Bexley Wildlife

Additional Volunteer Thames21 (Cray Catchment) Events  Next Week!!

As mentioned as a possibility in my previous e mail concerning Thames21 events here are some short notice activities which changing commitments have allowed me to offer for Thames21 river keepers to address some ad hoc issues..

Wednesday 30th April Foots Cray Meadows. Meet 10:00 Rectory Lane Car park, DA14 5BP – I have acquired a bag of marginal wildflower seeds which need to be sowed now and an ideal site will be pond 9 (Our wooden fenced pond) which still needs cheering up and this may help!, Also river some river work to clear some of the wooden debris that has caught up down stream of five arches. The larger pieces need to be retrieved for our forthcoming river habitat enhancement work. There is also from the Easter Weekend litter in and around the lake river, rubbish collected at the grill at the Royal Park Outfall. So a bit of a session for a few volunteers.

Thursday 1st May we will return to Foots Cray Meadows The (provisional) meeting point is as Wednesday 10:00 Rectory Lane Car Park, Rectory Lane DA14 5BP – There is a possibility of some flood management work at the Five Arches – this is subject to confirmation and therefore if this does not happen we may relocate our activities elsewhere or finishing off as of Wednesday.

Please drop me a line if you are able to attend for waders etc. Your assistance as ever is much appreciated as without volunteer support we cannot achieve or objectives..

Hope to catch up with you next week

Many Thanks

Michael

River Cray Project Officer

T    020 7248 7171
M   07968 805 751
E     michael.heath@thames21.org.u

Prime Meridian is a newsletter covering weather records (and extreme records these days!) across the south-east. A useful read to see just what we have been through lately and the implications of ‘climate weirding’.

Publsihed by the Ecospheres Project, they describe it as ‘A newsletter following global environmental issues alongside the cycle of the seasons in Southern England’

It can also be downloaded here: https://app.box.com/s/c2ykzu1psgdqzt8t6hca

FoTS do important work cleaning litter and problem invasive weeds from the River Shuttle, a tributary of The Cray.

Volunteers are always welcome at their clean-up events. Please email fots-thames21@hotmail.co.uk with your wader size request if you are joining them.

Thursday 24^th April – Clean Up

Meet: Knoll Road (entrance to BETHS school), Bexley DA5 1NL

Time: 10.30am – 1.00pm

Leader: Robert

Thursday 8^th May – Clean up and volunteer river dipping

Meet: Marlborough Park Avenue entrance to Marlborough Park, DA15 9DP

Time: 10.30am – 12.30pm

Leader: Joanne and Duncan

This event will involve a clean-up of the river but also give the adult volunteers a chance to do some river dipping and explore/survey the invertebrate and fish life living in the river

Thursday 22^nd May – Clean Up

Meet: Location TBC

Time: 10.30am – 12.30pm

Leader: Jane

Thursday 5^th June – Clean Up

Meet: Location TBC

Time: 10.30am – 12.30pm

Leader: Mandy

Thursday 19^th June – Clean Up/Himalayan Balsam pulling

Meet: Location TBC

Time: 10.30am – 12.30pm

Leader: Robert

Himalayan Balsam – pretty, but it shades out native wildflowers.

Information from Michael Heath, local organiser:

Michael (in cap) with his team.

This Thursday 17th April 2014, 1000 Start at Hall Place, Bourne Road DA5 1PQ Join North West Kent Countryside Partnership with the planting of marginal plants in the River habitat Margin Enhancements constructed at the edge of the rivers last year. This is an ideal opportunity for Thames21 volunteers to view and take part in the final stages of this type of River Restoration. We are funded for and proposing and planning a similar River Enhancement Project for Foots Cray Meadows this year. Finish 1500 please let me know if you are attending.

Tuesday 29th April 2014 – Thames21 Corporate Event (Litter Pick) at Thames Road Wetland and Byway 105 – Contact Me if you wish to assist. Meeting 0930 for a 1000 start finish at 1300

For the moment my time is being taken up with the ongoing preparations for the extensive river enhancement project at Foots Cray Meadows, The plan for Thames21 to bring a large work party of corporate Volunteers to Bexley for four days Tuesday 29 July to Friday 1st August.  (Both of which should provide exciting opportunities for local volunteers to get involved.)

Thursday 22 May clear as we shall be together with  the Friends of the River Shuttle at the confluence of the rivers Shuttle & Cray.

Tuesday 15 April 11am – 3pm

As part of the engagement programme Creative Junction will be meeting with groups during the Easter holiday. The event, which features activities with North West Kent Countryside Partnership will be an opportunity for participants to be inspired by Lesnes and explore the park.

Please contact Anna Jones (anna.jones@creativejunction.org.uk, 01753 470324 if you would like a group you work with to attend.

Following this session the groups will continue their involvement through workshops leading to enhanced and more detailed designs from Mei Loci.

The Council’s contractors are quite good a identifying the verge areas planted with bulbs and not cutting these down until the leaves of the bulbs have had the chance to die back. I suppose we have to be grateful for that.

However, when you see what grows in some of these areas, you can’t help but wish that there was a more enlightened mowing regime in Bexley and that we could see more sights like these.

These buttercups in Footscray Lane show what the verges could look like. They would need litter-picking and probably a mow around the edges so that it looks deliberate, but I’d much rather see this than closely mown grass and ‘lollipop trees’.

Our roundabouts, verges and parks could be a lot more interesting and attractive with a little thought and willingness to vary the contracts for grounds maintenance.