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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.
Category Archives: Bird watching
Abbey Wood ‘eyesore’ provides a home and food for declining House Sparrows and a recovering Moth species
Tiny brownfield site is oasis for nature The site of the long-demolished ‘Harrow’ pub at the junction of Knee Hill and Abbey Road, labelled in the local media as a dangerous and untidy eyesore by some, was on the sunny … Continue reading
Danson Bird Reports July 2015
John Turner’s records from Danson Park for July 2015. John comments “Both the little grebe nest (disappeared) and great crested grebe nest (abandoned) have failed it seems. The garden warbler was a quick glimpse of a brown warbler! Thus the ? The … Continue reading
Posted in Bird watching, Danson Park
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Danson Ringneck Parakeet roost.
Ralph Todd’s video of the birds at their Danson roost.
Posted in Bird watching, Danson Park
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Please support battle to save Swanscombe Marshes from ghastly ‘theme park’
Swanscombe marshes is threatened by a giant theme park, supported by local Councils mesmerised, as usual, by the prospects of money, jobs and ‘growth’ at any cost, and with about as much understanding of the importance of wildlife and wild … Continue reading
Fears for Bexley’s iconic summer birds – House Martin survey underway
Can you help conserve Swifts and House Martins? Following on from the piece about Swift’s in this week’s News Shopper, Ralph Todd has submitted the following piece to the paper. If you know of Swift aggregations or House Martin nesting … Continue reading
Posted in Bexley, Bird watching, RSPB
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Bexley birds maintain media profile
Crossness Kestrels in hardcopy ‘News Shopper’ two editions running. Joined by Swifts this week. The Kestrel family at Crossness Nature Reserve on Erith Marshes was splashed across the top of the front page in last week’s ‘News Shopper’, so it … Continue reading
Posted in Belvedere, Bird watching, BNEF, Crossness, Crossness Nature Reserve, Environment, Erith Marshes, Raptors
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Birder gets on his bike to study other species
Plants, Odonata and fish photographed. From Bexley Bird Report author, Ralph Todd. Mid June-Mid July are relatively quiet times for active birdwatchers so I often pursue other avenues of natural history but keep with the flying beasties as much as possible but … Continue reading
Danson: lack of algal mats hits Red Eyes
There was an almost complete lack of floating algal mats at Danson lake on 29th June. I had gone to check on Himalayan Balsam eradication efforts, but also to see if both species of Red Eyed Damselfly were now on … Continue reading
Bryony Ladybird reaches Crossness
The Bryony Ladybird (Henosepilachna argus) has been found at Crossness by Chris Rose. The GiGL dataset, and Site Manager Karen Sutton having been consulted, it appears to be a new site record for the species, which was first recorded in … Continue reading
‘Conservation grazing’ at Thames Road Wetland
It’s been a while since the local ponies were on the site when I was around, but last week (June 23rd) I was intently studying the spread of the rare Brookweed when there was a quiet rustling right behind me. … Continue reading