16.06.11 More balsam pulling and more balsam pullers

Maria, Beau and I started off pulling balsam down to the left from the new notice board and as we pulled, several people who already pulled some balsam joined in with our work. We finished off the area we started 2 weeks ago and then moved down into the patch opposite where the balsam had started to encroach onto the grassland.

This was found in the grass near to the balsam - any ideas? UPDATE: We now think it is a small magpie moth Eurrhypara hortulata

Cheers to the newcomers Kim, Isabel and Brandon and to the fellow whose name I didn't catch, but who kindly informed me of the typo on the new Torfaen Greenweb site.

The first balsam was spotted in flower today, so all hands to the pump. You know what to do, pull it up, twist the stems and leave in a big pile like these. We'll be back out as a group next Thursday meeting 6 pm in the car park, but there is plenty more to do so keep on pulling!!

Oh. many of the pictures below were taking by budding photographer Beau: