A frosty start on the river

View of some of the obstructions/overshading from a very dodgy bridge

Cleared stretch of water further downstream

Rising temperature provided 'creeping' mist

Second water course forming 'island' on the far bank

Unobstructed view now, looking back at the bridge 

Spent Friday working with the GWT on a stream close to Ablington which flows into the river Coln at Bibury {trout farm}. John led the team on a sunny, frosty morning and the work was pretty similar to that carried out Mareslaid but in a prettier stretch of countryside. On this occasion I donned some waders and spent most of the time in the water removing loose wood debris and cutting back & hinging to the bank the extensive obstructions/overshading of tree branches arching across the water course. There were some heavyweight branches which required John to break the silence with his chainsaw. Once again the solid efforts of the team made quite a difference to a significant stretch of water hopefully helping improve the environment for water voles and fish.

Bothy Bonanza!

Blue posts leading to mine were covered by vegetation

Zoom in to spot mine entrance

Extra wide gate granting access to 'mine/bat cave compound'

Joined Mike and Maurice on a crisp and sunny November for this season's first Bat survey, starting at the Bat Cave. There were a healthy 90 lesser horseshoes in the Bat cave, 23 in the kennels, a record breaking 98 in the Bothy and 1 in the cellar giving a total of 212. Work would be needed on 'step repair' to the mines for the December count and a renewed promise of renovation work on the cellar entrance was made i.e. Maurice and myself to refit door with suitable slot for bats access ala the very successful Bothy model.

Inevitably the Autumn, Winter and possibly another Spring 'watch' will continue to curtail my activities at Sherborne but when Mike can escape the demands of the BBC/NT management I hope to sneak in some real conservation/countryside management work.

'Careful' coppicing

An overly cluttered stretch of Sherborne Brook

Coppicing to help water flow & introduce more light

Spent Friday with GWT on a stretch of Sherborne brook just down from the boat house and weir, Mareslaid copse. John led the volunteer team where the task was to clear lots of loose debris from the river and reduce the over shading caused by fallen trees. The challenge was to help the river flow more easily by removing the many obstacles in the river, reduce the over shading (helping plant growth & of course water voles} but leave enough shading for the fish {especially the trout}.  Apparently regulations on what can be removed and what has to stay is tricky but we did our best with John's guidance. Its been a while since Mareslaid copse has been worked on so plenty of work lay ahead for the large team.