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THAMES ROAD WETLAND (Inner Crayford Marshes) - THE WORK GOES ON.Our last report was way back on 12th April. We're usually out every Friday, but tiredness and a loss of motivation from yours truly, plus some rainy days, have reduced our levels of activity over the last quarter.
Repeat summer cutting of areas of Reed we are trying to supress has continued. Where this has got taller than we'd hoped, we have watched and listened first to ensure no Reed Warbler usage. We have been able to cut some patches often enough for there to be no danger of nesting birds using them.
Dates, work done and selected wildlife sightings have been as follows:
19/4 - Re-pollarded small Sallows. Dug out road run-off muck from 'crap-trap'. Path work. Slender Thistles outside fenceline in flower. Bur-chervil in flower. Red Admiral, Peacock, Speckled Wood, Small White. Large Red Damselfly, Reed Warblers back.
17/5 - Re-packed Bug Hotels with dead hollow plant stems. Re-cutting main path. Litter removal. In flower: swathe of Wild Clary (Salvia verbenaca), Bee Orchid, Brookweed, Flag Iris, Early Forget-me-Not, Hound's-tongue. Adult Cinnabar Moth, Ashy Mining Bee. 1 x Painted Lady, Peacock, Red Admiral, 2 Holly Blue, single Small Heath. Lizards. 1 Greenfinch heard. Chiffchaff.
14/6 - Re-cutting area of Reed at foot of Thames Road bank with brushcutter, and Reed at west end by scythe. Raking and stacking silt and cut material. Cutting off Giant Hogweed flower heads. Re-cutting sections of main path. Selective cutting back of vegetation where now shading reptile basking sites. Pyramidal Orchids in flower. 18 plants with 23 flower spikes (vz 7 with 12 on 17/6/23). Lots of Hemlock Water Dropwort in flower and one Monkey Flower (Mimulus guttatus). Banded Demoiselle and Azure Damselfly.
28/6 - Reed cutting. Path work. Wild Carrots and Hop Sedges in flower. Small Tortoiseshell, 1st Gatekeeper of season. A few Lizards. Water Rail heard, suggesting possible breeding.
12/7 - Re-cut Reed at west end with brushcutter and by hand with scythes. Some path and Lizard basking site work. More Giant Hogweed beheaded (The fire of 2022 caused a few new ones to come up. Since all the Cray area plants appear to flower once and die, they usually think their job is done if you cut off the flowerhead even though the seeds haven't ripened, and they therefore die without reproducing). First Marsh Sow-thistle flowers of season out. Marsh Woundwort in flower. Red Admiral, Peacock, Comma, a few Gatekeepers. 3 or 4 Blue-tailed Damselflies. A few Lizards out.
A complaint has been submitted to the Council about the large amount of litter / fragmented plastics along the Thames Road site fence that never seem to get cleared up, and that fact that a strimmer gang recently went over it all, unhelpfully chopping up the material into even smaller pieces.
For assistance during this period I thank fellow volunteers Ray, Pamela, Clare, Elio, Ian, Alex, Sarah, Lee, Verity and Rory. There was Thames21 staff support from Michael O'Neill on 14/6 and 12/7.
Chris Rose. Volunteer Site Manager.
WOODLANDS FARM (SHOOTERS HILL) BAT SURVEY DATE CONFIRMED.Thank you to everyone who got back to me to confirm which date they could do for the Bat Survey. I can confirm that we shall be sticking with the original date of Thursday 25th July. Meeting in the yard at 9.15pm. So hope to see you there, please bring a bat detector if you have one, and a torch.
Also a reminder that the Big Butterfly Count season has started until beginning of August. So why not pop down to the farm on a sunny day (if we have any!) and record what butterflies you see for 15 minutes. Then either write in the Bird Book in Mess or send me the info. All the information and ID sheets are available from the
Butterfly Conservation Trust bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org/
Hannah Ricketts
Education Officer
The Woodlands Farm Trust
331 Shooters Hill
Welling
Kent
DA16 3RP
Tel: 0208 3198900
Website: www.thewoodlandsfarmtrust.org
NORTH AMERICAN VAGRANT SPOTTED AT CROSSNESS.A Franklin's Gull was found at Crossness yesterday (13/7/2024) by Conrad Ellam, a member of the Friends Group. Thanks to @stormcabbirds for permission to reproduce his 'X' post with photos here.
This is an uncommon species from Canada and the northern USA, which migrates to South America, occasionally showing up in western Europe.
There is currently some debate as to whether it's the third, or possibly second record for London. It is certainly the second for Crossness, since one was also seen here in April 2000.
State of the UK's Invertebrates Virtual SymposiumHugely important subject.
Online event.
Friday, July 19 · 10am - 1pm
Non-professional attendees asked to pay what you can afford (minimum fee of £1, recommended donation £10)
State of the UK's Invertebrates Virtual Symposium
www.eventbrite.co.uk
Join us for a knowledge-sharing event about the state of the UK's invertebrate populations.
Author Archives: jonathanrooks1@outlook.com
Hall Place and Danson House face complete loss of Council funding.
The charity that runs Danson House and Hall Place house and gardens on behalf of Bexley residents is facing the complete loss of funding over the next four years in Bexley Council’s latest round of cuts. With 107,000 visitors a … Continue reading
Posted in Bexley Council, Hall Place
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Meeting for anti-bridge campaigners
London Assembly member Darren Johnson AM (Green Party) will host a public meeting at City Hall on November 18th, starting at 9am for 9.30. To register your interest, please e-mail Rachel Carlill <Rachel.Carlill@london.gov.uk> and put ‘register’ in the subject line. … Continue reading
Posted in Belvedere, Bexley Council, Planning, River Thames, Thamesmead
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Thames 21 river conservation events October – December 2014
Events River Cray Catchment Thames 21 – October to December 2014. Here are the autumn early winter events for Thames21 on the Cray. We have now fully started the Veolia Environmental Trust funded project for the River Cray at Foots … Continue reading
Posted in River Cray, River Shuttle, Rivers, Thames21, Volunteering
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August 2014 was the hottest August on record
Global climate: August 2014 was the hottest August on record. The report for July 2014 Prime Meridian is published as part the outreach programme of the Ecospheres Project – Earth Campaign. The purpose of the Earth Campaign is to highlight the vital importance … Continue reading
Posted in Weather
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Winter programme of events at Crossness
Posted in Crossness Nature Reserve, Volunteering
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National House Martin Survey in 2015 – could you help locally?
The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) will be conducting a national survey of House Martin nests next year in a bid to help understand their national decline. The BTO say “Volunteers have helped us to collect information about breeding House Martins on their … Continue reading
Posted in Bird watching, Recording, Volunteering
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Autumn wildflower gardening
Tips from the National Wildflower Centre for autumn activities for your wildflower garden. Collect Your Own Seed Look for the seed in your wildflowers going brown and dry (dessicated). Simply collect this ripe seed and either drop it straight back … Continue reading
Posted in Gardening for wildlife
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Analysis of this year’s Big Butterfly count
Butterfly Conservation do an annual summer survey of butterflies. here is their analysis of the over 44,000 returns they received.
Posted in Uncategorized
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BNEF Comments on the initial Erith Quarry development proposals
700 homes planned for a Grade 1 Site of Importance for Nature conservation Here is Bexley Natural Environment Forum’s general submission on the initial proposals from the developers, presented at a public exhibition in July. BNEF is the umbrella body … Continue reading
Posted in Erith Quarry, Planning, SINC
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