20/7/10: Another new White-letter Hairstreak colony in Bexley

Following on from my White-letter Hairstreak butterfly find at Crayford Marshes (see 2/7/10 posting), late this afternoon I checked Barnehurst Golf Course for the presence of White-letter Hairstreak for the second time in a fortnight.

I had had a possible 4 sightings on 6th July, 3 along the fairly substantial strip of English Elm along the western margin of the site bordering Manor Way, and 1 at the eastern end parallel to Perry St, where there is another reasonable amount of Elm. All were briefly in flight and I could not see where they settled to get a proper view and confirm presence.

Today, besides a possible sighting at the Perry Street end, I obtained a definite identification by the Old Manor Way entrance at the west end of the site (TQ 506 760). I had been pondering the dearth of suitable nectar sources in the immediate area when I saw a small brown butterfly land on a cluster of the few Bramble flowers not yet setting fruit, just as I was about to exit the Golf Course and head for home. I swung my binoculars onto it just in case it wasn't another Gatekeeper, and because I'd seen a possible White-letter Hairstreak on an Elm 'bush' here two weeks ago. And lo, and behold, a W-LHS it was! Cue a bit of fist-pumping, but not too obviously in case any passers-by thought I was some kind of nutter ..... The insect was about 8' from me and only a few yards from gardens and houses on either side. The time was 18.17 and it was a warm, sunny afternoon with a slight breeze. The area where it was feeding was still getting some sun from the west at this time.


A White-letter Hairstreak was seen feeding on Bramble flowers here at the 'stub end' of Old Manor Way, by the entrance to Barnehurst Golf course, early this evening. Dead, ivy-clad Elm to the left, live Elm centre, Pedunculate Oak right. Swathe of Bramble, Stinging Nettle and Mugwort in the foreground.

A bit of subtle management to improve W-LHS habitat would probably be useful here. The Elm is reaching a decent height before succumbing, but there is relatively little coming through in the way of mid-height (or even small) suckers. This is because a considerable number of dead Elm have been left in situ and are covered in Ivy, shading and swamping out new growth. Several medium-sized Sycamores are taking up space that Elm could colonise. And in one area a Russian Vine from a neighbouring garden is covering an increasingly large area within the Elm zone whilst a dense swathe of bordering nettles is hindering any Elm colonisation along the margins of its present extent.

At any rate, the fact that I've trebled the apparently 'known' number of W-LHS sites in the Borough in 2 weeks rather supports other people's theories that the species is under-recorded - it's not the sort of thing that one is necessarily going to find on the basis of a few cursory glances up at a bunch of Elm trees. Indeed the LNHS butterfly recorder tells me it has already shown a very large increase in records between the 1980s and 1990s - the second-highest of any butterfly species in London - which suggests better recording rather than a massive population increase and spread.

Elsewhere on the Golf Course today, Essex Skipper, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Holly Blue, Small Copper and Red Admiral were seen. The usefulness of the oft-maligned Common Ragwort as a nectar source for several of these butterflies, at a time when not much else is available in such grassland, was especially evident.

8/4/2010: Small Tortoiseshell bonanza

Well OK, not quite, but I was delighted to see two Small Tortoiseshell butterflies chasing each other over a nettle patch near the Old Manor Way entrance to Barnehurst Golf Course on this sunny afternoon. I was on my way to do some Great Crested Newt surveying. But frankly, these things are a lot harder to find by far at the moment. Two is about as many as I've seen in the whole of the past four or five years. One can only hope that the cold winter might have pegged back the parasite that it's thought might be responsible for their decline down here in the warmer south. The last time I saw any number together - as was usually the case when I was a teenager back in the 70s - was several years ago up in Lancaster.

Also down at this end of the golf course was a Comma.

Later on I saw what were probably three different Peacock buterflies at the Thames Rd wetland site, two of which were busy chasing each other about.

7/1/10: Lengthening bird list is pain in neck

Spent the afternoon wandering round Martens Grove and Barnehurst Golf Course in the snow, and am beginning to think I'm getting a grip on this birdwatching malarky.

It was all very pretty, but I hadn't expected to get so engrossed, so had no gloves which eventually made focussing the binoculars in a hurry and writing notes a bit difficult, as my fingers kept getting rather numb.

Also, standing in a wood and repeatedly tilting ones head back 45 degrees for extended periods of time, so as to try and see the bird you can hear is up in the tree above, but is somehow remaining out of sight despite the lack of leaves, gets a bit uncomfortable. As opposed, say, to staring at the ground looking for obscure plants .........

On the way, 10 (+?) Redwings had shot out of a Holly in a front garden on Barnehurst Rd as I approached. The plant was narrow and only about 12 feet tall. One bird had stayed behind and carried on eating the berries.

A number of 'usual suspect' species were seen at both sites - Wood Pigeon, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Ring-necked Parakeet, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Long-tailed Tit. Plus lots of Grey Squirrels.

The highlights in Martens Grove were:

A Treecreeper. This was spotted near the Stephen Rd. entrance, and good views of it were had working its way up the trunks of mature trees next to gardens on that road. If I've seen this species before it was a very long time ago, and I don't remember doing so. If I have, I doubt it was in the Barnehurst/Bexleyheath area.

Also a Nuthatch calling from the top of a big tree. Had a lot of trouble getting a clear view of this one - and I'm no good at identifying birds from their song yet. This is another species I've not seen in these parts before, at least since I picked up my wildlife recording baton again about 5 years ago - so making use of winter conditions to look out for birds properly is starting to pay dividends.

Martens Grove near the Stephen Rd. entrance

A couple of Oaks still had a lot of leaves attached

Footpath along the north side of Martens Grove

The uncommon Butcher's Broom near houses by the above-mentioned footpath. Possibly a garden escape, this is the only specimen I've found on this site, and the only other 'wild' one I know of in Bexley at present is in Lesnes Abbey Woods

The highlight of Barnehurst Golf Course was the Green Woodpecker that flew up from the rough 'wildlife area' on the north side of the site. A Wren was also feeding on the ground here.

The 'classic' view at the Barnehurst Golf Course site, looking north to the Cedar, Taunton Close and the railway line

Wildlife area looking east towards the Thames and Essex

There are two Gorse bushes here, one in a shady spot, and this superbly dome-shaped specimen out in the open and already in full flower

Gorse (one of my favourite native plants) in flower in the snow

Another indicator of the heathland 'heritage' / potential of the area: these are some of a handful of young Broom plants along the tree line at the foot of the bank to one side of the hole 3/12 fairway

Handsome specimen tree at Barnehurst Golf Course

13/8/09: Barnehurst Golf Course/Mayplace Rd East/Perry St

There were recently emerged baby Common Toads in my brother's garden on Mayplace Rd East, near Crayford Manor House. Toads had bred in his pond this year, although it isn't especially large. Amphibians larvae had benefitted fron a fault with the filter, which had emptied the pond and killed the larger fish.

A plant of Common Calamint was spotted growing out from under a hedge at the entrance to the Manor House lodge, my third record of it in Barnehurst.

Earlier, I had seen a Comma butterfly on Barnehurst Golf Course. There was a Holly Blue and a Painted Lady along the Perry St perimeter.

An unidentified Hawker Dragonfly species was repeatedly checking out the Hawthorn hedge along the northern margin of the site. There was a good show of Bird's-foot Trefoil flowers along the base of the hedge by the path on the south-facing side.

About 20 House Sparrows flew out of a bramble thicket down behind Taunton Close.

A couple of Black Knapweed growing in shadier positions were still in flower. Others in full sun had gone to seed. A new record for me on this site was a couple of Spindle shrubs in a 'clearing' behind the line of Field Maple down towards Old Manor Way. It wasn't clear whether these were planted or not. A 2' 6" specimen appeared to be self-sown.

I had also gone, for the first time, along the footpath to the east of Perry St, by Perry St Farm, that leads to Ashurst Close. The most noteworthy things were some 20 Common St. John's Wort, several Crow Garlic (Allium vineale) and 5 White Campion.

2/7/09: Barnehurst station, Golf Course and Perry Street

I first spotted Common Centaury at the top of the bank behind Barnehurst station's 'down' platform, close to Hornbeam Lane, a couple of years ago. As with several other plants on the 'station land' here, this is the only place for some considerable distance where I know the species to exist. So I was pleased to see four plants in flower, two in each of two spots some way apart.

Some pristine Comma butterflies were patrolling their territories in a bramble and nettle-lined pathway not far from the Mayplace Rd East entrance to Barnehurst Golf Course, and at one point three of them were spiralling upward together. Spend a short while watching them and you will soon appreciate that these insects will keep coming back to one or two favoured landing spots, as here:

Comma butterfly at 'lookout' spot, from which attacks will be launched against intruders

This blistering, presumably some type of gall, was spotted along the Lime Tree walk

and 9 very large, pale green bladder-like galls of this kind:

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3071/2578158605_9f2a227eec.jpg%3Fv%3D0&imgrefurl=http://flickr.com/photos/ashe/2578158605/&usg=__LHfNdryiqKgq7Gi3U-mWZhzP-as=&h=373&w=500&sz=102&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=4hcNrQPwGhX3TM:&tbnh=97&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Delm%2Bgall%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

were later noted on an English Elm towards the Manor Way entrance.

The Golf Course seem to have been managed quite sensitively from a wildlife point of view, so I was disappointed to see an area next to fairway 6/15 that has previously been carpeted with Lesser Stitchwort, Germander Speedwell and Bird's-foot Trefoil flowers mown down, in my view, rather too early. In addition, prunings from the Hawthorn hedge, between the course and the recreation ground to the north, had been left strewn along its base, smothering the Bird's-foot Trefoil plants there.

Bird's-foot Trefoil left smothered by hedge prunings

Along the Perry Street Farm hedge line there were a significant number of Hemlock plants, now running to seed, a characteristically good show of Common Mallow in the field, and Hoary Cress and a fine clump of Wild Carrot (Daucus carota) by the mouth of the footpath through the farm.

Wild Carrot by mouth of Perry Street farm footpath

The highlight of the view across the farm towards the QE2 bridge and Essex, was a wheeling flock of approximately 125 Starlings, repeatedly coming down to feed, then taking to the air again.

On the other side of the road 14 Long-tailed Tits flew out of bushes at the eastern end of the Golf Course

The long Golf Course side verge along Perry Street is unimaginatively mown to the ground like this

Low wildlife value

While just over the fence on Golf Course land it looks like this

High wildlife value, vastly more interesting

with Meadow Brown and Skipper butterflies, Cinnabar Moth larvae on the Common Ragwort, the yellow stars of Perforate St. John's Wort, Crow Garlic (Allium vineale) and the summer buzz of grasshoppers.



Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris) feeding on Common Ragwort (yes, I got close enough to see that the underside of the clubs at the ends of the antennae were light orangey-brown (and not black, as in the Essex Skipper)

Further evidence of what laying off the incessant mowing can do is seen in the old BMX track area (following photographs), for the enlightened management of which Bexley Borough Council should be warmly congratulated. Quite simply, there should be an awful lot more of this sort of thing, and not just in 'flagship' open spaces.

The cheerful yellow flowers of Lady's Bedstraw (Galium verum)

Black Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) - never particularly abundant here and doesn't seem to persist in the same spot for more than a couple of years at a time

Seedheads of Goat's-beard(Tragopogon pratensis), an uncommon Dandelion relative of the south and east of England that has very narrow leaves. I counted 20 plants along the eastern edge of this part of the site.

Finally, adding to my 'portfolio' of less obvious insects that I have managed to identify, there were a large number of small bugs in the tops of Stinging nettles towards the Manor Way exit. These were Common Nettle Capsid Bugs (Liocoris tripustulatis) - looking like this, with a distinctive 'V' at the front of the abdomen:

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://clewerparknature.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/img_11371.jpg&imgrefurl=http://clewerparknature.wordpress.com/&usg=__OFZkvZetp2vLQUjjjvXGtUF4I_8=&h=375&w=500&sz=64&hl=en&start=5&um=1&tbnid=6NwkxFRnlCoNVM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnettle%2Bfeeding%2Bbugs%26hl%3Den%26um%3D1