Monitoring docks and goats
A busy day ahead as I didn’t manage to do river monitoring yesterday. First of all, went out to the river Cam early to carry out the regular fortnightly raft check for the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust.
The river levels were very low, despite the recent rain. There was one very clear otter footprint on one of the rafts (which I’ve seen consistently there for the last two months).
Also, signs of a water vole latrine on the other raft, but no prints.
On the way back to the car, I bumped into Diane and Emily who were out with a walking group in the area. You never quite know who’s going to be around, but I’ve met several people I know along this stretch of river.
I drove straight over to Wild Acres afterwards, in time for early morning tea and review of today’s tasks. Luckily a few people were willing to help out with the dock cutting, which meant we were able to clear most of the top part of the meadow.
This is a double win – not only will the dock seed not spread, but it means we don’t need to cut the meadow until September. This allows all those late seeders such as bird’s foot trefoil to go over.
The goats were also in good form and settling into their new home. They were chomping away at the field bindweed and docks in their pen which is excellent news.
I finished clearing the overhead branch obstacles on the path by the brook. That is almost done now and is pretty accessible all the way along.
Cherie cooked yet another amazing lunch with rhubarb pudding. But sadly I had to pass on the pudding and head over to Fromebridge Mill for the final task of the day.
A few weeks ago, the Stroud Wildlife Survey Group carried out a quadrat survey of the species rich grassland, but we weren’t able to complete it. This was the first afternoon Maureen and I were both free, so we met there to finish the job. I took a step with us so we could get into the barbed wire area that we needed to survey.
There is no grazing in this part, and as a result the grass was very long. It will need management in the winter (probably will be me!). There weren’t an awful lot of herbs in this section, but maybe with management will be better next year.
We got seven quadrats completed and now have enough data to assemble the final report for the wildlife trust.
