Rangers Work Days

Whilst the Community Payback Team are doing a great job in clearing the ground on the East side of Etwall, the Mickleover end of R54 has been somewhat neglected, partly due to the presence of our glow worm colony during the Summer.
We will soon be taking delivery of  the first batch of nest boxes which are being constructed for us at a local college. Most of these are being sponsored by the public in Etwall, so the boxes will be installed in the next few weeks and this is a job for us to do. The boxes will be numbered so that sponsors can identify their box. A gentleman in Etwall has offered to make metal plates to cover the entrance hole to prevent squirrels and woodpeckers from enlarging the holes. The plates come on two sizes, 25mm for blue tits and 32mm for great tits. We will fit the plates.
Also there is work for us to do in tidying up the area around the veteran trees where we already have a few nest boxes which we installed last Winter. There is a new bird feeding table to install, since the existing "squirrel proof" feeder was unsuccessful in that baby grey squirrels were able to squeeze through the wire mesh and were seen scoffing the bird food.
Access for the Community Payback team's mini bus is difficult in the areas of R54 where the path is narrowest and we need to open this up so that they can go along the path and turn the vehicle round. We will cut back the undergrowth to make turning spaces.
So plenty of work for us to do, and our first workday will be on Saturday 27th November.
Meet at the veteran tree 1/2 mile west of Mickleover Station anytime after 9am. No need to bring any tools apart from a pair of work gloves as we have plenty, due to the acquisition of surplus tools from Bristol.