The Bittern and the Truxor

22nd October 2024

I went down to Amwell this morning to see if I could find the Bittern and found out that it was Truxor day, so an opportunity to see both. The Truxor is a very specialised amphibious piece of kit used to cut reeds over land and water. At Amwell it is used each October to cut bays along the reed bed margins to hopefully make Bitterns more visible, but also to cut a long wide ride running between the James and White Hides so that you can see down it from both hides. Cutting the bays is straight forward but getting the ride aligned is the main challenge.

So which of the latest technology do we use for guiding the Truxor - lasers, satnav, drones? No, Sean the Truxor driver positions himself near the White Hide then stands up so we can see him and phones us in the James Hide and says "Am I dead-centre in front of the White Hide?" to which we reply "no, need to go about 15 feet to your right" and after a couple of iterations he was given the go ahead and started driving towards the James Hide, standing up every few yards to see if he was still on course.

The White Hide

At this time we could hear the Truxor moving through the reeds but could not see it, but then after a few minutes the reeds started moving so getting closer. Eventually the reeds parted and we could see Sean's face peering out of the reeds.

Well that's the first cut finished and now he can see where he is going, so just three more cuts to go.

The Truxor is a fantastic piece of kit able to run on water or overland with the proplusion supplied by wide soft tracks/paddles.. On the front is a wide cutter which can be raised or rotated if required, and on the back is a rake for collecting all the debris after the cutting is complete.

And what did the locals think of it? Well the Snipe hiding in the shadows below the hide was wondering what all the commotion was about..................

.....................and the Bittern said "bye" and flew to the Bittern Pool.

A great operation, a great machine and hats off to Sean for a fantastic job.