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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.
Friends of Foots Cray Meadows - photography competition.Entries can relate to any aspect of the wonderful public open space that is the Foots Cray Meadows, its beauty, its landscape and its wildlife.
Closing date is 1st June 2024. Photographs must be submitted in digital form. Up to 5 are allowed per entrant.
The winner will receive a £50 Amazon voucher plus a mounted copy of their winning picture and a year’s free FFCM membership.
Only FFCM members can enter, but anyone wishing take part is invited to join the group - cost is £5 per year per household. For details of the competition and membership, see:
Photography Competition 2024 | Foots Cray Meadows
www.footscraymeadows.org
The Friends of Foots Cray Meadows (FFCM) committee invites you to take part in our inaugural Photography Competition 2024. With just a camera or your mobile phone, you have the exciting opportunity t...
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY - RUXLEY GRAVEL PITS CLEAN-UP EVENT** Please share to anyone who may be interested in helping **
From: Lucy.Sawyer-Boyd@kent.gov.uk <Lucy.Sawyer-Boyd@kent.gov.uk>
I am organising a big volunteer litter clearance day at Ruxley Gravel Pits on Friday 2nd August.
This large Site of Special Scientific Interest is usually closed to the public, but the River Cray flows through the site and brings with it lots of litter.
We will be attempting to remove as much of this litter as possible.
I am inviting several different groups to take part and hoping to make a big impact.
Whilst most of the area is in Bromley, the northern edge falls within the London Borough of Bexley.
Please feel free to forward this to any individual contacts and local volunteer groups who might want to get involved.
Many thanks.
Best wishes.
Lucy Sawyer-Boyd
Partnership Officer, North West Kent Countryside Partnership,
Hall Place, Bourne Road, Bexley, Kent, DA5 1PQ
Tel: 0300 0410589/ Mobile:07809334071
HOLT HOSTS NATIONALLY RARE PLANTS INITIATIVE AT LESNESEstate Manager Ian Holt reports that Lesnes Abbey Woods volunteers, working with Dr Mark Spencer, have recently sown both
Tower Mustard (Turritis glabra) and Copse Bindweed (Fallopia dumetorum) seed in an effort to aid species recovery.
Until its discovery at Lesnes in 2018, the last known Tower Mustard record for Kent (where it was believed to be extinct) was in 1964. It has declined nationally, especially since the 1930s. The seed has good longevity in the seed bank, so it can reappear years after it was last seen.
Thanks to a book about the woods by Marriott, which provides lists of species present at the site in the early 1900's, we know that Copse Bindweed was present back then. Ian says he thinks they have identified where the Copse Bindweed was last found. Volunteers have helped clear this area of vegetation, and a mature oak at this location has also fallen, so the team is hoping that increased light levels will encourage germination from the seed bank. There is one case from Kent where the species came back after 124 years.
As a back up, seed collected from London's only current Copse Bindweed site has been sown in pots . At the moment the
plan is to tend to any successful seedlings and then sink the pots into the ground in the wood. If plants emerge from the Lesnes seed bank, the pots will be whipped out and used elsewhere.
Mark Spencer is co-ordinator of work to produce a new atlas of wild and 'escaped' plants in London, and has also been behind the recovery of the nationally scarce Marsh Sow-thistle, having fortuitously saved seed from the last individual in the capital at Crayford Marshes. This was subsequently destroyed. Plants from these seeds were planted out at Thames Road Wetland where over the ensuing 13 years the population has thrived and increased in numbers.
Pleased to see Thames Road Wetland s 1st Green Hairstreak of the year at the Thames21 workparty on 12/4.The site was excavated to form the wetland in 2007, and the wildlife has been closely monitored by myself starting in 2010. This species was first seen here in 2016. It tends to form small colonies, and from memory I've only ever seen 2 or 3 t at a time here, so it's always a minor relief to find it's persisted through another winter.
The adults are usually found along the south-facing Thames Road bank, and the larvae are likely to be feeding on the Gorse and/or Dogwood at this location, and possibly the Bird's-foot Trefoil up by the road, though this has suffered badly in the last couple of long dry springs.
Peacock, Comma, Brimstone, Speckled Wood and unidentified 'small' Whites were also out on this date.
Chris Rose. Volunteer Site Manager.
Category Archives: Dragonflies and Damselflies
Updated checklist and account of Bexley Dragonflies and Damselflies published as season gets underway
‘Bexley Wildlife’s’ guide to Dragonflies and Damselflies in the Borough, and where to see them, has been updated to mark the start of the flight season – during which the adult insects metamorphose from their unobtrusive aquatic larval stage, take … Continue reading
Posted in Bexley, Crossness, Danson Park, Dragonflies and Damselflies, Erith Marshes, Recording
Tagged checklist, Crossness, Damselflies, Danson Park, Dragonflies, Erith Marshes, Lamorbey, Odonata
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Second ‘BW’ social a rather smaller affair
Twelve people came to the second ‘Bexley Wildlife Social on October 14th, whilst another half dozen found themselves unable to attend at the last moment for various reasons. We heard from Martin Watts and Linda Graham about the management of … Continue reading
Dragonfly recording app launched
The release of the iRecord Dragonfly App allows you to input and upload your dragonfly records in the field. With excellent identification information, the app is easy to use by amateurs and experts alike, say the British Dragonfly Society. Created in … Continue reading
Posted in Dragonflies and Damselflies, Recording
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Southern Marsh is Migrant Hawker heaven. Solitary Southern Hawker takes area to equal first with FCM on 15 Odonata species.
I counted some 40 to 44 Migrant Hawker dragonflies (Aeshna mixta) on the southern part of Erith Marshes yesterday afternoon (September 11th) , largely feeding along tall ‘hedge lines’ of Poplars and other tree species. This is an easy species … Continue reading
Lamorbey dragonfly and damselfly list grows to 10 species
Thanks to targeted recording by Ian Stewart the list of Odonata species around Lamorbey lake in Sidcup has now reached a rather healthier total of 10. This is the sort of figure that was always likely to be attained, but … Continue reading
Posted in Dragonflies and Damselflies, Lamorbey, Parks, Recording
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‘Bexley Wildlife’ social, August 18th: reminder and ‘programme’
The ‘Bexley Wildlife’ team, a web platform collaboration between Bexley Natural Environment Forum and the Greener Bexley Charity, invites ‘followers’ and other interested people to join us at a social event on Tuesday August 18th from 7p.m. at Bexley Village … Continue reading
Sun shines (intermittently) on Crossness butterfly event
Karen Sutton, Biodiversity Team Manager at Crossness Nature Reserve on Erith Marshes, reports on the Wednesday 15th July butterfly identification event. We held a butterfly identification walk on Crossness Nature Reserve just before the launch of Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count … Continue reading
Some people pictures from last Saturday’s Crossness invertebrates event
As previously reported there was an excellent turnout of 27 – mainly locals – for last weekend’s (July 4th) London Natural History Society-led event at Crossness Southern Marsh on Erith Marshes, looking at lesser-known invertebrates. The area is part of … Continue reading
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