Volunteering at North Cliffe Wood

30 Days Wild, day 12: Today was our monthly conservation task day at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's North Cliffe Wood nature reserve. Four volunteers turned up at 10am and waited in the layby at the reserve entrance, but there was no sign of the leader. A fifth volunteer arrived, who told us that the leader we were expecting was on holiday, so another member of YWT staff was taking her place. He had sent a text to say he'd be an hour late.

Clearing invasive bracken

There wasn't much we could do, but we decided to clear the bracken from an area known as the Butterfly Glade. A local entomologist had once found 26 species of butterfly here in one morning.

 Yellow flag iris in the Butterfly Glade

 Rare wood millet growing beside the ditch

It was a damp and cool morning, so no butterflies were on the wing today. I'd brought a long-handled slasher, but apart from that we had no tools. Some of the group didn't have gloves. We got a substantial area cleared before calling it a day at about 1pm. The leader had still not arrived. In the past, I've led task days here when the field officer was on holiday. I may not have been much good, but at least I turned up.

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