Brass monkeys.

Picture last Friday afternoon.

It was cold…..  very cold….. bloody cold, even…. brass monkey weather.

So, imagine my surprise:-

I was walking the beasts and had left the car park, negotiated the rocky path, and was crossing Old Brook, when I noticed flames in Brown’s Wood. I wandered in and saw two lads with a fire going, and busy setting up camp. As it happened, I’d already ‘clocked in’ with the answering machine at Brownhills, so I effected my best ‘Countryside Service Ranger’ voice and asked them if they wouldn’t mind putting out the fire. After a bit of slightly sulky chat they did so, and I pointed out that if they wanted to camp they needed the landowner’s permission, and suggested that they had a word with the bloke at Slences to see if he’d let them camp on his land. They promised to move on, and as the fire was out, I left them to it.

They weren’t just your average teenage drunkards (not intent on camping at this time of year they weren’t!) , and as they were wearing camouflage trousers with black sweatshirts with ARMY logos,  I assumed that they were trying out some new-found survival skills learned as cadets.

A couple of days later, however, Marian found signs of another camp, and the usual rubbish left behind – maybe they weren’t such decent lads after all.

They claimed not to have seen any NO CAMPING signs, and entered the moor at Pingot. I have already raised the issue of better signage with the CS, and got nowhere. I suppose we’re up against typical local government efficiency…..

Marian has suggested approaching local youth groups (scouts, army cadets, youth clubs, etc.) to try and get the message across that camping up there is not allowed.

Does anybody have any other suggestions?

Tandlehills trees

Last Saturday, Ed and myself acting in our capacity as volunteer rangers (or whatever our titles are…I’ve never really known….), rolled up at Tandlehills to join in a tree planting event.

I know that our group is all about Crompton Moor, but as long as some of us are Countryside Service volunteers, then I think that we should also attend events at other places around the borough.

By the time we got there, and met up with Matt the ranger and Ian (another volunteer who’s helped with the Whitesides fence), things were well under way with kids everywhere helping dig holes, plant trees and then having happy, smily photos taken by some council photographer bloke.

Not all the kids and their parents were happy and smily, however, but I’ve already voiced my opinion about the attitude of the photographer to various Countryside Service staff, so I won’t bang on about it again here.

We bagged ourselves a tree and some spades and started digging, helped by our own special  friend for the afternoon. She was (and presumably still is….) called Kennedy, and she was such a help with planting not one, but two of the trees that Ed took some photos of her efforts and we made her an honourary member of The Friends of Crompton Moor Conservation Group for the day.

Her parents Kirsty and John were (and also probably still are….) great people as well, and have promised to come along and help at any suitable events on the moor.

I intend to hold them to that.

…and about time, too!

OK folks, before I start making all manner of half-hearted and rather unconvincing excuses for the lack of recent posts, I’ll wish you all a  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Right…. on with the miserable excuses.

Actually, I don’t have any. There are several reasons that the blog hasn’t been updated since August, but most of them aren’t down to anything specific.

This lull in posting anything has however resulted in us missing out on publicising one of our big events of last year – the tree planting at Whitesides. This is unforgivable, as it would have been a great chance to shout about our achievements, and let people know just how much we care about the Crompton Moor. Unfortunately, we let this great opportunity for publicity pass us by completely, as we also (for reasons that I won’t go into here) missed out on getting the local press along.

Still, if I can cadge a few photos, clear my head of the effects of this bottle of cabernet sauvignon, and get my backside in gear, I’ll do a write up of what we did on the day, which included finishing the Whitesides fence, and digging up a bit of Crompton Moor’s past.

Watch this space….. as until we get a proper website up and running, I’ll be keeping this blog up to date.

Forthcoming posts:-

• The tree planting
• Acceptance by the Countryside Service
• The Stakeholder Forum
• Ed and Mic (and a special guest) go tree planting at Tandlehills

Cheers!

Mic

Feed the birds

August on Crompton Moor

Been pretty quite on the moor this past month, which is probably due to all the bad weather we’ve been having. This week in particular has been a tough one. I have been soaked through every morning this week, but, do you know what, I’ve still enjoyed my walks. All you need is a good pair of boots and some good waterproofs.

I hadn’t been up for a couple of weeks, due to not feeling too good, and I think the birds in the woods must have thought I’d deserted them.

On Monday they were very quiet and I hardly saw any at all. I still put down some food and threw some apples around and went on my way.

Tuesday I went in again and put down food once more, and this time I saw a few and could hear more birds high up in the trees.

Wednesday I went in and had only gone a few yards, rustling my bag of red berry suet, and suddenly I was surrounded. The magpies and pigeons were in the majority and very noisy, and I had to duck a few times as they swooped down to grab the food (the magpies and pigeons that is, not ducks!). The smaller birds were still keeping their distance a little, but it was good to see them flying around the food once I had moved a distance away.

Thursday and Friday – well what a change, so many birds everywhere, especially the cheeky robins who landed on branches right by my side, and the many tits zipping from branch to branch only a couple of feet from me as I walked.

I started feeding them during the heavy snow last winter and I enjoyed watching them so much I just carried on. Of course I greatly reduced the amount of food I put down as they have plenty of natural food around during the spring and summer. The red berry suet is a favourite of the robins, and it’s quite common to now find a couple of robins waiting for me when I enter the wood. They then tend to follow me all the way round until I leave.

My fingers hurt!

This morning saw the second volunteer fencing day at Whitesides.

Apart from Marian being stuck in Majorca courtesy of a delayed flight, and some short bloke turning up 30 minutes late, we had the same turnout of FCM members as last time – big thanks to Ed and Bob for flying the flag.

Ed, Bob and John in action.

This time, the weather was much better, and overall the experience was more enjoyable. It is satisfying to see a significant part of the Old Brook side of Whitesides, now fully fenced.

We would have got more done during the session, had it not been for the fact that some persons of dubious parentage had stolen the fencing materials that John Callaghan had left on site on Thursday.

As it was, a quick search of the surrounding woods showed no sign of the missing posts, and so the session was limited to finishing off the fencing that was already there, but part completed.

The reference in the title to the state of my fingers, refers to the fact that Ed and myself, and later Bob, had been instructed by John on the correct method of attaching the field fence to the large straining posts.

This involves twisting extremely uncooperative lengths of high-tensile steel wire together with your fingers, whilst testing your vocabulary of four-letter words. Not for the faint-hearted; either doing it, or standing within earshot!

Looking forward – John is confident that with the more uneven ground already fenced, we will need fewer of the large straining posts, and that from here on progress will be a lot faster.

Watch this space for details of the next fencing day, and although I suspect that (for whatever reason) this plea will fall on deaf ears, please consider registering as a volunteer to help us complete this task.

At the end of the day, it is doing stuff such as this that FCM is all about.

More fencing at Whitesides

It’s good to see that the project of fencing off Whitesides has gained a bit of momentum, with the addition of a new run of fencing.

To be honest, I was beginning to get a bit down that the place would ever get the protection it deserves, but was encouraged to see that some new fencing had gone up over the past couple of days.

I would encourage anyone who is interested in helping out on the next volunteer fencing day (31st July) to contact the countryside service at Alexandra Park and ask about registering as a volunteer. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the volunteer days for fencing Whitesides (with Duke of Edinburgh Award students involved), it is a requirement that only registered volunteers can take part.

The more the merrier, and the more stuff we can get done on these days, then the quicker we can get the entire woods secured against illegal activity.

Talking of which, there was a full scale party going on in there last night by the sound of it. The police were just rolling up in a bloody great transit van as Iw as leaving the car park, so I pointed them in the direction of Whitesides – although, to be honest, they just needed to follow the screams and shouts.

On Crompton Moor

This gallery contains 6 photos.

Just thought I’d share a few photos with you.   Not taken by me though!   I took my son David up to the moor last Thursday and he took some photos for me.   Hope you enjoy looking at some of them. … Continue reading →