Wildlife Circus

Filter Beds, 2010 courtesy N. Jackman The winners of the S.W. Wildlife Competition have been  notified of their prizes. Thank you to those who also sent photos. One of the prizes, is a place on the London Bat Group/Community Brain Batty Boat Trip. The boat trip has been held annually (every June 8th) since 2006, in order to monitor the bat activity along the R. Thames between Steven's Eyot and Hampton Court Bridge. This type of 'time series' data is invaluable in monitoring the diversity of species, levels of bat activity and any change along this stretch of the river. We time the boat trip to be alongside Seething Wells, as the Daubenton's bats are 'light sampling ' within their roost. Over the years we have noted changes in the local bat population, especially a reduction in the number of species.  This includes the loss of serotine (now rarely recorded in the borough) and the decline in  Natterer's bat registrations, only ever recorded foraging arou...

Lapwing night-roost 2.1.12 Councillors presided over a packed hall at Dysart School, Surbiton to hear the application 11/16502/FUL for the development of filter beds to provide 64 residential homes on floating pontoons, 92 berth marina and lock gate, restaurant, landscaping and car parking; as enabling development to provide publically accessible nature reserve, riverside walk, heritage and education centre, flood storage and river taxi stop. After a short presentation about the scheme from officers, community voices railed for over an hour, as people spoke passionately about the: ·          wildlife issues, the objections from Natural England and the London Bat Group; ·          the loss of heritage and the failure to recognise the importance of this unique site; ·          the impact on water sports and river safety and the objection from Sport Engla...