I thought it was about time I put fingers to keyboard again. I haven't for a few months now, and I know you are all itching to find out what's been going on Thursley National Nature Reserve.

Well the summer work programme is long done, progress on the now notorious boardwalk is going well, slow hard work but as they say if a job is worth doing………… , we have managed to complete many meters of removal and re-construction with help from regional staff, and volunteer help. I must at this point mention the fantastic help from two of Thursley's residents, namely Dene Mills and Jerry Horwood who spent a Sunday tirelessly working with us, after my advert for help went out in the two local Parish mags. My thanks to them.

Another group who helped for a day were the Guildford Natural England office staff, we spent the day clearing scrub from the beginning of the boardwalk network near the Moat car park, making access easier and a lot less prickly.

Other works for the winter programme have been planned and indeed already begun. We have contractors in place for scrub removal, also we have some days booked for the regional reserve staff to help out on mass. Merrist wood college will also be on site at various days over the winter, they will be felling pine trees as part of their chainsaw courses, and for us we will gain some heathland creation where the pines are taking over, this will not be a large scale clearance operation, mainly a thinning exercise where we can see the heath being lost.

One little job a volunteer and myself carried out was the planting of a dozen Oak trees, these were trees that were auctioned off last year as part of the fund raising effort which as you may remember culminated with the play "last of the summer whines". Two of the trees were planted at the reserve entrance on the Thursley recreation ground, near the kids play area. The rest were planted on the edge of the common, roughly behind Foldsdown area. A pleasurable job, which made a nice change, actually planting something as opposed to cutting down trees and scrub.

I have a piece of very interesting research for Thursley Common, following the fire we have had a huge increase in a particular group of insects, these are the Aculeates. These are the bees and wasps family, which is in fact a very large and diverse group of invertebrates (that's creatures who have no internal bone structure, they are protected by an external skeleton). The term aculeate refers to their sting or pointed tube (ovipositor) at the rear for egg laying, from the word acute, meaning sharp. Many of these insects require bare or sparsely vegetated open sandy conditions for egg laying and finding prey, as you are aware Thursley common has that in abundance at present. The other factor in their success is the abundance of early nectar sources, namely the increase in Ragwort and thistles this year and last year. We are according to one expert, the best in the country for this insect family at the moment, so out of devastation some thing will always thrive.

If you feel you have over done the festivities I have planned a work day in the new year to burn off all those excesses, please see the advert on page 13 in this magazine. Hopefully see you them.

As ever if you want more information or would like to volunteer your time in helping us, don't hesitate to contact us at the office, or grab me when I am on site, always enjoy a chat.

Cheers.

Contact:
James Giles or Simon Nobes
Natural England, Thursley National Nature Reserve
Office - 01428 685675, Mobile - 07971 974399

james.giles@naturalengland.org.uk simon.nobes@naturalengland.org.uk