Taking in the glorious view from the car park.
The pre-session briefing....
...then off down the rather steep steps.
The caterpillars that we were working hard to
provide a habitat for.
A "local" enjoying the winter sun..!
Work is well underway.
But still time for a cuppa..!
Back to work after the refreshments.
Merlin decides that sun bathing is better than working😊
New "des-res" for the Glanville Fritillary butterfly
Cormorants enjoying the winter sun.
The bank that was cleared at the half way point.
Cast your mind back to this time last year..... can't remember it? Have a look at this link to the GG blog for that session... Wed 28th Feb 2018 - Session CANCELLED - due to "Th... yes, it was the "Beast from the EAST"..! The weather for today's session was in total contrast to that day in 2018, in fact the UK all time record for a winter high temperature was broken at Kew Gardens yesterday (some 22 C)! So, having negotiated the rather tricky roads of Ventnor, we all found ourselves at the Wheelers Bay car park and ready to start the clearance work to aid the habitat of the Glanville Fritillary butterfly. The Island has the main colony, within the UK, of this rare butterfly so there was important work to be done. After a quick chat about what we were doing and why, we shuffled off down the steeply stepped footpath and began work at two separate sites. The majority of the team were working at the lower level, where the costal revetment meets the cliff, whilst a smaller working party tackled a few briar patches about half way up the slope. The excellent weather and the promise of working somewhere new had encouraged a particularly high turn out of GGmers so a significant amount of work was achieved during the session.
If you would like further info on the Glanville Fritillary...
Many thanks to Terry for the photographs this week.
Historical Note.
Alex has been kind enough to send me this historical photograph showing where we were working today. The building on the shoreline, central, is the old Ventnor gas works...how different it is today with that wonderful sea wall walk..! If anyone has any further information about this photo then please let me know. It would be nice to have some idea of when it was taken. I assume that the coal must have been brought in by barge as it is a long way up to the railway station from there..😀
P.S. Just Googled the above..and came up with this Wheelers Bay - Ventnor Heritage Centrehttps://ventnorheritage.org.uk/ventnor_heritage/wheelers-bay-2/ - worth a look..!
Thanks Alex.
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