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.

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 :)