Bird in the hand breakfast

Getting the benefit of perhaps the only dry and sunny four hours of the weekend, the bird in the hand breakfast got off to an early start with the volunteers setting up from about 8am onward. Our thanks go to everyone who pitched in on the day – there was quite a lot to help with. I’m sure the smell of breakfast cooking helped everyone along.

Bird Ringing

The bird ringing table proved just as popular as last time. The team caught and ringed 24 birds in total over the course of the morning and drew crowds of fascinated children (as well as adults). Our thanks go to Nigel Butcher, Zbig Karpowicz, Kevin Middleton, Ellie Crane and Simon for all their work, not only on the stand but in putting out feed in advance and nets on the morning of the event.

Moth display

Malcolm Ausden, Principal Ecologist with the RSPB returned to the orchard with another brilliant haul of moths trapped locally the night before. People of all ages gathered to look at the display, which included some brilliant examples of camouflage and some large hawk moth varieties.

Around the field

The cooked breakfasts provided by Phil and Wayne, ably assisted by Phil’s son, proved very popular across the morning with repeated forays into the village to find more supplies to meet demand. Our thanks also to Jessica, Nikki, Geoff and all the others who helped keep everyone in food and drinks all morning – it’s a wonderful place to have breakfast.

Given the recent weather there wasn’t really much need to water the trees, but the sunshine held out long enough for people to wander around the orchard and embark on their own nature hunts. We also managed to plant some for wildflower trays out in the meadow area as well as hand out some more.

All around an excellent morning. The orchard really is turning into a lovely place and seeing so many people enjoying it – especially the number of children running around in the long grass – really makes the whole endeavour feel like an asset for the whole community.

Lovely to see the picnic benches getting so much use too.

Photos from the morning