October and early November - Cray/TRW wildlife round-up

Observations made 7th, 14th, 20th, 28th October and 4th November 2010

7/10:

A Common Fumitory and Wild Carrot were by a car park at the Thames Rd end of Howbury Lane, along with Spotted Medick.

At Thames Road Wetland, Reed Sweet Grass and Water Mint were noted. A Peacock butterfly was seen, also a Small Copper (from memory a new record for the site) and an inquisitive Migrant Hawker dragonfly. A 22-spot Ladybird was found. 6 Marsh Frogs and a couple of Common Lizards were spotted.

Whilst wading in the water to clear some areas of Greater Reedmace, groups of Lesser Water Boatmen were seen in open water (there are two families embracing these, Corixidae and Pleidae - I'm not sure which group these specimens fell into). Lesser Water Boatmen swim on their fronts, and Greater Water Boatmen species swim on their backs. A fresh Water Vole (UK, London and Bexley Biodiversity Action Plan priority species) latrine was found.

Fresh Water Vole Latrine at the margin of a patch of Reed Sweet Grass, on Thames Road wetland

14/10:

Reed Canary Grass was noted by the Cray along Footpath 106. 2 Goldfinches were feeding on a Spear Thistle seed head. A Greater Spotted Woodpecker was calling from a very exposed position at the top of an exotic garden conifer. A Jay was seen flying across the river at the Barnes Cray Road end of the footpath.

A Greater Celandine was in flower by the culvert taking the River Wansunt under Maiden Lane.

There were 30 Mallard (including two black hybrids with white breasts) downstream of the Maiden Lane bridge over the Cray.

There were 7 or so Fennel seedlings around the adult plant on the eastern part of the Sewer Embankment by Thames Road Wetland. Sycamore leaves here were heavily infected with Tar Spot fungus. A flowering Black Nightshade was at the eastern end of the TRW site, by the trackway. There was some Self Heal in the pallet yard.

Sycamore at TRW, heavily infected with Tar Spot fungus

Black Nightshde in flower, TRW

On the flat section of the TRW, next to Thames Rd, were Parsley Piert, Buck's-horn Plantain, Shepherd's Purse, several Hemlock, Black Medick, two Sun Spurge, Fat Hen and Mugwort. A Geranium pyrenaicum, White Campion, Bristly Ox-tongue and Narrow-leaved Ragwort were in flower, along with a lot of Ribbed Melilot and White Melilot.

Narrow-leaved Ragwort in flower, TRW, beside Thames Road. Bristly Ox-tongue in front of it.

Ribbed Melilot (yellow flowers) and White Melilot flowering together on the TRW site by Thames Rd

Later a Jay was seen in a garden on Dartford Rd., and approximately 52 Starlings heading east over the railway line. A large Tomato plant with fruit was growing outside shops opposite the end of Heath Rd.

20/10:

There was a Common Darter dragonfly at TRW, and another along By-way 105 as I headed for the Riverkeeper Volunteers yard. There was a Red Admiral on Footpath 106 by the yard. Heading back to the Wetland, there was a Fox on the north bank of the Cray.

On the 'lake' at the Wetland were a Coot and 4 Moorhens. Also a male and female Teal - a new species record for the site.

28/10:

Thames Road Wetland - Great Tit, Blue Tit, 1 Chaffinch, a Robin and several Goldfinches along the Sewer Pipe Embankment. About 20 Black-headed Gulls on the 'lake'.

A Red Admiral was fluttering in the Willow (believed to have been poisoned during Giant Hogweed control operations) along By-way 105.

About 21 Canada Geese were flying west. A large Common Frog was in the Riverkeeper Volunteers yard.

Back at the Wetland a Darter landed on a dumped fridge on the Sewer Pipe Embankment and 8 Long-tailed Tits were at the east end of the site. 9 Ring-necked Parakeets flew over late in the afternoon.

A Darter dragonfly and a Dipteran fly share a perch on a dumped fridge at TRW

After working on the Wetland I went over to the south end of Dartford Marshes, but there were no ducks on the flooding fields yet. Around 92 Canada Geese flew up from the east side of the River Darent, and flew low over my head. OK they're not native, but there was still something majestic about the experience!

4/11:

A flock of 23 Goldfinches were flitting about at the east end of Thames Road Wetland early this morning.

Reedmace removal operations revealed another Water Vole latrine,, though not as fresh as the one on 7/10.

I went out onto Dartford Marshes again, and in the by now very gloomy conditions, made out 10 (most likely) white-rumped Greylag Geese on one of the flooded fields.

3/8/10: Ruddy hell! Grain Wall Brown joy and Eryngium maritimum bonanza

An unexpected, short-notice trip over to the Isle of Grain in Kent today with Mervyn Brown, and old acquaintance from North Kent Wildlife Preservation Society days. Mervyn showed up at my door out of the blue a few months ago when he found out I was back in the area. He has been working with Eric Philp on the new Flora of Kent. He used to focus on moths but is now hot on grasses. The purpose of the visit was to look at a colony of Sea Holly (Eryngium maritimum), as he is an afficianado of the genus.

The area looked at was the Thames shoreline, north and west of the village of Grain itself.

Looking east from the cliff-top towards the mouth of the Medway, with Sheerness beyond. Remains of anti-tank defences towards the foreground.

A short way west of the car park was a rough grassy area over a crumbly clay. A number of grasses were identified, including Sea Couch, the Couch/Sea Couch hybrid, Creeping Bent and Yellow Oat Grass. There were a number of Opium Poppies, Hoary Ragwort, Sea Mayweed and White Melilot.

Wild Carrot amongst abundant Horseradish

Creeping Bent (in the foreground)

View of the Thames looking north-west (upriver)

In a depression between some banking were Common Fleabane in flower, Hairy Tare and Common Toadflax.

Common Fleabane (foreground) with the Thames and Essex coast beyond

A lot of Coltsfoot was sprouting from several incongruous mounds of sand

The botanical highlight was the huge amount of Sea Holly. I haven't been able to resist including several pictures of it .....

A long strip behind the beach in a fenced-off area contained a phenomenal number of plants - it was as if a farmer had deliberately sown a field of them stretching into the distance. Neither Mervyn nor I had ever seen the species growing at this sort of density before.

Other coastal plants included Sea Purslane and lots of Sea Sandwort.

Insects seen included Common Blue Damselflies, good close-up views of my first definite Ruddy Darters, Common Blue butterflies, a Small Copper, a Red Admiral and Gatekeepers.

I thought I'd seen something a bit different earlier on, but when I called out to Mervyn 'It's a Wall Brown!' he didn't quite believe me. It was very obliging and we both took several pictures - even though it flew up a couple of times, it kept coming back to a nearby spot and opening its wings. I used to get Wall Browns on the Buddleia in my front garden in Barnehurst (and no Speckled Woods). Without hunting out my old records my guess is that the last one I saw was in my garden in around 1980-1982, more than half a life-time ago now. The Wall Brown disappeared from much of its range for unknown reasons, but for a long time now I have had Speckled Woods.

Long time no see - a Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera) by the Thames, just west of Grain village, on the Isle of Grain, Kent

31/7/10: Bushy Park: Beewolf, Wasp Spider and Mistletoe (bugs)

A London Natural History Society field trip with a largely entomological bent.

On the way down I noted quite a lot of White-flowered Buddleia beside the railway, especially just south of Wimbledon. (The other place where this is/was the case is between the tracks not far from Paddington station).

In Hampton Wick High Street there were a few Tree of Heaven saplings, Ground Elder, Ivy-leaved Toadflax, a Galinsoga sp. and Greater Celandine. There was a nice vertical run of Hart's-tongue Fern in an alcove on the railway bridge over Seymour Rd. A couple of 'escaped' Papaver (probably rupifragum) were also spotted.

Bushy Park, general view

The best area in Bushy Park for general invertebrates was one fenced off from the deer, allowing the grass to grow. Here were found:

- several Gatekeepers
- a Small Heath
- a copulating pair of Common Blues
- Silver Y
- Cinnabar Moth caterpillars
- lots of Burnet Moths

- 3 female Wasp Spiders, one with a male in its web

- Roesel's Bush Cricket

- Birch Catkin Bug
- Parent Bug (on Birch, sitting over its eggs)

There were a significant number of Hawthorns with Mistletoe on them, with a lot of these trees looking in a bad way. There was a bit on a Willow as well. After much persistence with a sweep net - and makeshift handle extension - LNHS bug expert Dr. Tristan Bantock managed to catch all four Bug species specific to Mistletoe, including Anthocoris visci, Hypseloecus visci and Pinalitus viscicola, as well as the Mistletoe pysllid (Cacopsylla visci).

Tristan Bantock poised to hunt Mistletoe bugs

Mistletoe on Hawthorn in Bushy Park

Elsewhere an Oak Bush Cricket and a Purple Hairstreak were swept.

On a compacted path we came across the nest holes of Philanthus triangulum, the Beewolf (the name of which put me in mind of films about WW2 U-boats ...) and saw several provisioning them with their paralysed bee prey. I had a great close-up view when a bee-laden female decided to land on my arm. Good photo of this species here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tristanba/4854994906/

There are a number of water courses and artificial lakes across the site.

Odonata seen were
- a Brown Hawker
- a Common Darter
- a Common Blue Damselfly
- Blue-tailed Damselflies
- a large number of (Large) Red-eyed Damselflies

3 small Common Toads were found in various places away from the water.

Plants included a lot of Skullcap at the water's edge, a single Trifid Bur-marigold, Greater Duckweed (Spirodela polyrhiza) and the non-native floating Water Fern (Azolla filiculoides).

Greater Duckweed (the larger floating discs) amongst a smaller species

Birds here included a number of Egyptian Geese (one pictured below, with Canada Goose in the background).

21/7/2010: Barnehurst and Crayford miscellany

To the River Cray via Barnehurst Golf Course, Perry Street roundabout and Thames Rd., back later via the pub and Thames Road Wetland (TRW).

There was a Small Copper butterfly on the grass at the golf course as I headed up the hill by Taunton Close, and near the summit a Speckled Wood.

In the Perry Street/Wyatt Rd section of rough ground were 2 Fennel plants, Gatekeeper butterflies and a Latticed Heath Moth. In the Thames Rd/Gascoyne Drive part were Wild Carrot and 3 White Melilot.

Along Footpath 106 by the Cray were 2 or 3 female Banded Demoiselle and a male, plus several Blue-tailed Damselflies.

A Comma was seen. 3 Gatekeepers were feeding on Common Ragwort flowers. A Red Admiral flitted through the Riverkeepers' yard.

Later in the garden of the Bear and Ragged Staff in Crayford town centre a Holly Blue fluttered over an ivy-clad wall and a Comma landed nearby. A male Blackbird was eating fallen cherries.


On the way home along By-way 105 I passed this clump of Galingale (Cyperus longus), a distinctive and attractive native sedge, often planted, so it may not be 'indigenous' to the area. There was also some along Footpath 106. Another Red Admiral was seen along the By-way.

For some time now there have been large numbers of Grasshoppers along the Thames Rd side of the TRW. Now they are getting to adulthood and I had my Grasshopper ID book with me. A few were carefully caught, one at a time in a clear plastic bag, and identified as Lesser Marsh Grasshoppers (Chorthippus albomarginatus), adding another species to the roster here. It is said to be increasing its range and is no longer confined to damp habitats. As the light began to fail I also found Field Grasshopper (Chorthippus brunneus) on the site.

Around 12 Swifts were over the Mayplace Av./Thames Rd junction.

Closer to home a patch of the white-flowered Soapwort was in bloom in the corner of the Perry Street Farm field by the caged ball-playing area on Gascoyne Drive. There was a Meadow Cranesbill (Geranium pratense) just about in flower in the roadside grass verge, having been 'dwarfed' by the mowing regime. In the next field along, towards Wyatt Rd, the lack of grazing had contributed to a good show of White Campion in flower, and Wild Carrot too.

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.

22/9/09: Celery, Sea-blite and Old Father Thames

This post covers observations on Crayford Marshes on a route from Ray Lamb Way, through a path in the industrial estate out the River Darent and up past the flood gate to its confluence with the Thames.

On this occasion I was helping two members of the London Natural History Society, one of whom is a much better botanist than I am, and who had come here specifically to check on the continuing occurrence of various species that are rare within the London boundary for a new publication on the same. My talent, such as it is, is that I have seen enough in the flesh - or books - to be able to pick out from the general mass of vegetation, the odd things that might be more unusual, even if I don't know what they are.

Plants along Ray Lamb Way included this large clump of Tansy, White Melilot, Narrow-leaved Ragwort (Senecio inaequidens), what my learned companion said was Guernsey (not Canadian) Fleabane and False Fox Sedge in a ditch.

Spirit of the marshes - mud and bird footprints


Marsh plants on the river side of the sea wall included this Sea Plantain (above), Sea Aster, Sea Couch, Sea Arrow Grass, Sea Milkwort and Atriplex patula.

One of the plants we were trying to (re-)locate was Annual Sea-blite (Suaeda maritima), which we found (foreground, right) in distinctly pebbly/grainy mud right next to the Darent flood gate.

Here's a closer view - yes, it really was that red-purple in colour. Also in this rather variable area were two Ribbed Melilot, Hoary Mustard and Greater Sea Spurrey. Although largely hidden under a mat of rank grass, I noticed three plants of what we identified as Wild Celery. I also spotted a solitary Small Copper butterfly.

My companions from the London Natural History Society by the footpath bank just north of the flood gate, where there was an array of colour variants of the Sickle Medick x Lucerne hybrid (see separate posting). In the foreground is Goat's-rue. A bit further along were two patches of pink, semi-double-flowered Soapwort.

The River Darent enters the Thames, with Essex beyond. There were half a dozen Lapwings on the mud here, along with Lesser Black-backed and Black-headed Gulls.

Also seen were a male Common Blue and a Red Admiral.

Several plants were found that we could not identify, so samples were taken to run past various specialists.

14/9/09: Small Copper at last

At last! My favourite butterfly turned up today. Here's the dainty little Small Copper, on a Barnehurst allotment site, where one of its foodplants - Sheep's Sorrel - occurs in small amounts. Never very common, I only ever see a couple of these pretty insects in the area each year.

There was also as pristine Red Admiral , 4 juvenile Common Lizards and an adult that had recently lost the whole of its tail. I wish I knew what predates the species here.