Wildlife Circus

Joe Pecorelli from ZSL The eel trap was reinstalled by Joe on 20 April 2016 to allow monitoring of this year’s eel passage. The first eel of the season was recorded during the second check of the year, and on 29 April 2016 three eels were found. The eels are transferred to a bucket, where they are measured before being carefully returned to the river. Most of today’s catch belonged to a similar age class, although a much larger eel was observed further upstream near the cemetery later that day. Look out for eel traps along other rivers such as this one at Teddington Lock Emptying the trap Kingston University is running another eel training event during May, so if you are interested in helping out at any point from April to September with the checks, please sign up for the training (see the Kingston University biodiversity blog). Some not so good news with the river monitoring (see March, 2015 posts) : three out of the four RMI monthly checks have found breaches in trigger...

Dead barbel Clattern bridge abuttments Unfortunately,  the same river that  Lucy wrote so lyrically about in a previous post,  was  subject to a serious sewage spill during the early hours of 8.2.16. This was apparent from dead fish floating in the water, including this adult Barbel seen at the Clattern bridge 4 days later. Due to an electrical failure, pumping equipment failed and subsequent pressure caused a blow - out at the Green Lane Recreation Ground. Many will remember this site has been subject to lengthy closures in the past (2003) due to sewage contamination and remedial works. Green Lane Recreation Ground will be 'closed until further notice' reads the notice on the gate. The clean-up is a lengthy operation and 2,500 blue bags (to the right of the photo)  containing rag (toilet paper etc.) have been removed so far. Toilet paper hanging from low-lying vegetation  But who is going to clean-up the river banks as the tide of s...