Wildlife Circus

Note: Zuihitsu is a Japanese style of literature that can drift like a cloud or read like a song. It comprises a number of loosely connected themes, often featuring poetry inserts, expressing typical Japanese themes, such as nature and the changing seasons. Here 'Tolworth Day' (29.7.19) and  Tolworth Court Farm, are connected to lines found in John Clare's poems.  1. The trickling brook veins sparkling to the sun J.C. Actually there are two rivers here: the Hogsmill rising east to west from its spring ponds, boldly crosses the county boundary from Surrey into London at Tolworth; and the Bonesgate rising unseen, with two sediment laden arms, somewhere between  Chessington's farms and roads, only traced in places by  power and tree lines. A Guardian article (2015) attests that its  named from the resting place of London's  plague victims, but it seems only part of the story, due to its inaccessible location. Bonesgate sediment     2. The bla...

Today's radio had details of an unfortunate court case, which included the headline - grabbing news of the naming of a child 'Adolf'. Names carry powerful connotations and can be imbued with deep significance; the couple who named their son after Hitler were convicted for being members of a banned group known as 'National Action' and were sentenced  to prison for between 5 - 6 years. I began thinking of the power of bird names, either because they are inherently beautiful, have evocative songs such as the skylark, or because of their rarity. Lapwing Seething Wells   When we hear 'Peewit' we mean the Lapwing  or the  bird in the photograph - currently one of only six - but from an original flock of 200 regulars only ten years ago, at the Seething Wells filter beds, and now amongst the rarest bird in the borough. Richard Jefferies writing on "Nature Near London," (1888) noted that 2,000 lapwing overwintered on Tolworth Court Farm. I wonder if th...

  Many noticed the draining of the water in the filter beds, even though it took place the week before Christmas. I have no hotline to the offshore company who own the site and can only hazard a guess as to why this is happening now.The water level had risen to the top of the filter beds posing a management issue and leaving it any later could fall foul of the bird breeding season. If proposed Environment Agency charges for abstraction and disharge go ahead from April 2018 it could be very expensive to discharge the water  see https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/new-charging-proposals-fromapril2018/ There used to be a charge for a discharge permit until deregulation followed Agency staff cuts. Abstraction for small amounts of water became free but this has not helped the environment and our local rivers such as the Crane, Hogsmill and Beverley suffer constantly from low flows. So the Agency have to reconsider but the admin causes a financial headache and ...

small pumping station The path has been swept, the rubbish  cleared, the brambles strimmed, the building secured and the graffiti removed: so is a planning application  imminent? 2 duck and a lapwing

Female pochard Filter Beds Since the site visit (11.12.13) there has been no security presence at Seething Wells. With no-one driving around the Filter Beds every half hour, the site returns to 'normal'. The lack of disturbance has led to a welcome return of the swans and ducks normally expected  during the winter. This includes 4 swan, 34 tufted duck, ten gadwall and a female pochard, as well as good numbers of coot and moorhen. This morning there were six little grebe distributed between the beds and three lapwing on the dividing wall between FB's 5 and 6. Now that the tree screen has lost its leaves the door on the north east elevation appears to be open and fresh graffiti has appeared on the blue paintwork.

Security guard on the wall between FB's Driving back to the coal wharf 11am The site visit was scheduled for 11am on a cold foggy morning. there were approximately ten attendees including three from the Friends of Seething Wells as well as the planning consultant and  landscape architect for the developers Hydro/ Cascina. At 10.55a.m the security guard drove his car down the slope and onto the platform between FB's 1 & 2. He got out of his car making sure that all the lapwings flew away. He got back in his car and returned to the coal wharf (which was our meeting point). Simon and Howard at the rear of our party Foggy wetland We walked back along the filter beds and were shown some yellow marks on the pillars along the Portsmouth Road which are supposed to depict the heights of the apartments or the tops of the photovoltaic panels. We heard the eerie call of a lapwing through the fog, which could be seen flying from the wall at FB 5. Yellow m...

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...

lapwing 8 people, enjoying 12 sunny degrees, found 15 bird species during an hours stroll around the perimeter of the site. At this time of year we expect to see lapwings coming in to roost during the early evening (4pm). Unexpectedly, two birds were sitting on the dividing walls around lunchtime. In 1990-91, Surbiton and District Birdwatching Society undertook an annual survey of members local 'patches'within TQ16, the Winter Bird Count. Lapwings were present at 14% of sites which increased to 21% during the survey 1995-6. The population has decreased steadily so that they were present at only 6% of sites during the winter 2010-11. Flocks at Seething Wells can build up to 200 birds in winter. If you see a flock of birds skittishly flying over the Portsmouth Road at this location, check them out, don't assume they are starlings. heron Herons are  a characteristic species of the site and Sim remembered seeing a total of 14 on the Filter beds in former years. They...