FotS Danson clear-up garners headlines

Last Thursday’s (Jan 29th) very well supported, and clearly much-needed, clean up in and around Danson lake, organised by the Friends of the Shuttle, has been reported by the News Shopper:

http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/bexley/11770062.Litter_pickers_collect_68_bags_of_rubbish_from_Danson_Lake/

This event has shown, as did the one last summer, the previously untapped breadth of support for hands-on environmental improvement work and events at Danson park, which FotS are now working to build upon, with an emerging schedule of potential activities there. Keep an eye on the Bexley Wildlife website/calendar and Facebook pages for announcements.

FotS reports that around thirty volunteers including local councillors, members of the Meridian Canoe Club (based at Danson Park) and Thames 21/River Cray volunteers in waders, wellingtons and canoes collected a phenomenal 68 bags of litter from in and around the lake – mainly plastic bags and plastic bottle lids. The Canoe Club alone raked in three full boatloads of litter from where it accumulates by the dam. This was a really successful event, but there is still litter in the lake and no doubt more will accumulate as the weather warms up, so FOTs is committed to regular clean ups. Anyone interested in volunteering for litter picks in the lake or along the river Shuttle should contact FOTs at friends.of.the.shuttle@gmail.com

Posted in Bexley, Friends of the Shuttle, Litter, Parks, River Shuttle, Volunteering | Leave a comment

Braeburn Park bird walks provide valuable introduction to the site

The London Wildlife Trust’s new Braeburn Park reserve in Crayford is better known by neighbours and other Bexley residents, including existing wildlife enthusiasts, thanks to two walks led by LWT staffer Peter Beckenham. Sixteen people has come along on January 24th, and nine plus the leader today (Feb 4th).

Starting off on the valley floor, birds proved somewhat elusive, but a Bullfinch was heard, a species that has declined quite significantly, and a fleeting glimpse of one was had later on.  There was a discussion about the number of Gulls overhead, and how they use playing fields – such as that at Hall Place just over the railway line – in winter. A couple of Redwings were seen, a species that comes to the UK from Scandinavia in winter, but there have been few around so far due to the relatively mild conditions until now.

The importance of the good-quality scrub found on the reserve, which has developed from a brownfield site, was highlighted.

We then took the path through Hazel coppice up to the old quarry, then the slope up into the woodland at the summit of the Cray valley side. Up to this point it didn’t feel like we had climbed that high, but with the leaves off the trees one could really appreciate just how far down into the landscape the river has cut over thousands of years.

Here in the woodland a small group of Long-tailed Tits came close, and 3 or 4 Great Spotted Woodpeckers were chasing around in the treetops, beginning to get territorial as the breeding season approaches.

Participants watching a party of Long-tailed tits in the mature woodland at Braeburn Park (Photo: Chris Rose)

Participants watching a party of Long-tailed tits and Great Spotted Woodpeckers in the mature woodland at Braeburn Park (Photo: Chris Rose)

Afterwards, on the way through Crayford Rough to Hall Place, Michael Heath and I were treated to a close view of a Kestrel which landed on the top of a nearby bush, and then a Little Egret in the Cray which only flew upstream only when we got quite close – perhaps it was the same one as at Footscray Meadows yesterday.

Posted in Bird watching, Braeburn Park, brownfield, Crayford, Crayford Rough, London Wildlife Trust, River Cray, Trees | Leave a comment

From white snow to snow white at Footscray

The Thames21 Cray Riverkeepers team had a well-attended review of the past year and planning ahead meeting at Kelsey’s farm cafe on February 3rd.

The day started off with snow on the ground, but by the time the event ended the sun was out and it had all melted.

Gorse in flower in the Kelsey's farm hedgerow on the North Cray Road. (Photo: Chris Rose)

Gorse in flower in the Kelsey’s farm hedgerow on the North Cray Road. (Photo: Chris Rose)

Cray Project Officer Michael Heath presented statistics summarising another successful year’s work – including the number of person-event-attendances and bags of recyclable and non-recyclable materials collected – which he emphasised was very much down to the efforts of the assembled volunteers.  A lot of work has been done on river restoration at Footscray Meadows in concert with the North West Kent Countryside Partnership

A new feature for what is an annual meeting, was a welcome presentation by three pupils from St. Pauls Academy, Greenwich, led by geography teacher Gordon Davis, telling us what benefits they felt they had gained from working with the river-keeping team, including transferable skills that will enhance their CVs, a greater appreciation of the environment and enjoyment.

Volunteer Site Manager Chris Rose gave an update on Thames Road Wetland, including the colonisation of the site by Harvest Mice, and passed round a nest.

Discussions were held about projects for the rest of the year.

Some group members then went off for a spot of wildlife-watching. Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers were seen. A relatively confiding snow white Little Egret rather unusually landed on the mown grass near the Five Arches bridge, before moving into the river where it fished in a Reedmace patch for a while. 4 Mute Swans and 16 Tufted Duck were on the lake. There were a large number of Mole hills on the meadows.

Mole hills on the meadows by the iconic bridge (Photo: Chris Rose)

Mole hills on the meadows by the iconic bridge (Photo: Chris Rose)

Posted in Cray Riverkeepers, Foots Cray Meadows, River Cray, Rivers, Volunteering | Leave a comment

Thames road bridges opposition group to meet in Bexley on 5th Feb.

A meeting is being held in Bexley Community Library, Bourne Rd, Bexley village,  on Thursday 5th February at 12 noon, to begin building opposition in our Borough to Transport for London’s plans for 2 bridges that would generate more road traffic in Bexley.

Interested person would be most welcome. If you know anyone else who would like to be involved, please do let them know as well.

For more detail on this issue scroll down this page until you get to ‘Categories’ in the right hand column, then go down to the Thames bridges link and click on it. This will display the list of our previous posts on the subject.

Posted in Bexley, Environment, River Thames, Sustainability, Thames bridges, Traffic | Leave a comment

Free Public Lectures, Spring 2015 – Food Security (Birkbeck Institute of Environment, University of London with the Ecology and Conservation Studies Society and Linnean Society of London).

Friday evenings 13th February to 20th March 2015 at 18:30, Lecture Theatre B33, Birkbeck College, Torrington Square, London.

World population projections show that there will be many more mouths to feed in coming decades. This need will follow the actual population trend, but meeting it depends on many other factors.

Food production will continue to depend upon half a dozen staple food plants. There is a potential fragility in maintaining production that depends upon land availability, soil fertility, water supplies, freedom from pests, appropriate technologies and suitable crop varieties. Equally important is whether the primary crops are eaten by us, or used less efficiently for meat production. Food can be lost in storage and transportation. In an increasingly urbanised world, some see the solutions in energy-intensive, industrial scale farming, fisheries and food distribution, whilst others advocate smaller scale, local activity. Much of this will be affected by climate change. This lecture series explores the issues and tries to answer some of the questions.

Further details of the six individual lectures, and a reading list, will be available later. To receive these, please email ecssoc@gmail.com, consult the website http://www.bbk.ac.uk/geds/ourresearch/ecss/free-public-lectures, or pick up a copy at one of the lectures.

13th February. What is food security and why should we care about it? Prof Tim Benton, University of Leeds, ‘Champion’ for the UK’s Global Food Security programme. 20th February. GM and food security; part of the solution, not part of the problem. Prof. Jonathan Jones. The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich.

27th February. Sustainable diets, eco-system damage and disease. Prof Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy, Department of Sociology, City University of London.

6th March. Crop Wild Relatives: diversity, conservation and crop adaptation. Dr Ruth Eastwood, Crop Wild Relative Project Co-ordinator, Millennium Seed Bank, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

13th March. Food, climate change, health, animal welfare and development. Dr Tara Garnett, Food Climate Research Network and Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, University of Oxford.

20th March. Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture. Dr Zareen Bharucha, Senior Research Officer, Essex Sustainability Institute, University of Essex.

The free public lectures are in a series hosted by GEDS, Birkbeck University of London. They are suitable for those who may be considering, or undertaking, university courses in ecology, biological conservation or related subjects. They will interest environmental and ecological practitioners, natural historians, wildlife organisations and others with similar interests. The lectures are supported by GEDS, Birkbeck University of London and would not be possible otherwise. They are organised and promoted by the Ecology and Conservation Studies Society, with assistance from the Linnean Society of London.

Posted in Conference, Environment, Farming, Food security, Sustainability | Leave a comment

Do you subscribe to Bexley Bulletin?

It seems these days that we have to keep a very close eye on the activities of Bexley Council – consultations, planning applications affecting important wildlife sites etc. The best way is probably to follow the Council’s weekly Bexley Bulletin.

Bexley Bulletin

This is a weekly publication which includes key information for councillors, but is also popular with those who follow the Council’s work closely, including the local media.

It includes details of decisions taken by Bexley’s Cabinet, advance agenda lists for Cabinet and Committee meetings, summaries of Council news releases, a digest of key issues, local news and information and details of local road works.

The latest issue of Bexley Bulletin is available from the council’s website at http://www.bexley.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2311

It is also possible to receive an email version of the Bexley Bulletin. There is a link to allow you to subscribe at the Bexley Bulletin page.

If the links don’t work, search on Bexley Bulletin in your browser.

Posted in Bexley Council, Consultations, Planning | Leave a comment

Bexleyheath Pied Wagtail roost pictured

Following a discussion with Martin Petchey at Crossness today about the technical difficulties of getting a decent picture of the Pied Wagtails roosting on the non-native Oak outside Carpetright – near the clocktower on Bexleyheath Broadway – he has unexpectedly taken up the challenge, as evidenced by the photos presented below.

The birds are now gathering in the lower part of the tree where a significant number of leaves are  still clinging on. It should be noted that the quality of these images is pretty much on a par with what you can see with the naked eye. [Click on them for a larger view – but note they have been compressed a bit for posting here]. I reckon about 43 birds can be made out in the pictures, which tallies with the in-roost count of about 50 I made after dark yesterday evening.

Bexleyheath Pied Wagtail roost (Photo: Martin Petchey)

Bexleyheath Broadway Pied Wagtail roost (Photo: Martin Petchey)

Zoomed in a bit .... (Photo: Martin Petchey)

Zoomed in a bit …. (Photo: Martin Petchey)

Posted in Bexley, Bexleyheath, Bird watching, roost site | 2 Comments

Lamorbey Ring-necked Parakeet fly-out numbers suggest roost switch

Further work on trying to unravel what Ring-necked parakeets (Psittacula krameri) in Bexley are getting up to, especially since the formation of the Danson Park night-time roost (see yesterdays’ post), took me to Lamorbey late this afternoon – previously the second-largest fly-out to roost site in Bexley behind Danson itself.

Previous counts here have yielded the following numbers: 18/10/2012 – 182, 14/1/2013 – 437 and 31/10/2013 – 278.

Tonight managed a relatively meagre 68. Moreover the whole episode was rather ‘disorganised’, with no more than 10 birds leaving at a time (mostly rather fewer), and few birds in the usual aggregation tree at the west end of the lake at any one time.  All birds left on a course a little to the north of west, which having looked at Google Earth suggests a direct line to the Sutcliffe Park roost if that still exists – though only a modest adjustment of direction en route could take them to Hither Green Cemetery instead.

There is nothing to suggest a fall in overall Parakeet numbers in Bexley, and whilst there are only a handful of previous counts, the scale of the reduction does suggest that birds previously seen heading west-ish over Sidcup Golf Course, and probably some of those spending the day here, could now making the short flight north-east to Danson for the night.

Posted in Bexley, Lamorbey, Recording, Ring-necked Parakeet, roost site, Sidcup Golf Course | Leave a comment

Little wind in the Willows as Crossness team stem reedbed tree encroachment

There was a good turnout at Crossness today (Jan 23rd) on a frosty, but sunny and largely wind-chill-free morning, in order to take some willows out of the protected area scrape reedbed, so as to prevent it becoming Willow carr. Site Manager Karen Sutton’s regular helpers chain-sawed the young trees whilst the rest of the group dragged them away and cut and piled up the branches, saving thicker material for use as stakes on other projects.

Willow work-party at Crossness. (Photo: Martin Petchey)

Willow work-party at Crossness. (Photo: Martin Petchey)

Getting stuck into chopping up the cut Willow (Photo: Karen Sutton)

Getting stuck into chopping up the cut Willow (Photo: Karen Sutton)

The brash pile grows. (Photo: Karen Sutton)

The brash pile grows. (Photo: Karen Sutton)

Prior to removal the willows were checked from the egg-laying scars of the Willow Emerald Damselfly, a recent colonist of the UK in around 2007, and still largely confined to East Anglia where it was first found, but it is spreading and occurred at Rainham (Essex) and Redhill (Surrey) in 2014. None were located. Maybe next year?

The tide was coming in up at the sea wall after the event, and there were numerous Lapwing on the mud, Dunlin running around, Shelduck and flotillas of Teal, Gadwall, Wigeon, Shoveler, Black-headed Gulls, a few Cormorant and a single bird each of Grey Heron and Black-tailed Godwit.

A Black-tailed Godwit feeding on the tidal mudflats off Crossness. (Photo: Martin Petchey)

A Black-tailed Godwit feeding on the tidal mudflats off Crossness. (Photo: Martin Petchey)

The next Crossness events are 11th and 27th February (see BW calendar page). Volunteers old and new will receive  a warm welcome.

Posted in Bird watching, Crossness, Crossness Nature Reserve, Dragonflies and Damselflies, Erith Marshes, Trees, Volunteering | Leave a comment

Danson Parakeet roost count exceeds 2,000 birds

The Ring-necked Parakeet (Bexley) ‘study group’ or RNPB for short (well, I just made that title up) organised the first multi-person Parakeet count at the new Danson overnight roost this evening, in a bid to get a more accurate figure for the number of birds now staying the night here.

The participants were regular Danson bird recorder John Turner, Bexley Bird Report author Ralph Todd, Crossness Nature Reserve Manager Karen Sutton and Chris Rose who has counted Parakeets out of several sites in the Borough on the way to their previous roost at Hither Green Cemetery.

Taking  up positions at four points of the compass, 678 birds were logged coming in from the north and north-east, 204 from the east, 1,118 over the lake from the south and 170 from the west, giving a total of 2,170. The figure when the roost was first noted just before Christmas was around 900, and more recently about 1,500.

The birds from the west may have largely come out of the wood at that end of Danson, from which they used to fly south-west, so may have mainly been birds which spent the day at the park.  Previous counts elsewhere suggest that birds from the east are probably those from Crayford Marshes, Bursted Woods and Martens Grove. Bexleyheath Golf Course is another possible source. Those from the north/north-east appear to be too many for Bursted Woods again, or Franks Park where one past count has been made, and it’s possible they are from Lesnes where no known count has been conducted. The big surprise is the number from the south. Ralph Todd recently noted Parakeets flying north from Bexley Park Woods, whereas at the one previous count made by Chris a couple of years ago they went west, but in any case these can only count for a fraction of the number recorded from that direction. It may be that they are now coming from Footscray Meadows and Joydens Wood, and perhaps even Lamorbey. Fly-out observations at these sites are now needed to sort this out. No birds were seen arriving direct to the roost from the south-west, or north-west.

Numbers of Parakeets were seen to come down to the ground west of and below the roost trees prior to roosting. It was not possible to establish why they were doing this.

Danson is not on the ‘as the Crow flies’ flight path between some of the sites from which Parakeets now appear to be coming, and the Hither Green roost. This suggests that birds which used to fly back out of there have varied their daytime foraging locations, and that some of them have somehow communicated to other birds the shift to Danson.

Ralph, Chris and Joh in the gloom after the Parakeet roost count at Danson. (Photo: Karen Sutton)

Ralph, Chris and John in the gloom after this evening’s Parakeet roost count at Danson. (Photo: Karen Sutton)

In the post-count de-brief it was felt that about 8 people will be required to get an even more accurate Parakeet count next time round.  Meanwhile, if anyone can let us know in which direction birds are flying as they leave Lesnes Abbey Woods, East Wickham Open Space, Footscray Meadows or Lamorbey, we would be pleased to hear from them.

A bonus for Ralph and Chris as they discussed the plan of action before John and Karen arrived was the sight of a Buzzard flapping lazily eastwards, high over Danson lake.

Posted in Bexley, Bird watching, Bursted Woods, Crossness Nature Reserve, East Wickham Open Space, Foots Cray Meadows, Martens Grove, Parks, Recording, Ring-necked Parakeet, roost site | 1 Comment