{"id":3111,"date":"2015-04-02T13:22:27","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T13:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/?p=3111"},"modified":"2015-04-07T18:59:53","modified_gmt":"2015-04-07T18:59:53","slug":"digging-a-ditch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/2015\/04\/02\/digging-a-ditch\/","title":{"rendered":"Digging a ditch"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Digging<\/a>
Digging a ditch on the reserve<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Newly<\/a>
Newly dug ditches … turning into a seasonal pond<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After just three short sessions of ditch-making, we have a little network of waterways, an island sporting a natural tuft of Pendulous Sedge, some impressively high banks of muddy, gravelly spoil, and a new feature for the reserve. We hope to extend the ditch down the natural line (was it a ditch before?) to the trees at the end. The existing seasonal pond certainly had a ditch-like extension to just across the path (from where the lower photo was taken), and we intend also to clear that out – it shouldn’t be difficult as, unlike the current ditchworks, there are no stones, roots or ivy entanglements to cut through.<\/p>\n

Today (7 April) the sun shone in a cloudless spring sky, and we worked to the song of a Chiffchaff. Two Blackcaps were singing elsewhere in the reserve, along with Wrens, Dunnocks, Great Tits, Blue Tits and some non-vocal Magpies, a Jay, Wood Pigeons, a Heron and Mallard. The insects, too, have emerged to exploit the sudden warmth, with plenty of Peacock butterflies, a Brimstone or two, and a Holly Blue; I saw a Small White in my garden. There was a 7-spot and a Harlequin ladybird, and the pond was alive with a new crop of Pond Skaters.<\/p>\n

The grass is racing up; Broom is coming into its handsome yellow pea-flowers; several tufts of garden-escape Mahonia and Daffodils are richly yellow; red deadnettles tempt several species of bumblebee including buff\/white-tailed and carders, and the honeybees are active.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After just three short sessions of ditch-making, we have a little network of waterways, an island sporting a natural tuft of Pendulous Sedge, some impressively high banks of muddy, gravelly spoil, and a new feature for the reserve. We hope to extend the ditch down the natural line (was it a ditch before?) to the … Continue reading Digging a ditch<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,88,6],"tags":[746,16],"class_list":["post-3111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-conservation","category-nature-reserves","category-wildlife","tag-ditch","tag-gunnersbury-triangle-nature-reserve","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3111"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3119,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111\/revisions\/3119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}