Work Party At Auchgourish Saturday 4th March 2023

It was another good turn-out of volunteers, with eleven folks coming from as far afield as Peterhead and Insch to help. Half of the group were Cairngorms Volunteers and half were local Butterfly Conservation regulars. It was a nice mix of new faces alongside regular work party attendees. There was an international feel to the group, with representatives from Croatia, France and Switzerland, as well as the UK countries!

 

First outing for a CNPA Tree-popper

 

Our task was to clear regenerating scrub – gorse, broom and pines – from sandy forestry tracks and track sides where the rare and very localised Dingy Skipper butterfly has previously been recorded. If left unchecked, this developing vegetation would shade out Bird’s-foot Trefoil, the food plant of Dingy Skipper caterpillars, and shade out the sunny open ground where the adult butterflies bask.

 

Regen popping team

 

Although the root systems of many plants were quite well developed, we were able to lever them out of the sandy ground with tree poppers. We borrowed some brand new tree poppers from the Cairngorms National Park Authority which, along with the BC poppers, enabled everyone to have a tree popper for the day.

Track before work started

 

The weather was mostly fine, with sunny spells, although there was the odd light rain shower. Good progress was made, and we cleared over 200m of track and turning places. As ever, apart from the satisfaction of carrying out hands-on habitat improvement, there was plenty of chat between attendees as we all had interests in common. Another very satisfying BC work party!

Track after work

                               Pete Moore