US social scientist Kenneth Boulding : ‘If you believe exponential growth can go on in a finite world, you are either a madman or an economist’.

Wednesday 19 August 2009

19/8/09: Mining Bees and new Broom at Bursted Wood, Martens Grove fruitfulness

I counted in excess of 300 nests of what appear to be solitary mining bees on the sunny, shallowly sloping bank between Erith Rd and Bursted Wood. The pale, sandy, excavated soil shows up strongly against the short turf. Despite watching carefully I only saw one bee enter and exit its single entrance hole, and it looked like a slightly over-sized Honeybee.


Mining Bee nests on bank between Erith Rd and Bursted Wood


Closer view showing single entrance holes


Being a fan of heathland and heathland plants I was pleased to count 13 young Broom plants (some pictured above) by the slip road to the hospital site. There had been 3 larger plants here, but these suddenly died a couple of years ago after some idiot agency killed off a wide strip of vegetation up to the wood margin. Quite why is beyond me, as being on the outside of the bend it wasn't impeding driver sight lines. I guess trimming back the bramble shoots now and again was just too much bother ........

A closer examination of a weedy corner on the Long Lane Texaco forecourt revealed three plants of Catmint (Nepeta cataria), rather than the one reported in a previous posting.

There were 2 Painted Lady butterflies flitting around the car park behind the Naval Volunteer pub on Queens Rd, Bexleyheath.

I cut back to Barnehurst via Martens Grove, where good crops of Blackberry, Rose, Dogwood and Sloe fruits were in evidence, along with a Speckled Wood and a Meadow Brown butterfly.


Dogwood fruit, Martens Grove


Sloe fruit, Martens Grove


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