(This is what it looked like in Sept 2014.)

Yesterday, ten of us cleared (6 from PLPT, 4 from Hastings Conservation Volunteers), dragged and burnt branches previously cut to free the phone wires, raked leaves & twigs from the tennis court and further opened up what we now understand to have been a grass court, by cutting back some more blackthorn.

That area has been extensively mined by rabbits during the years it has been under bramble but evidence of its former use persists in part of one of the concrete fence-posts seen (in a better state) in old photos.

The pond level is still too high to reduce the fallen willow as much as we should like but a few branches were nonetheless taken down.

Above the sound of the chainsaw, Goldcrest & Coal Tit could be heard singing and the wintering Chiffchaff called from across the canal.

Monday: 32 species of bird were on or over the Trust land, including many singing Song Thrushes, Chaffinches & Greenfinches as well as a courting trio of brilliantly coloured Bullfinches. A male Kestrel was taking advantage of the recently mown reeds to swoop on prey from a telegraph pole.