Lithobius sp PL IR P1100022 - a photo on Flickriver

Gregory, Steve 4 days ago
Not accepted as unable to verify.
In the absence of more detail, or an image, I am unable to tell the species.

Dear All,
Thank you very much for all of your effort yesterday. A good turnout (20 volunteers) and a very good task! We have in the past struggled to cut a quarter of the reedbed in the course of one task but, thanks to the drier than normal conditions underfoot and everyone’s brilliant effort, we got it done with a little time to spare (probably a good job – everyone, including me, was flagging).
Next week’s task is at Ampthill Park; meet at the West Car Park at 10am (map attached).Regards, Tim

A relaxing day - reeding in bed
The day started just after midnight and not long after that the first voles yawned their way into a quiet, coolly-dry haven of serenity. This was soon to change as Mr T arrived with his arsenal of destruction. From now on nothing in nature was safe. Quickly he growled orders to his underlings. Slowly they absorbed them, stored them into dark, dank corners of their minds, closed the door on them and would later deny anything and everything. I was going to write 'any knowledge', but being as none of that would be there anyway it seemed silly.
So with Mr T returning to pick up stragglers, the tooled up berserkers stormed the once tranquil sea of gently waving reeds.
Dave M (The Mangler) charged ahead slashing away all in his path, driveway, three lane motorway - you name it, he slashed it!
(Stealthy) Steve was more circumspect. Enough said.
It wasn't long before everything was either working like a well oiled machine or like it was well oiled. (So I lie a lot). It also wasn't long before Mr T was in full panic mode as the fire was smoking more than firing, the strimmers were zagzigging in places they should have been zigzagging, the rakers were forking and the forkers were leaning on the rakes just for a change. Obviously time for tea.
As so revitalised with tea, coffee, cherry liqueur chocolate muffins, bread pudding and doughnuts everyone settled into what they really do best, chatting.
But not for long. Within hours they were at it again - lunch.
The end was nigh on impossible. But for voles nothing is possible when impossibility challenges them. So the end rounded off another entertaining day like a square peg in a round hole. Sorry I got confused there, which is unusual for me so quite confusing. However, anyone finding a square peg please return it to the nearest round hole.
Incredibly a quarter of the reed bed was no more than a waste land. The voles had triumphed over nature again. All our work had gone up in smoke, as people in neighbouring villages could testify.
Mr T huddled by the remains of the day, nervous twitches convulsing his shattered body. " Well I suppose I should say thank you. " he blubbed, wiping the tears from his eyes, (smoke was still oozing from the dying embers of the fire). Opening them he discovered he was alone. Mr T smiled for the first time in the day.

Thanks to everyone who took part in a very productive day. Just think in four years time we'll all be back in that quarter again, hurrah.

Malcolm
Thanks Tim, it was a pleasure being there even if my poorly back stopped me doing very much. It was a good day and the cakes looked good and the B&BP was very
nourishing. I have to say Malcolm's report was a bit on the downside but that comes from him being a miserable but kind old fart or was that "tart". He was quite right
about the skill of leaning on your rake or fork, admiring the efforts of the other 50% actually working but then we are all starting to feel our age. It was good to locate Mr
Lawrence's Otter holt location again after it was buried many summers ago. Again we all felt gratitude to Steve S for his fence steps as it saved so many extra steps.

As usual my snaps of the day are at www.flickr.com/photos/pitzys_pyx/ and start with a few shots of the clearance work done by the Flit but then work
backwards through the day until I arrived, late again. We missed Colin A and Stavros and hope they are doing OK. I spoke to Audrey tonight and she is still making
progress with her tidy up but sadly has cast out our mugs as they were too tea encrusted. Funny that as an accessory to so many days in the wild and wet I really
valued my Boy 1 blue mug. Mind you Audrey still has the plates and spoon and is threatening a hot pud when we are at Duck End :) .
Just in case you missed the event on 29th I have attached Gillian and my eulogies for John.

Cheers
JP

Taken on: January 10, 2017

Tags:

Greensand Trust

Greensand Trust Volunteers

Reed beed management

Conservation Volunteers

Lumix FZ1000

Sandy Smith NR

Sandy Smith Nature Reserve

Lithobius sp « less

Sets appears in: • GST 2017 • Greensand Ridge more » • Arthropoda-Centi & Milli Pedes • Sandy Smith NR • Greensand Voles « less

Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ1000, f/2.8, 1/500 sec, 9.1mm, ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DMC-FZ1000
Aperture:	f/2.8
Exposure Time:	0.002 sec (1/500)
Focal Length:	9.1mm
ISO:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Manual
Light Source:	Cloudy
Gain Control:	High gain up
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Ver.2.2
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