this week. Strenuous tasks are not recommended in the heat.

However, the morning was beautiful and the turn-out good, everybody in hats, with water bottles in their backpacks, undeterred by the rising temperature,

Clive had a hundred snake’s head fritillary bulbs that needed planting. He and Ian had decided on a site at the top of Brunts Field in the triangular area (X marks the spot on the map) formed by the Fairfield Animal Centre’s fence and our footpath. So he set off for Brunts with Phil and Pete armed with trowels, spades and bulb planters.

Simon and Ian went to the Old Dog Pond (X marks the spot on the second map) to deal with the ragwort there, which has now gone to seed. They didn’t pull the ragwort (what better way to disperse the seed than to pull the whole plant out of the ground and wave it around) but they cut the seed heads off and bagged them to be taken away and disposed of properly. There are rules about disposing of the plants named in the 1959 Weeds Act and Wiltshire Council likes us to abide by them.

Simon and Ian had to take care while cutting the ragwort that they didn’t interfere with any of the wasp spiders that Simon has been monitoring and photographing at that end of Lambrok Meadow throughout the summer. There were a few adults among the long grass and, much to Simon’s delight, at least one wasp spider egg sac. These are quite large and urn-shaped and Simon has been looking for one for quite a while. They also found dock bugs (Coreus marginatus), both an adult and a nymph, another new species for Ian’s lists and the subjects of a couple a wonderful pictures from Simon.

Meanwhile, Jim finished off the repair on the decorated bridge and, as usual, the litter was picked, bagged and left for our bin men by Sarah and Alan. Over coffee in the picnic area everybody planned next week’s work party and decided what to put on the agenda for the impending management meeting.