Tuesday, 2 April 2019 ... weekly volunteers

Description:Present: Paul, David w, Ian, Mike m, Mike p, Keith, Pat, Alan, Stuart, Jonathan, Terry, Ray, and Martin Activities: - checked out a third of nest boxes, from five bar gate to causeway. Did running repairs on some of them - cleared the boundary between the reserve and the car park, of bramble etc. No three cornered leeks found there - but were found on the path near the stone pillars. Pulled up and disposed of. - some pine pulling in front of the chalet nest box, but not too close. Terry collected some for the Brighton sapling operation - some bracken peat bagged and taken off site - more log splitting of the chestnuts near the roller stand - and some of these pieces were sawn up. Mike m took some pieces for turning - more ditch work along the road, pulling up bramble mostly - looked the ponies - put a long chain on the roller stand gates, as old one becoming difficult for some strange reason - wedges to be trimmed for safety reasons by David w off site - placed the discarded dog poo bags in prominent place, to emphasise that we will not provide a service to remove them. Watch this space. Observations: - 2 kestrels at the nest site - crossbills - chiffchaff - bog beacon in swamp - Queen wasp and hornet found in separate nest boxes. Hornet was huge - dire forecast for weather, and some rain towards lunch - almost did some gorse cutting and feeding, but rain stopped play - barn owl seen during the week at the chalet Martin