Moth trapping, mowing and odds and ends

Mowing

The main thing that is taking up our time on the Vision Project at the moment is mowing. Mowing to control weeds like Thistles and Ragwort, mowing to keep paths open and in good condition, mowing picnic areas, mowing to keep areas clear in relation to planning consent, mowing for tree care and last but not least, mowing to keep electric fences from contact with long grass. There are only so many hours in the day and because we need a full day to get the work done with the travel time to our sites, only so many free days in the week we can devote to it.

We use a our Kebota and a 3m wide Agrimaster flail for the most part, but sometimes borrow Anglesey Abbeys or use our small ride on for the picnic areas. The one we borrowed from Anglesey decided to stop working, which is bad news as it is never good to borrow something working and give it back broken, especially something as expensive as that. Hope it isn’t too expensive to fix, and sorry to the gardeners.

Weed Spraying

The rain has been causing problems with our spraying. We really need a clear 24 hour window rain free to apply in. These have been hard to come by, we got the boom spraying done, now we are onto the spot spraying. Our 4 day plan is now well into its third week, with a spot of luck Jake will be out tomorrow with his gear to spot treat again before the predicted rain over the weekend arrives.

Getting things all nice and presentable

Well the front of house work is ongoing and one day I hope to get the omega signs replaced! There is plenty of strimming to get done when we have the time too. Lets hope for a good shot at that next week.

Moth Trapping on the Fen

At Wicken Fen over 1000 species of moth have been recorded. Tonight we had some trappers out on the boardwalk so we popped down to have a look at the catch and say hello. It didn’t rain with was good but the temperature dropped quite fast meaning a poor catch, at least to start with. Here are some pictures so you can get an idea of how they set up:

This is a Hawk Eye Moth. Pretty impressive.

 

Bit spookey.

Also Lizzey got Stuck in the RTV

As per regulations before helping I made sure we got plenty of pictures. We were heading over a culvert on Verralls Fen when the boards slid out from underneath, we soon sunk, and stuck we were. We attempted to winch out but ended up getting pulled out backwards and then forwards by another RTV. We then fixed the mess as best we could so the next time it was crossed it was in much better condition than we found it.