Following the two volunteer work parties this week, Robyn Thorogood, the volunteer manager of Snakemoor, has provided the following summary of recent activities at our local nature reserve:
Work, events and discussions
May All Junior School classes visited the reserve during the week before half-term.
June 02
Tom Bucknell kindly got Harry to spray weed killer to the edges of the Station to Snakemoor path. This followed David Hollick advising me that the path would break up if we did not do this.
June 06
Village handyman Jim made a good cut of the paths etc. Hopefully this will now be repeated at sensible intervals.
June 08
I was pleased to see that the Orchids have returned again. (Flower stems show the clump of these Common Spotted Orchids is slowly getting larger.
June 16
Rainbows visited when they enjoyed a treasure hunt organise by Andy Hardy.
June 30
Zoe Smith with the Brownies had a picnic at the reserve.
July Snakemoor is now the proud owner of a Disc Mower and a Buck Rake. Both for pulling behind Michael's tractor. They have cost just over £1000 but allow us to be self- sufficient in removing the annual hay crop from the meadow. As a contractor for this job was costing some £250 this should soon prove to be an excellent investment. Thank you to Michael for determining our requirements, obtaining and then using his tractor for the job.
July 22 and 24
Two long morning work groups transformed Snakemoor into a nature reserve to be proud of. On the first morning the meadow was cut with our new equipment and then the second morning the hay was moved from the meadow.
In addition, David Rankin did some substantial and essential tree lopping. The orchard, the young Elms, the Yew and Spindle area (SE of meadow) and honeysuckles were cleared of undergrowth. The seats cleared of undergrowth and our dam in the ditch had its sides strengthened. A fallen tree on the access path from the station was trimmed back. With Jim our village handyman turning up to cut the paths the reserve was transformed and photographs on Haddenham.net reflected some of our efforts.
The volunteers were: Michael, David Rankin, Jim Robinson, Andrew Hearsey, Guy Redshaw, Chris Young, Jim Joiner, Lucy Jennings, Teris Roone, Allison Watt, John Wilson, Sarah McLoughlin, Robyn and Chris (who provided the much appreciated refreshments). Three children attended and gave useful assistance. These were: Many thanks to Ezra Roone, Eddie and Maddie McLoughlin.
Robyn Thorogood
Volunteer Manager of Snakemoor
A few more very recent photos of Snakemoor can be seen here
