Wildlife Circus

New orchard Alexandra recreation ground Berrylands    Peri-urban habitats in the south of the borough are radically altered; but orchards can maintain a wonderful wildlife habitat. The longer grass between trees can be a haven for wildflowers and insects; surplus fruit is appreciated by  winter  Scandanavian thrushes (redwings and fieldfares). There are some excellent blogs on orchards and their wildlife. http://brightwellorchards.blogspot.co.uk/ See also http://www.abundancelondon.com/ with excellent posts from K. Leibreich on the situation in south-west London fruit growing stronghold in Chiswick and Isleworth. https://www.theguardian.com/global/blog/2016/jan/11/community-belonging-values-discovery is an account of wassailing in an Oxfordshire village. The tradition of wassailing (also wasselling) into two distinct categories: The house-visiting wassail and the orchard-visiting wassail. The house-visiting wassail is the practice of people going doo...

This is the spring of one of the Hogsmill tributaries aka Green Lanes stream. It rises near West Hill in Epsom on the southern tip of Court Park. Despite some initial gurgling - no water was apparent throughout the park. Longmead Road    The route is along a stand of spectacular oak trees, many >300 years old. Great spotted woodpeckers were enjoying the grubs activated by the warmth of the winter sun. The stream is again lost along Pound Lane and the Primary School until it reaches Longmead Road where it emerges via several outfalls, a mixture of stormwater, road run-off and some misconnected pipework.       A strong ammonia odour becomes apparent once reaching the Thames Water storm tanks opposite Blenheim School, where the pong penetrates the winter air for the remainder of the  Longmead Road stretch. The rag-coated grillage attests to  recent sewage overflow  into the stream- despite the low rainfall- and is indicative of th...

This little wildlife corridor, marked here by the black arrow, rises close-to (and feeds) the lakes at Horton CP Golf Course. It flows towards the Hogsmill at Scott's Farm Close where it can be viewed at three places; this is after snaking through  back gardens into the playing fields at Epsom and Ewell High School. Here it is heavily engineered with double and triple weirs. Evidence of the stream's existence above ground is marked by the straighter - than - natural  line of trees  along  rear boundaries of properties along  Gadesden  Road. As Scott's Farm Close meets Gadesden Road there is a public right of way across school playing fields to Ruxley Lane where the stream can just about be seen (below left).      There are additional views at Chessington Close as the stream emerges from under the busy B284 road, traversing a more natural course through gardens - initially along their boundaries - but thereafter via a cherished sea...

Deptford creek River restoration has been a topic of recent posts, the Ravenborne was amongst the first river in the region undergo this treatment. European LIFE funding as part of a massive urban renewal project has regenerated the centre of Lewisham. At low tide, it is possible to walk along Deptford Creek, where the Ravensborne ends its journey to the Thames. Here riparian developments have led to some interesting planning gain (on the Lewisham rather than the Greenwich side). terraces topped by sand martin bank Sheet piling may be the cheapest way of protecting the bank or freeboard but this is useless for wildlife. The  best option is some form of terracing but this is expensive and often tricky to match to the vagaries of tidal water. When properly undertaken and well managed to remove invasive species, the terraces give rise to excellent habitat for plants and fauna of brackish water, where some unusual species have been recorded including a hybrid between Japanese...

Dryads saddle on horse chestnut     Its rather late in the year to be looking for fungi; the dry autumn and the long grass have meant there has not been much to see. Whilst some species benefit from infrequent mowing - others  do not - wax caps and the corals definitely prefer the shorter, warmer grass.    Wax cap sp.   Some birds prefer shorter grass as they find ants on shorter turf, which is exactly where we found the droppings of the green woodpecker, which resembles a burnt out cigarette (see photo).   Most of the fungi therefore was located on the boles or stumps of old trees such as the honey fungus on the tree outside the Dawson Road gate- no sign of the orange peel fungus that was present last year. The Inonotus hispidus on the ash with the many woodpecker holes (walk in the main gate and turn left). Green woodpecker dropping These are all important contributors to the web of life and it was possible to see the fungus gna...

    Following the London Urban Water Management Conference, Thames21 and Enfield Council  organised a tour of the Rainscapes last Tuesday. It was great to see the sites in the raw as well as talk to members of the local Friends groups.  blocked drain and swale Our first stop was at Lonsdale Road and Aimee Felus from Thames 21 and Ian Russel the borough engineer at Enfield council showed us some of the impressive schemes they had colaborated on, that were custom designed to prevent polluted storm water run-off from entering the streams. This included deculverting part of the hidden Glenbrook river along a woodlot .  Misconnections from sources of sewage entered the river through various outfalls but are hidden under the road. Here they are seen and can be dealt with and the process starts with a boom to hold back the worst excesses of pollutants, most recently this has been cement washed into drains from building works which has left an amount of whit...

On Friday team members from Natural England and DEFRA,  from  the south-east and London regions, descended on Tolworth Court Farm Moated Manor on an awayday; to assist us with the ongoing management of the site. Elliot gave a tool talk, prior to participants extending the dead hedge along the boundary with the Hogsmill footpath. Materials were procured from a local woodsman who delivered to us before the day began.   Hazel faggots  and stakes were unloaded and taken to an area under where the previous group - a Duke of Edingburgh award scheme- had finished. By the end of the day our compost toilet had a coat of protective paint and the hedge had increased substantially in length. dead headge Panisha and Robbie painting the compost loo    Participants were surprised at the amount of bird life present as we watched jays,  woodpeckers and kestrels; as well as a number of small birds such as goldfinches.   Many thanks to particip...

 Members of the Richmond Biodiversity Partnership enjoyed a walkover of the paddocks at Hampton Court Park (aka Home Park) to see the newly created wetland habitats- including  sluices to aid control of the Longford River-  installed over the last two years. Part of good stewardship of the wildlife in this  oasis- is the control of mink - prevalent in this catchment, particularly in the river Mole and our stretch of  the Thames.   Male mink skin The  skins emphasised the size difference between  the male and female, with the latter able to gain access to a water vole burrow.The wildlife officer demonstrated the use of the mink rafts, which are in use at many wetland sites in  south-west London. mink raft with the lid off    This one is missing the roof to demonstrate the wet clay, which serves to reveal footprints of the visiting animals, to warn of the possible presence of mink. We were told that the rafts are no longer ...

Over the last two days members of the Environment Agency have been undertaking fish surveys at four locations along the Hogsmill. This is from Hogsmill Lane (just off Villiers Road) to Oakland Way-Chamber Mead KT19 upstream, just  across the borough boundary. This type of survey is  usually undertaken by boat - although backpacks were used in the shallows upstream at Ewell. Circular electrofishing 'anodes' attract the fish, which swim towards the the charged equipment, where they are stunned but not harmed. They are then decanted to large buckets for further examination or 'processing'. During the initial survey  at Elmbridge Meadows, a surprising catch of ~100 fish was made in the first of three runs. This is virtually one fish every metre of the ~90m netted area and included: chub, dace, roach, stone loach, gudgeon, stickleback, minnow, bullhead and an eel. At  Worcester Park Road-Tolworth  A240  a similar number of fish were caught. By far th...

Local Rivers Day was held at KEC on Saturday 24th September. Amongst the displays were The Environment Agency on local flood alleviation plans, the Hogmsill Community Garden, the Hogsmill river project, and the London Waterkeeper-Theo Thomas- who campaigns for clean and thriving rivers in parks, including swimming zones created along the our non-tidal stretch section of the Thames, as well as helping to monitor the Hogsmill.  There was also a magnetic fishing pond complete with mini supermarket trolley created by Danielle O'Shaughnessy for the children.