This morning Olivier and Jonny helped out at Hill Hook Nature Reserve in Sutton Coldfield.

The task was 'water kicking'. This meant checking the streams water quality. We did this by using the nets to put water into trays then seeing the number of different species.

This was really interesting, one tray showing 7 different species including; shrimps, water snails and even a stickleback fish.

We also found some freshwater limpits on a rock as you can see from the picture.

The water was also tested for it's phosphate level, which gave a reading of 0.6 which apparently is pretty decent.

Overall it was a very interesting morning and it was really surprising to find such a mix of species in a small stream.

Today we were back at Hill Hook Nature Reserve.

The job was to cut the meadow, well not exactly the volunteers job was to rake up all the hay and put it into huge bags. It was certainly a good workout!

Charlotte and her dad John did a great job of raking and dragging the hay for it to be disposed. Jonny did plenty of raking but also under the strict supervision of David from the Wildlife Trust got a go at using the cutter!

You can see from the before and after pics of how different the area looked.

Whats more, whilst doing our 'hay making' we came across 3 toads of all sizes. Unfortunately David mentioned when cutting a meadow there can be casualties, therfore the toad rescue was our 2nd good deed of the day. They were picked up and moved to another part of the nature reserve so that they were nice and safe :)

On a lovely sunny day, Charlotte, Olivier and Jonny helped out at Hill Hook Nature Reserve in Sutton Coldfield. Joining the Friends of Hill Hook Nature Reserve

Today's job was lots of weeding! We had to 'weed out' a very invasive species and with it being Mental Health awareness week, what better pun could we have?!

We also got the added bonus of seeing the swans with their signets and the baby coots being fed by their parents, a lovely way to finish the Community Mission.

There will be another Community Mission at Hill Hook in late June :)

This morning we had a nice sunny morning to join the volunteers at Hill Hook Nature Reserve in Sutton Coldfield.

Olivier joined on her first GoodGym session and Suki joined us for the first time at Hill Hook after her mornings Parkrun exploits!

The task was to plant 300 trees. With all the rain it made digging the holes a little easier! It was fantastic work and by 11.30am we managed to plant all 300 trees! A really fantastic effort, well done everyone involved :)

It was a nice morning for helping out at the Hill Hook Nature Reserve in Sutton Coldfield this morning.

It was great to meet Calum on his first GG Community Mission, who had cycled over from Five Ways and to see regulars Rachel and Charlotte at the the task.

The first task was cutting back all the brambles which was done in double quick time, even before Jonny arrived, who had been smashing out a Sutton Park Parkrun PB, before running across to the nature reserve after.

Next task was moving an invasive plant species, which could be spotted by it's slightly white leafs. After that it was more cutting back and trimming.

On a lovely sunny morning GoodGym were out at Hill Hook Nature Reserve helping the team with various tasks organised the the Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust.

It was great to meet Chowie, who came to her first GoodGym Community Mission.

On arrival it was lovely to see the swans with their babies, which were apparently only a week old. Once I had taken a few photos it was on with the task. First job was some ground weeding to make space for some young trees.

Next job was the post erection! Yep a newly delivered flower identification needed to be erected. This involved lots of digging, before eventually putting a concrete type substance into the holes and our post was erected!

Next job was planting some plants in a boggy area of the nature reserve before finally finishing off with some more weeding near the stream.

It was a lovely morning of work and GG will look forward ti being back in August :)