23/3/10: From 'River Grottage' to constructing Snake's nests

Another Cray Riverkeeper Volunteers bash.

Spent the morning with Gaynor bagging the bl**dy awful 'grot spot' on the downstream side of Maiden Lane bridge. The mindlessness of the morons responsible is mind-numbing. They drive all the way there to fly-tip stuff that could go to the Council dump less than two miles away. They leave piles of beer cans and plastic bottles that the Council collects from the kerbside on a weekly basis, and they chuck litter on the floor a few feet from a litter bin. Tests one's 'liberal'-mindedness and makes the idea of DNA-testing this stuff and shooting the bast**ds seem an attractive proposition ......

Found a couple of less-than-a-year-old Smooth Newts hibernating together under some plastic sacking, and there were a few clumps of frogspawn in satill water by the downstream footings of the bridge.

Stupidly failed to take a 'before' picture, but here's an illustration of the scale of the operation (a few sacks were of rubbish collected further along the path) from afterwards.


In the afternoon, three of us put on the chest-waders and went into the water at the Thames Road 'wetland' site to rake up some of the Reed and Reedmace we cut the other week and pile it up to make potential nest incubation sites for Grass Snakes (CRV Co-ordinator Ashe Hurst reported finding the remains of a dead one on the sewer bank later that evening). Three others litter-picked the surrounds.



Three of the four Grass Snake nesting sites constructed from layers of cut Reed, Reedmace and other vegetation can be made out along one of the raised banks in this rather gloomy late-afternoon shot

Another big problem along this end of the Cray is the large amount of Giant Hogweed, seen here coming back into growth below the south side embankment near Maiden Lane

These Viola odorata up on the sewer embankment are, I think, a new record for me at the 'wetland' site

4, 9 and 10/3/10: Cray and Thames Road wetland work

Out with the Cray Riverkeeper Volunteers (we had a decent splash in the hard copy and on-line News Shopper last week - http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/5032210.THAMES21__The_volunteers_who_don_t_mind_getting_their_feet_wet/ )
On the 4th we were picking litter from the river and banks just downstream of Crayford Town centre.

On the 9th there were only three of us, including 'Boss' Ashe Hurst. We were cutting Common Reed and Great Reedmace in the Thames Rd wetland site.

Thames Road wetland panorama

This should have been done last year really, not least because the Reedmace seed heads were now disintegrating, and the tiny 'feathered' seed was getting in our hair, up our noses and in our mouths - even when trying to work 'upwind' of the stems! The ground, Teasel and Burdock heads up on the sewer bank have been covered in this 'grey snow' for days now.

Great Reedmace seeding - this stuff has been used in bouyancy devices .....

I also managed to lose my concentration for a fraction of a second, lost my balance and got a load of water down one side of my chest-waders. Fortunately I had fleece-lined footwear with me, so was able to walk home without the wet sock on and without my foot getting frozen.

On the 10th I was the only volunteer to turn out and Ashe had to go into central London to pick up some kit. I spent several hours carting dumped tyres and rubble from the shady side of the sewer pipe bank round to the south-facing Thames Rd side, then digging them into the slope to make reptile cover/basking sites, as pictured below. In the process I inadvertently disturbed a small (less than 1 year old) hibernating Smooth Newt, which I put into one of the tyre set-ups for safety.

Recycling for reptiles - dumped tyres and rubble used to make cover/basking sites. Common Lizards, in particular, like to bask on tyres, as they warm up quickly.