Liverpool CCS Get Stuck In at Butterfly Park

Thanks to Claire Hastewell of Liverpool Crown Commercial Services for sending us this report after their volunteering day at the Butterfly Park.

The container near the entrance of New Ferry Butterfly Park

On a cloudy overcast Tuesday in June, three colleagues from Liverpool Crown Commercial Services headed down to the New Ferry Butterfly Park, with sleeves rolled up ready to get stuck into learning how to puddle a pond, scything, understand the ecology of the park and making bug houses. What a great day it was!

The colleagues were warmly welcomed by the Butterfly Park lead Paul and a team of merry men and women, all local volunteers, who entertained us with nostalgic stories from the past, lots of tea and biscuits and let's not forget the homemade cake.

Preparing clay to rebuild the pond

Soaking the clay in buckets and a bath to soften it!

After brief introductions and an outline of the exciting day ahead, they got to work straight away with puddling the pond. Recently the pond had leaked so the team were helping to rebuild, starting with building a barrier of clay around the outer of the pond. The only challenge being the clay was in solid rock form and had to be soaked to make it pliable. Off they went to work, collecting buckets, filling with water and lumps of clay! Even the bath became a source of soaking and was offered as a spa treatment to those that wished to have a dip!

Getting hands-on with the clay

Whilst the team were breaking the clay with pick axes, loading buckets with water and clay to soften, one of the volunteers was knee deep breaking the clay down in the buckets, like a pig in muck!

By 11am the kettle was on and a well deserved tea break was had by all.

Taking a break

Whilst the kettle was boiling, they wandered off to explore the length and breadth of the Butterfly Park and the delights along the way. Hidden deep were volunteers busily tucked away in pockets of the park, beavering away scything the paths and replacing an old sign. Digging holes 2ft deep, one of the volunteers had put the original sign in 15 years ago and was cracking the concrete from the original site.

Digging a hole to replace an sign at the park. Not deep enough yet!

The next job was to learn how to scythe the paths. There is something very satisfying about swinging a tool that sharp - just watch out for the fellow volunteers. One swing too hard landed one of the CCS colleagues into the brambles and nettles, which caused a giggle. The cart to collect the cuttings to take to the compost proved to be challenging to navigate, but once mastered they managed to fill the compost heap, and even had a visit from the local wildlife!

Collecting the scything cuttings in the cart

Adding the scything cuttings to the compost heap

A robin checking out the volunteers' hard work!

Scything complete!

Another refuel of tea and biscuits, they were then met by Hillary Ash, who gave the team a 40 minute walk around the park, sharing tales of the history, educating the team on ant hills, hazel trees and mistletoe as well as about the projects and plans for the park.

One final job was to help rebuild the bug hotels, filling tubes with canes and paper and making sure there were plenty of dark secure places for our bugs and insects to hibernate in safety of the local birds and other wildlife.

Layering up a bug hotel at the Butterfly Park

Rebuilding the bug hotels

Hilary Ash (second from right) with the three CCS volunteers

The feedback from the CCS team was how educational and enjoyable the day had been, which had variety and plenty to keep them busy, as well as being in great company! In their words, "We will be back!"