This week the Green Gymers were back for the second (recent) visit to Alverstone Marsh - and this time the sun was shining...! John (the warden) had managed to do some cutting in Skinner's Meadow, although the lower marsh area is still too wet. The field had been divided into two, with one part ready for baling and the other area where the hay needed turning over to help the drying process. We divided into two teams and set about our alloted tasks.
The meadows are cut to encourage all the beautiful flowers and butterflies, with the resulting hay bales (just the ones from Skinner's Meadow) being used for animal fodder. The lower field is not of such a high quality hay but is used for bedding around nursery plants. This year has seen lots of ox-eyed daisies - and (for the first time) orchids at the top end of the field. There were a lots of gatekeeper butterflies and even a brown bush cricket was spotted......neither stayed around long enough for photographs to be taken...!
Many thanks to Carrie for some of the pictures and the editorial - and to Hilary for a couple of the photographs.
P.S. From the blog writer - I notice that Derek always manages to get in the shots somewhere...!
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