Bexley Wildlife

An interesting exhibition of wildlife photographs in the Avery Hill Winter Gardens (just into Eltham) by Bexley resident and Crossness nature Reserve member Richard Winston.

Photos include local ones as well as international. The exhibition is on from Sunday 8th June until 10th August.

There was a Cuckoo calling occasionally from the part of Stanham Farm, Crayford, that is due south of Thames Road Wetland, yesterday (June 5th) from mid afternoon to c20.35, at which time it sounded like it had moved to trees along the foot of the Dartford-Slade Green railway embankment. This is the second Bexley record of the year, following the individual at Crossness recently, and the first time I’ve heard one anywhere in the Borough. The farm is in large part boggy Typha/Rush habitat, with nesting Reed Warblers and other species to parasitise, should the Cuckoo get lucky and find mate in the area.

This was my first visit to the Wetland for five weeks, due to day job demands and other wildlife projects. Much of the time was spent opening up overgrown pathways again ahead of the Friends of Crossness Nature Reserve visit at the end of the month. Encroaching Reed and Reedmace were cut away from the rarer Hop Sedge (Carex pseudocyperus), and Giant Hogweed seedlings were cut down yet again to try and starve them out and to make sure none reach flowering size. Vegetation was selectively removed from around some of the Lizard basking sites to prevent excessive shading.

All was pretty quiet apart from the chuntering of Reed Warblers, and later a couple of singing Song Thrushes. A Grey Heron was briefly on site, and four Swifts flew over late on.

Water levels are still much higher than usual for the time of year, and the Rushes the rare Brookweed (Samolus valerandi) lives amongst are barely recovering from heavy winter grazing, which is a slight worry.

Nine more Marsh Sow-thistles (Sonchus palustris) were planted, as part of the re-introduction programme, this time on the east bank of the Wansunt. We shall see whether they can survive the odd bit of trampling from horses, and whether or not they are horse or Rabbit proof from the grazing point of view.

Large numbers of Azure and Blue-tailed Damselflies were in long vegetation around the site margin, and my first Banded Demoiselle of the year was spotted.

There was less litter than expected, and clearance will have to wait for my next visit.

(Chris Rose, Site Manager)

Friends of the Shuttle Committee member Mandy Stevens has been quick off the mark to start rescuing newly-metamorphosed Froglets from the formal Old English Garden pond at Danson Park, as they are unable to exit the waterbody due to the sheer sides and large overhang. This results in exhaustion and drowning as they struggle, unsuccessfully, to get out.

Amphibians breed in the Danson Old English Garden pond, but cannot get out again and drown. A few may be able to climb out using the waterlily leaves, but in practice this appears not to be happening.

Mandy spent a couple of hours yesterday catching Froglets and taking them to the margins of the lake.  She collected at least 60 in three trips using just a small sieve and an old ice cream carton.

A rather poor mobile phone cam photo showing a most likely drowned Froglet in the English Garden pond. They can be caught, lifted out and moved elsewhere pending a permanent fix, such as installing some kind of exit ramps.

Mandy took action after being alerted to this perennial problem by London Amphibian and Reptile group officer Chris Rose.

Earlier indirect attempts have been made to tackle this matter, with the Chair of the Friends of Danson Park asked on numerous occasions during 2012 and 2013 to raise the issue with the Council, but this seems not to have been done. Meanwhile, various park users have said that Frogs used to breed in the bog garden ponds – but they appear to no longer do so, probably because of  shading, pollution from heavy waterfowl use, rotting chunks of bread and attendant Crows and Rats – leaving the formal pond as the only place where they continue to spawn successfully.

Chris and LARG Chair Sam Ho have also seen mating Common Toads in the formal pond. This is a UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species due to a serious decline in numbers.

We are therefore pleased to report that having been informed directly about the current situation, Bexley Council parks and nature conservation officers Len Pegler-Vincent and Mark Taylor swiftly sanctioned the ‘rescue’ action, and have agreed to discuss a permanent solution to the pond exit problem.

Anyone willing to help rescue Froglets in the next few weeks can contact Chris at chrisrose@gn.apc.org   There will probably also be an opportunity to do this at the FoTS@Danson lake clean-up event on June 19th (see Calendar page for details).

A young Black Bryony (Dioscorea communis) plant, found growing just outside the main entrance to the English Garden in Danson Park by Chris Rose on June 3rd, is only the second record in Bexley in the last decade.

All told there have been less than 20 records of this species in the Borough in the last 30 years. Apart from a book stating that it was seen in Lesnes Abbey Woods sometime between 1918 and 1924, almost all the other records are from plants in the Cray valley area, mainly Ruxley, Footscray Meadows, Gatton’s Plantation and Joydens Wood, with the most recent cluster of those finds being made back in 2003. Chris also found it in woodland at Braeburn Park in 2011, not far from where it had been noted by a previous recorder back in 1997.

Black Bryony growing by a gate to the Old English Garden at Danson Park, would be easy to overlook as at this size as it looks very much like Bindweed

Closer view of the larger leaves

Black Bryony is related to edible Yams, but is poisonous. It is not closely related to the White Bryony, Britain’s only native member of the Cucumber plant family, which is widely distributed in the Borough.

Also in Bexleyheath, the fairly rare London species, Hare’s-foot Clover (Trifolium arvense), continues to survive in the grass verge on Albion Road near where it joins the Broadway. The species is frequent in a few sandy parts of the Borough, and there was also a superb show of it on the former Erith Riverside swimming pool site last summer.

Hare’s-foot Clover, a rare London plant, can be found in numbers at some sites in Bexley, but this colony that has been by Albion Road in Bexleyheath for some years now is, perhaps, a bit more surprising.

Local Nature Reserve Managers Karen Sutton (Crossness) and Chris Rose (Thames Road Wetland, Vice-Chair Bexley Natural Environment Forum) went over to the ‘dark side’ today (aka Essex)  to discuss with staff at RSPB Rainham Marshes the measures that might be taken to increase favourable nesting habitat for declining waders like Redshank and Lapwing on our side of the river in east London.

It’s not all hard work up to your armpits in mud  ….. Karen and Chris pose for the de rigeur ‘selfie’ at RSPB Rainham

Size does matter, and not having been to Rainham before, I was struck by just how much bigger an area it is compared to the tiny fragments of marsh and wetland we have left on our side of the water within the London boundary. Whilst reproductive success has increased significantly at Rainham with the introduction of electric fencing to minimise Fox predation, a discussion will need to be had about whether this would be the best use of resources at Crossness given difficulties with other key issues such as maintaining the necessary water levels and juggling the grazing regime. It may be that work targeted at other species such as Cuckoo and Turtle Dove would be more appropriate.

It was no surprise, since they are both right opposite Rainham, that discussion turned to a longer term vision of bringing Crayford and Dartford Marshes into conservation management, as these hold out much greater promise size-wise, and if the clout of the RSPB could be brought to bear perhaps the progress on that – which appears to be stalled at present – could be got going again. It’s certainly something one might have hoped would be happening under the umbrella of the ‘Greater Thames Marshes Nature Improvement Area’ (which, rather bizarrely, excludes Swanscombe Peninsula and Dartford Marshes, but includes Crayford and Erith Marshes). A reciprocal site(s) visit for the Rainham team to get a closer look at what the marshes on our side of the river have to offer may therefore be in the offing in the not-too-distant future.

View out over the reserve enjoyed by RSPB Rainham’s visitor centre staff

‘Grey sky thinking’ – this view out over the Thames sees the Darent flood defence barrier and Dartford Marshes to the left, and Crayford Marshes to the right. The ‘landscape level’ approach to re-building natural capital would see these areas mirroring some of the habitat improvements and availability of Rainham to the north, whilst conserving the distinctive features of their own. After all, for your rare bird struggling to find somewhere to make a living, it’s a just a short commute over a river from one of these sites to the others ….

As to the birds on view while we were there, the best sighting of a damp grey morning was of a male Bearded Tit which flew across a boardwalk just in front of us, and landed in reeds close by, where good binocular views were had. There were impressive numbers of Little Egret and many Swifts zooming overhead, as well as plenty of Lapwing and some Pochard, which latter are pretty much absent from Bexley water-bodies at this time of year.

We are grateful to Alan Johnson and Les Edwins of the RSPB for their time and the great deal of useful site management information imparted.

(Chris Rose)