Wildlife Circus

East Lagoon West lagoon   Two teams of ten participants spent the night of 23.6.17,  harp trapping bats, as part of the National Nathusius' Pipistrelle project. We surveyed five sites last year and intend to  cover a similar number of local water bodies this year; starting at two lakes at different locations across the Hogsmill Sewage Works.  The eastern lagoon forms part of the nature reserve, which is open to the public (on obtaining the code from Kristine Boudreau, Hogmill Reserve Manager : kristine.boudreau@thameswater.co.uk     Recently a second bird hide has been installed and lower water levels and habitat improvements have provided plenty to watch and listen, including a cettis warbler. The reserve is rarely seen at night so although  small numbers of swifts and house martins breed locally along Chiltern Drive, we were surprised to see ~100 swifts feeding well after sunset.       Both traps caught Daubenton...

According to Blogger statistics, one of the most-read posts of 2016 to date has been The Hogsmill Sewage Spill (8.2.16). It therefore seems appropriate to provide an update here, rather than respond individually to the many enquiries received. This also serves as a useful way of maintaining a chronological record of events, while keeping ward councillors informed, particularly as they are already dealing with other sewage-related issues, such as persistent odour problems.   The previous post detailed the amount of 'rag' that appears downstream of the outfall on an almost weekly basis. During the flood of 25 June 2016, however, a substantial quantity of this material—including nappy liners, sanitary towels, condoms and their wrappers, cotton buds and, despite assurances that it does not survive passage through the Hogsmill Storm Relief (HSR) outfall, toilet paper—was deposited across the adjacent Public Open Space (POS).   Rag at the outfall So, here's what happened on...

Whats happening over the fence?  Could it have been the continued improvements at the Hogsmill Sewage Works Nature Reserve, where  a dedicated group of volunteers were filling up the  bird feeders. Or could it be the birds on the lagoon (that had completely frozen over after several nights of frost). It was funny to watch the birds walking on ice, which seemed much larger when their entire bodies were not half submerged. The current large gull count is an  opportunity to practice gull identification especially for those who went to the excellent talk  at the Surbiton and District Birdwatching Society given by David Darrell-Lambert  entitled 'The Easy Way to Identify Gulls'. David is an acknowledged bird identification guru known as Birdbrain. He has had photographs published in a number of specialist journals. He has also appeared in Radio 4's Questions, Questions, Thames News and has made appearances in the Telegraph. So was that ...

Where are the borough's flood defences? Well according to Strategic Flood Risk Assessment commissioned by the council in 2008 (Jacobs) our main flood defences are the Hogsmill Sewage works, Beverley Brook and the Manor Park and Berrylands Railway Embankments. Jacobs noted that housing should be avoided in Zone 3a (1144 houses currently). There are 57 properties identified in Zone 3b, which is floodplain (Town centre). The Jacobs report presumably went onto inform the Core Strategy 2011, which underpins our Local Development Framework for the borough. The two main policies of interest are: Policies CS1, CS2, DM1-DM4 2 Manage and reduce fluvial and surface water flood risk in the Borough by ensuring flood risk strategies are kept up to date, guiding new development to areas of low risk where possible and requiring mitigation measures such as Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems. Where development is required within flood risk zones such as Kingston Town Centre, mitigation measu...