Work party at Dancersend

This afternoon I had a mini work party at the nature reserve. We were raking up mowings from an area of of rank grassland and trying to burn them on a bonfire, a slow job as yesterday's rain had caught us out. The idea is to reduce the nutrients going into this grassy area and make it suitable for our colony of Chiltern gentians to spread there over the next few years. I had help from five of our regular volunteers, including Barbara, seen here loading the fire against a rapidly sinking sun. All of them will be turning out again on Sunday for our next regular all-day work party - terrific dedication!

Later, as I was tending the embers of the bonfire and light was being sucked out of the valley, I counted over 40 red kites and a handful of buzzards circling above me before heading off to roost in our woods.