Thistle do nicely

Sophie, Viv, Gillian, Angela and Georgeta joined me this evening to walk 2.5km to an SSSI near Bray Marina, where the rare Pennyroyal plant makes its home.

Our task was to pull up invasive thistles, and also Ragwort, which makes the land unsafe for some grazing animals.

The grazing animals we were expecting were on holiday (apparently being tested for TB) and it seemed like they might have moo-ved our for a while, as the site was very overgrown...

...which might not have been what our Nature Bureau task owner expected, but it did mean the field looked really beautiful, wildflowers (including the Pennyroyal thankfully) were thriving and there were many happy minibeasts around.

The thistles and ragwort were fairly stubborn, probably thanks to the hot weather and dry ground, but armed with special thistle removal tools, we removed enough to create a couple of big heaps.

We also found that although there were loads of thistles, there wasn't much Ragwort. Perhaps thanks to GoodGym's efforts Ragwort pulling last year?

This site is always a lovely place to help out on a Summer's evening. We hope to return again in August, so keep a look out for more listings like this(tle) one!