Countrycare Volunteer Tour 2009

Each year we take time out from our regular volunteer days and have a tour of the district to see how the various sites look in the summer. (Some we only really work on in the winter!!)

This year we visited five sites. In the morning we started at the Essex Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve of Hawksmere Spring. Situated in the rural parish of Stapleford Tawney this is one of the last surviving unimproved meadows in the district.

This was followed by our own Hallsford Bridge Meadow in Ongar (a new site which we have just taken on) where a refereshing cup of tea was had by all.

The final visit of the morning was Cripsey Brook Nature Reserve in Chipping Ongar (pictured below) which Countrycare volunteers have transformed from a mass of bramble into an improve public green space.

After a pleasant lunch in Moreton we went onto North Weald to visit our Local Nature Reserves of Church Lane and Weald Common.

At Church Lane LNR we managed to find a numbers of orchids including Common Spotted and Bee, while at Weald Common we admired the winter work of the "Hedgelaying Team".

From all the staff at Countrycare a massive thank you to all our volunteers.