By Anna Helberg
Today was the first day of the Lundy Field Society (LFS) working party on the island.
After Roger had given us a short overview over the tasks for the day, we grabbed spades and our packed lunch and headed down Millcombe Valley towards the Lower East Side Path. We met Greg and got briefly distracted by his update about the bird ringing he was doing with Chris Dee down in Millcombe.
It was hard to tear ourselves away but the Rhododendron was waiting for us. We all lined up, up and down the slope, roughly two meters apart, and started walking slowly towards the North. A Rhododendron is easily missed between all the bracken and brambles so we made sure that we stayed close together to minimise the risk of not seeing what we were looking for. It's no easy task but everybody was very committed. Every "Rhodi!" find was celebrated, with several people coming to help digging it out and - of course - a winner's photo of the lucky finder with the Rhododendron plant as a trophy. The soil was then removed from the roots and the plant was left upside-down for the roots to dry so nothing grows back. A technique that has proven successful over the last years.
We made good progress thanks to the highly motivated team and could even allow ourselves the luxury of a second-breakfast-break at our halfway point - all the while enjoying the view, the weather and Lundy's wildlife: from butterflies to bumblebees, from seals to birds, every sighting was announced and appreciated. The beginning of the Lundy Quarry Railway Path marked the end of our Rhododendron quest for the day and after having finished lunch with lots of shared life stories, travel tips and laughter as an add-on we headed back to the village to swap tools: Spanish Bluebells, an invasive species on the island, and path upgrades in Millcombe Valley were supposed to have our full attention in the afternoon.
We split up in several groups, each tackling either a patch of Spanish Bluebells or a stretch of the path - digging, pulling, clearing gullies, levelling, widening. Again thanks to the great work of the whole LFS team we made good progress and came back to the village earlier than expected, treating ourselves to ice cream from the shop and/or a shower.
Sidenote: A huge shout-out to the LFS team: you were absolutely amazing! Good job and thank you for making the day so easy for Roger and me.