Following two visits earlier in the year which included helping to construct a
boardwalk at Skipwith Common NNR and more recently building nest boxes at the
NNR base, staff from Aviva returned once again as part of their corporate
volunteering time. 16 members from the York branch spent a day at Thornton
Ellers helping us to continue with the hay cut – whilst the sun
shone! The fen vegetation was cut around the Alder Carr woodland and raked into
valuable habitat piles, whilst some of the team also helped clear the wood of
the invasive Himalayan Balsam, which will help the natural ground flora to
recover and flourish.
It was hard work trying to keep up with cutting enough
vegetation for all the busy ‘rakers’ who did a fantastic job. We were amazed
with how much the team managed to achieve during the day, whilst the NNR team
also fitted in a bird ringing demonstration which included two young
Treecreepers. Many thanks to the team for their efforts throughout the day and special thanks
to local birder, Duncan Bye, for arranging the volunteering time from Aviva.
Earlier in the week our team of volunteers had also been hard at work at the Ellers, strimming balsam and helping out with the
annual hay cut in the meadow. Each year we cut this area using our allen
scythe and then rake it by hand as the ground is too soft and delicate for
larger machinery to travel over. By cutting and removing the vegetation it
helps the site maintain the diversity of flowers and grasses, which once again
will be used as a green seed source for the grassland restoration project at
Leven Carrs – more to follow on this soon. Many thanks to the team for all their
efforts on the day.
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