Having the Rainham RSPB reserve just over the water from Crayford Marshes increases the prospects of rarities turning up on our side of the river. Bexley RSPB members visiting on December 17th were delighted they got to see a Cattle Egret, as well as a good number of Pintail, despite the foggy conditions which otherwise limited their sightings.
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FRIENDS OF THE RIVER CRAY AT CRAYFORD - UPCOMING SESSIONS.Below is the schedule for our next few dates, which involve litter removal and sometimes vegetation management. All sessions are Fridays and run from 10am to around 12.30 (may be 1pm with packing up). The meeting point is where Barnes Cray Road in Crayford meets Footpath 106 (graphic attached).
3rd May
7th June
5th July
Our next session is going to involve undergrowth cutting so long sleeves needed!
2nd August - this session will be on the St Paul's Cray/ Sidcup border, at Ruxley Gravel Pits Nature Reserve, near Foots Cray Tesco's. We will be joining the North West Kent Countryside Partnership for a litter pick on a beautiful site with 3 lakes.
This site is not usually open to the public so it is a fantastic opportunity to see it. We hope to remove all litter from the site, a task started by volunteers in the winter but with water levels too high to finish it. I am happy to walk you round any of the site you have not seen whilst litter picking. NWKCP is likely to offer lifts from Hall Place - details to follow.
Best wishes
Sarah
THAMES21 LAUNCHES CONTINUATION OF TARGETED HIMALAYAN BALSAM ERADICATION PROGRAMME ON RIVER CRAY.Past attempts to tackle the plentiful Himalayan Balsam on the Cray have jumped around from one location to another, with no sustained effort working from upstream downward. Consequently, plants removed from lower down the river can simply be replaced by seed washed down from further up. Balsam seed only remains viable for a couple of years, so a more disciplined approach could start to clear the river of it.
Micahel O'Neill will be leading 6 events in total over this spring and summer period, 3 on the upper stretch of the affected Cray, 3 on the next stretch down.
The upper stretch being from Water Lane off North Cray Road, down to Old Bexley Village, the lower stretch being from Old Bexley Village to the confluence of the river Shuttle, next to Dartfordians Rugby Club.
Dates and links are given below for both the Thames21 website (which carries background details) and for the Plinth event sign up pages.
Please send these dates on to your contacts if you think they would be interested in getting involved, either as a volunteer or to coordinate control works on the Cray river.
Any questions, please do let me know.
Here are the links:
book.plinth.org.uk/e/y60VP19JxW7up2gnWQOP 1st event - 26/4/24
book.plinth.org.uk/e/m2F8e62NkwUwurdy4diJ 2nd event - 03/5/24
book.plinth.org.uk/e/i0JY9SORp1q0JstoVRTF 3rd event - 24//5/24
book.plinth.org.uk/e/gpVVKbNti5oxiuP8lmZg 4th event - 31/5/24
book.plinth.org.uk/e/S1vEqb7sJoztovKqWxvg 5th event (London River Week) 21/6/24
book.plinth.org.uk/e/04q3NEldqncXlKLf5H1K 6th event - 5/7/24
www.thames21.org.uk/event/cray-river-balsam-blitz/
( 1st Event)
www.thames21.org.uk/event/cray-river-balsam-blitz-2/ (2nd Event)
www.thames21.org.uk/event/cray-river-balsam-blitz-3/
( 3rd Event)
www.thames21.org.uk/event/cray-river-balsam-blitz-5/
( 4th Event)
www.thames21.org.uk/event/cray-river-balsam-blitz-6/
( 5th Event) London
Rivers Week
www.thames21.org.uk/event/cray-river-balsam-blitz-4/
( 6th Event)
Kind regards
Michael O'Neill
Engagement Officer
M +44 (0)7597584363| W www.thames21.org.uk
WOODLANDS FARM BEE WALK AND SURVEYJust to let you know that our next wildlife survey will be the Bee Walk on Thursday 25th April at 2pm. As usual please meet in the farmyard outside the office.
If you are able to make it please let me know.
Thank you.
Hannah Ricketts <education@thewoodlandsfarmtrust.org>
Education Officer
The Woodlands Farm Trust
331 Shooters Hill
Welling
Kent
DA16 3RP
Tel: 0208 3198900
Website:
www.thewoodlandsfarmtrust.org
As a charity Woodlands Farm is run as a conservation and education project, which provides an opportunity to find out about farming life and farm animals as well as a chance to experience the countrys...
ARE FRIENDS ELECTRIC? BATTERY BRUSHCUTTER BRINGS MORE POWER TO THAMES ROAD WETLAND VOLUNTEER'S ELBOWS ....Readers of previous posts about this site will by now be familiar with the proportion of our time being taken up with trying to control Reed (Phragmites australis) growth, which outcompetes other species, leading to a monoculture, as well as speeding up the drying out of the site by reducing water depth through a rising rootmat and production of large amounts of leaf and stem litter.
Since we first started rotational cutting a few years ago, all Reed management has been done manually, with either slashers, shears and/or scythes. None of these kill the Reed, which grows back quickly, and needs cutting again - rather sooner and more frequently than volunteers can fully manage, which has led to some grumbling from the seasoned veterans who come dowm most weeks. Just to illustrate the point, thanks to rising temperatures, new Reed growth had put on around a foot in height in just the one week since our previous event.
Help is now at hand. After succesful trial last December, using machines kindly brought down by Braeburn Park (LWT) chief Simon Hawkins, which showed that battery brush cutters could deal with dense stands of dead winter Reed stem, that we could get a sensible period of use off each battery charge and that noise levels were acceptable, Thames21 has now met our request for such a device - which also means we can nomially use renewable energy and not petrol - and it was put to use for the first time last Friday (12th April). Volunteer Ray, who is currently the only one of us who has previously had the necessary training in brushcutter use, pronounced himself well pleased with the device.
We're hoping that cutting fresh stems below the surface will start to 'drown' the plants (as shown by academic research), significantly slowing re-growth. This will also reduce the total amount of biomass that needs stacking on our already gigantic 'compost heaps'.
While the new kit dealt with the cutting, other volunteers were freed up for raking out cut material along with accumulations of silt and partially rotted material, helping to restore more depth to the water.
On another positive note, we had an excellent turnout of 10 volunteers, on what was yet another sunny day at the site, plus our staff suport worker Michael O'Neill. Due to the 12th being in the easter school holiday period, we were able to welcome a school student with her father, as well as our older contingent. She saw her first Lizards, and was amongst the group that also saw a pair of Buzzards fly over. Thanks to Clare, Ian, Alex, LIz, Elio, Chris, Amelia, Ray and Pamela
Our next staff-supported event will be in June. Message Ray Hudson <rayhudson28@gmail.com> for details of the smaller volunteer-led sessions prior to that, which alsio take place of Fridays.
Photos by Michael O'Neill.
Chris Rose, Volunteer Site Manager.