It’s great to have the opportunity for us to be in touch with you about what’s happening at the reserve. Thank you for your interest and support. Welcome especially to our new readers.
The easing of lockdown gave us the opportunity for a few group activities to go ahead on the reserve. Now we face a deteriorating situation and Tier Two restrictions in Essex.
Online communication has come to the fore in these constrained times. Many of us non-digital natives are having to learn fast. We’ll be exploring using social media and video shorts to highlight aspects of the reserve, the natural world, and our study of it and care for it.
But there’s nothing to beat the real, non-virtual, experience of a place … sights, sounds, smells, touch … and the good news is that the reserve remains very much open for individual visitors, who come to enjoy fresh air and nature (*). Dog walkers are welcome as long as dogs are kept on a lead and nothing is left behind. We would also be delighted to be a venue for homeschooler families and can forward quiz trails on request which will help make a self-guided visit fun as well as educational. Please email me (Andy at jowitts@btinternet.com) to request a copy.
(*) We are trying to open the car park seven days a week, but regret that we cannot leave the eco-toilet open as it can only be made available for use when supervised.
All photos in this edition are by Albert Butcher (unless otherwise stated)
Tier Two restrictions still allow for people from different households to meet outdoors, so another bit of good news is that Friday work parties continue. Tasks are organised to enable social distancing and to ensure that volunteers operate in groups of no more than six. There’s been lots to do, and the happy band has been making good progress with jobs given us by Mark.
One project underway is a plan to use the awesome photos taken by volunteer photographer Albert Butcher to create two sets of beautiful notelet cards: one of birds, the other of ‘dragons and damsels’. We hope these will be ready in time to be a great stocking filler! The printing is being funded by generous individual donations and all the proceeds will go to support the important work of A Rocha UK which owns and manages the reserve.
With very best wishes,
Andy Jowitt
Community Engagement Officer at Foxearth Meadows Nature Reserve
Blue-tailed damselfly
VOLUNTEER WORK PARTIES
It was a good day when, in mid-July, we were able to resume Friday work parties. We’d missed the place, we’d missed the fresh air and exercise and we’d missed each other.
We’ve been busy with catching up on work needing doing: coppicing and shredding willow, clearing fence lines of fallen branches, tending hedge plants, cutting and raking off sedge and other vegetation as part of the mowing rotation, checking bird boxes, clearing ditches … The list goes on.
We’ve been really pleased to have reinforcements to the team and some people join, or re-join us. There’s lots to be done, and we’re glad to have you.
‘Social distancing’ and the ‘rule of six’ mean that work parties have to be carefully managed and at times have to be separated into discrete groups, and we need to plan tasks suitable for individual volunteers, so it’s really helpful if you can indicate to Mark (or Andy) if you’re planning to come.
Work parties take place on Fridays from 10.00 am. Some people work to lunch-time, some beyond. We are incredibly grateful for the time people give and hope they enjoy it.
Special thanks to Dedham Vale AONB volunteers
A big thank you to the Dedham Vale AONB volunteers (pictured below) who gave us a boost with their hard work on 14 October. There were two shifts: a team of 6 in the morning and a team of 6 in the afternoon. They scythed an area of meadow (as part of the mowing rotation) and coppiced willow, cracking on with the work with cheerful energy. Thank you!
RECENT EVENTS
CREATIONTIDE SERVICE goes to Zoom
13 September
We were getting excited about welcoming many folk from different churches and places to the Open Air Service planned for the season of creation, but with new Covid concern and new regulations about to come into force, we decided we had to convert to Zoom. It was so disappointing not to be on the reserve on a glorious Sunday afternoon, but for a first attempt at a Zoom service we were pleased at how it went, and very grateful to the Rev. Ruth Ridge, our local Methodist minister, for helping us organise and lead it. Approaching 40 people joined us (27 connections, and a good number of them couples).
Read a report of the service by Kath & Ken Dunstan, who serve on the Chelmsford Diocesan Environmental Group here.
‘SOURCE TO SEA'
23 September
Andy, Mark and James with their haul of plastic
‘Source to Sea’ is part of the Marine Conservation Trust's ‘Great British Beach Clean’. It’s a recognition that what starts upstream will end up on the beaches and in the sea. The problem gets passed on and our carelessness upstream can affect oceans and marine life hundreds of miles away.
So although there’s nothing much resembling a beach on our section of the River Stour, we decided to take part. On 23 September we combined forces with a team from Sudbury Canoe Club and took to the water in five kayaks and a canoe. The bank party was Reserve Manager Mark Prina and photographer Albert Butcher. Mark worked with a pole saw to open up passages for the canoeists to get through where the river was congested by reeds and rushes and fallen trees. James and I scoured the section of the river up to the old railway bridge (James is a member of the Foxearth Meadows Steering Group) and Fred, Andrew, Carol and David from the Canoe Club worked on down to Liston Weir.
It was hard work at times pushing through the river vegetation and overhanging branches, but we were determined to get to the rubbish and remove it. We ended up with quite a haul: bottles, bags, balls, buckets and more. The rain held off until we were just about packed up, and then the heavens opened!
Our actions have knock-on effects - like plastic entering upstream having a knock-on effect downstream in estuaries and oceans. We worked hard, had some fun and hopefully our actions will have had a knock-on effect for good.
Read Mark's reflection of the event, 'The river running through us' here.
FoxeARTh Day
26 September
Pastel drawing by Fiona
However inadequate I may feel the end product is, I find I get a boost from the time spent drawing as it’s made me really look, and I’ve been deeply absorbed in the process. There’s an added boost of being outside and in a beautiful place. So thank you to Stella Davis for organising a FoxeARTh day at quite short notice on 26 September.
The late summer heatwave had ended and it was a grey, blustery day, but the rain held off and the handful of people who made it all had a productive time.
This drawing by Stella of one of the artists, Lynne, captures the day so well … wrapped up to ward off the chill, but undeterred.
HAPPY COWS
('Wander' and 'Mars' sketched at the FoxeARTh day)
If you visit the reserve you may well meet these two: Mars (a bullock) and Wander (a heifer), thus called, we’re told, because Mars was born in March and Wander wandered.
They are Dexters, an Irish cattle, bred for small farms: all-purpose, small and with an easy temperament. Dexters are now a ‘rare breed’. They suit the reserve well – good general grazers, light of foot, and gentle. They are part of our volunteer team, helping increase the biodiversity of the meadows. They can be curious, and get excited at cut willow, but are generally very docile. Please do your best to let them keep on enjoying their peaceful existence undisturbed.
INTERVIEW WITH MARK: 'MEET THE MANAGER'
I guess it’s a long story, but could you tell us a bit about how you came to love nature? My Dad was a Londoner who contracted ‘TB hip’ and, after years in hospital, ended up in rural Rutland during the war at a school for the disabled. His eyes were suddenly opened to the beauty of nature which he would never have discovered without his early misfortunes. In the mid-1960s he would take me and my brothers walking in the countryside near our home in Dartford and on the downs above Eastbourne where we holidayed every year. His love of nature was thus embedded permanently in my heart too.
Hello! My name is Samantha Sieber and I am an ordinand at Ridley Hall in Cambridge. Being an ordinand means that I am training to be a vicar - which is both exciting and daunting! For part of our training, we have to do a Social Context Placement or SCP. We have to spend time with a Christian organistion that is not a church and learn from them about all they do.
It was with great sadness that we heard of the death of Sarah White on 27 September whilst holidaying on the Isle of Arran. Sarah was a volunteer with Essex Bat Group and ran a bat walk at Foxearth Meadows in 2019. Her second bat walk for us would have happened this summer were it not for the pandemic. Along with the bats we were looking forward to another fun session making and twisting dough around willow wands and baking campfire bread.
I remember musing that she had the air of a ‘free spirit’ about her and I have since learned from Emma Black that she was “passionate about teaching the younger generation about nature and the great outdoors”, volunteering with Suffolk Wildlife Watch Group and at Daws Hall. Sarah was also involved with Sudbury Canoe Club and were it not for her holiday jaunt would have been helping us to collect plastic from the River Stour as part of the ‘Source to Sea’ river clean-up project.
I am told that she passed away living life to the full right to the end whilst sea kayaking. Our condolences go to her family and friends in their grief.
Mark Prina
I occasionally have the opportunity to write articles for A Rocha UK's programme for individuals and families, Wild Christian, local parish magazines or the local press. Here are a couple recent reflections which capture moments on the reserve over the summer and early autumn.
For those who pray, here are some suggestions for your prayers.
We give thanks:
That work parties are able to continue and for all the hard work as well as fun and friendship enjoyed. We are glad that we are able to include individuals with special needs and people returning to health.
For the rain! We need it for rivers and ponds and to replenish depleted ground water levels.
Please pray:
For health and safety of volunteers and visitors, including Mark, the Manager, as he copes with the physical demands of the job.
For possible uses of different media platforms, that these will be wise and effective.
For water quality on the reserve, so important for many forms of wildlife, including the dragonflies and damselflies that we glory in.
That the reserve will serve our local area well in inspiring people to enjoy, nurture and defend nature.
For the work of A Rocha UK. ARUK runs the fast-expanding Eco Church programme and is involved in promoting the Climate Sunday initiative leading up to COP26 (now due to take place in November 2021), highlighting the need to address the climate crisis and to build better, greener, cleaner and fairer for the future.
