Ditch Clearance.

Willy Baumber travelled from Spilsby on a very foggy day in September and is here seen clearing out the first ditch with his modified machine.  This uses a hydraulic reciprocating head on a 1.5 metre head seen here cutting through the reeds which are then deposited on the bank to dry out before being moved to piles to rot down.  This machine saves a considerable amount of time and effort by John Davison the reserve manager who usually has to don waders to do a similar job.

          Work on Ditches

Graham Johnson from Spilsby using a reciprocating mower with a 6ft head seen down on the car park marsh cutting the reeds and rush ready for moving. This is an essential part of the reserve maintenance which is carried out every autumn.

          Thorne School Visit

Some of the Thorne Green Top Primary School who spent a day at the Messingham Sand Quarry taking part in Bird watching, Bug hunting and Pond dipping as part of their school work.  Luckily we had good weather and everyone seemed to be interested in what they discovered and enjoyed themselves. 

          Thorne School Visit

MSQ volunteer, John Petyt explaining about one of the creatures found during pond dipping.   In this case it was a Great Diving Beetle.   This time we didn't find Caddis fly larvae, but we made up for this by finding a good number of Water Scorpions. 

          Chamber's Farm Wood Visit

The planned visit to Chamber's Farm Wood near Wragby was surprisingly well attended as seen above, although the number was made up by Heather from Gainsborough and Andy from Keal near Spilsby. On a very warm but enjoyable day with lots to see it was good to take a rest for a group photograph at the end. Exactly who the character third from the left is I'm not sure. 

          Follow Up

A sample of some of the follow up work by children from local schools after visiting Messingham Sand Quarry.

          Final Session

The Priory Lane School year 5 made up the final group for the current session of visits on the 8th July. Seen here with their teachers ready to go bug hunting and pond dipping. The weather was not as good as previous sessions but the rain mainly held off and they managed to find a good range of creatures.

          Sponsors

          School Visit

Another visit by the Scawby Primary school this time year 2, seen here well prepared for a morning's Bug Hunting and Pond Dipping. The water levels in the two small ponds used had dropped dramatically but they managed to find lots of creatures in them.

          Malham Visit

On the 28th of June we had the coach trip to Malham which was a joint venture between us, the Lincolnshire Wildlfe Trust and the Scunthorpe Museum Society. People were free to go their own way or go along as a group, especially if they had not been before. One of the latter was Simon Boone who kindly sent these 3 photographs as a reminder of some of the memorable sights of the day.

"Before Lift-off"   Nestling in the entrance to the entrance to the National Park information centre at Malham these swallow chicks and the adults were totally oblivious to everyone watching them.

 

On route to Gordale Scar we stopped in the lovely surroundings of  Janet's Foss.

For those with energy left to visit Malham Cove many were treated to seeing the Peregrine falcons either in flight or perched high up on the cliff face.

          26th June 2008 (A)

Head and Pupils of Scawby Primary School Year 5, together with local volunteers, enjoyed a morning visit to the Messingham reserve. They took part in sessions of pond-dipping and bug hunting, organised by Ann Flower, as part of the educational side of the Coversands Project.

          Priory Lane School Visit

Pupils from the Priory Lane Juniors school who paid a visit to the Messingham reserve on the 25th June 2008.            

Everyone seemed to enjoy the visit and it should help in their understanding and interest of nature. 

          Saturday 31st May 2008

We held a guided walk around the Messingham Sand Quarry Nature Reserve which was well attended by over 50 people, many of whom had never visited the reserve before.  With lovely weather and the reserve coming to life with more in the way of insects and birds to be seen everyone seemed to have enjoyed the experience. This was a visit arranged to coincide with the 'Wildlife Week' range of events held by all the trusts covering the British Isles. 

          Sponsors

          LEAF

On June 1st we were invited to attend an open day at 'Uncle Henry's' farm south east of Kirton in Lindsey. This was part of a national scheme organised by 'LEAF' or Linking Environment And Farming which was set set up in 1991 in an attempt to let people see where some of their food comes from and the work involved.

Unfortunately the weather was very wet at the start of the day and so we were allowed to use one of the large sheds which had been cleared for such an event. The centre of the barn was used by children using 'Toy' tractors and it was good to see their smiling faces. The stall holders were around the outside and all were linked in some way with the land and its uses.

We were given a warm welcome by the people associated with the farm and were very well looked after. Despite the weather we received quite a good bit of attention by customers on the day. All in all a good day out to be spreading the word about the Trust.

 

          Poplar Hawk-moths

A pair of Poplar Hawk-moths (Laothoe populi) seen mating at the Messingham reserve on a rather windy 24th May.

 

Another view of these impressive night flying moths which when at rest look remarkably like dead leaves.