Pulfin Bog

After another damp start, it soon brightened up and we had clear skies for the rest of the day. I went to a conservation volunteer work day at Pulfin Bog, near Beverley. After all the rain we’ve had, it really lived up to its name – it was very wet underfoot. There is a huge reed bed here, which we mow. Parts of it are dominated by reed sweet-grass (Glyceria), which we cut in the winter months. The common reed gets cut in late summer. The field officer does the mowing and volunteers rake up the cuttings into huge piles, which we burn. If it’s dry enough, we get a good fire going, but in the winter when everything is damp, we just create a lot of smoke! The lake here is great for wildfowl. Today there were lots of greylag geese, mallards, wigeon, gadwall, cormorants, mute swans and a kingfisher.

January skies over the reed bed

Making a lot of smoke!
 
 

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