Tuesday & Thursday this week were bio days for the mid week conservation volunteers.
Tuesday was birch sapling clearing from Common Head Moss to help restore the bog habitat the group have spent a few days so far in the last few weeks tackling birch sapling removal, as it was a glorious sunny day after lunch the group decided to go for a nature walk. To explore the wetland heath side of the habitat and see if we could see any dragonflies and damselflies, and we were not disappointed lots of four spot dragonflies and plenty red and blue damselflies and a fair few frogs and butterflies as well, very interesting and pleasant way to spend the afternoon.
Thursday no sunshine today just wind, rain and mud at Hogganfield Loch, the task today was to plant up a new wetland habitat being created to divert water away from footpaths in winter and prevent them flooding. The edges of the pond were softened then wetland plants transferred from existing ponds to the new area. We were planting a mix of plants and seed some were dry meadow and some were pond edge: flag iris, water forget-me-not, meadow sweet, bog cotton and sedge along with heath bed-straw, cow parsley ragged robin to name but a few.
Images of a pond in the making:
