21/2/10: Cray and Thames Rd wetland birds include 'white heron'

Out with the Thames21 Cray Riverkeepers today. Got wetter walking there in the rain than while clearing litter from the banks and the water by Maxim Rd, Crayford, since it stopped once we'd arrived. The usual lamentable array of plastic bags, bits of polystyrene and drinks cans, plus a chair and some dumped doors.

There were half a dozen or more House Sparrows in a bramble and rose thicket by disused factory premises on the south side of the river. Two Goldfinches landed briefly on shrubs outside the flats.

I noted the following birds along the Cray between Maiden Lane and Thames Rd:

4 Redwing
2 Ring-necked Parakeets
1 Moorhen
2 Great-spotted Woodpeckers chasing each other through a large Willow tree
2 Blue Tits
1 Magpie nest building
3 Mute Swan
3 Mallard

1 Rabbit was also seen.

I wanted to see what was using the Thames Rd wetland (a field deliberately flooded as part of a mitigation scheme for development elsewhere).

Thames Rd wetland looking south to sewer embankment and beyond

Thames Rd wetland looking east towards railway bridge

Walking along the sewer embankment the first birds spotted were 2 Chaffinches flocking with 6 Goldfinch.

There were 2 Coot on the water, a 'normal' pair of Mallard and a normal male and dark companion with a white breast. On the open water at the east end of the site, a male Shoveler floated into view. At one point there were 28 Black-headed Gulls, flown in from the Council dump site over the road, here. A lone Little Egret was spotted foraging for food, with apparent success. It took flight, but came back a short while later, a clear view being afforded for some time.

9+10/9/09: In and around the River Cray

Two consecutive days out by and in the River Cray with the Thames21 volunteer group and the indefatigable Riverkeeper, Ashe Hurst, a man who appears to have an inexhaustible supply of 'Tales of the Riverbank'.

See

http://www.thames21.org.uk/events.html

for events listing. More recruits always welcome.

On the Tuesday we spent a bit of time watching an Environment Agency team electro-fishing a sample length of the river to see what species were present, and to measure all the fish caught. Amongst other things, a fair-sized Pike was observed. Later we did some wading and measuring just north of the upriver bridge in Crayford town centre for the installation of flow deflectors (there were some fine patches of Liverwort just above the waterline on old stonework here). The purpose of these is to help clear the build up of silt under one side of the bridge, and to provide areas of differing water speed to create a greater variety of conditions for wildlife.

On Wednesday we heaved a large number of lorry tyres dumped on the bank by Crayford industrial estate across the river, then down a footpath to a skip. After that it was a case of wading up and down the river picking litter, including quite a lot of cans etc. embedded in the riverbed. A selection of clothing prompted speculation about the likelihood of a dead body or two ....... There were also several plastic bags-worth of takeaway establishment menus that had been dumped in riverside vegetation, presumably by deliverers who didn't bother to do what they were paid for.

A Chinese Mitten Crab was found under the bridge arches at the upstream end of Crayford Riverside Gardens in a bag containing a rotting display stand of some sort. Thought to have arrived in ship ballast, this species burrows into riverbanks, eventually causing their collapse along with any reeds or other vegetation above, which can diminish suitable habitat for endangered Water Voles.

Whilst cleaning up the river, water plants such as Watercress, Brooklime, Water Mint, Water Forget-me-not, Fool's Watercress and Water Figwort were seen.

My favourite plant in this sort of habitat - for the name at least - is Trifid Bur-marigold, of which there was a lot at the Waterside gardens. It looks rather like a Dahlia on a diet, but with rather less conspicuous flowers.

Non-native Giant Hogweed and Himalayan Balsam are troublesome invaders along the Cray, and concerted attempts are being made to eliminate the former and limit the latter.

After all the work, I did a fair amount of additional wildlife recording in the vicinity of the river.

Along Footpath 106 by the river, 'behind' Crayford Way, a pristine Comma, Red Admiral, Painted Lady and Small White were all feeding on the same smallish Buddleia, a sight that wouldn't have merited a mention in my childhood when it was commonplace. A couple of Geranium pyrenaicum were also noted.

I then headed downriver from Maiden Lane towards Thames Road.



A fabulous stand of Purple Loosestrife by the Cray between Maiden Lane and Thames Rd



A rather late-flowering specimen of Dittander (Lepidium latifolium) - with the narrow leaves, foreground - a fairly uncommon Crucifer, seen not far from the Thames Rd bridge

Dittander was once cultivated. Young leaves can be eaten raw or cooked and are said to have a very hot cress-like flavour and may be used in small quantities in salads. The roots can be grated and made into a horseradish substitute.


Various larger Dragonflies were seen but I couldn't get a close enough view for a positive ID. I did, however, get to see my first Brown Hawker (though it's quite a common species) at close range when a female stopped, apparently to lay eggs, on a bit of rotting log emerging from the water up near the Thames Rd bridge.

A rather naff bit of 'landscaping' by the river where the Thames Rd bridge was recently widened

Various native shrubs have been planted in plastic tubes here, but some of the species do not naturally occur in the local area. Rather than doing this and covering the mound with bark chip, which is inevitably slipping away, it would probably have been better - and certainly cheaper - to have left it to get overgrown naturally!

I then surveyed and took quite a lot of photographs of the 'field' bordered by the Cray, Thames Rd, the Slade Green to Dartford railway line and the Sewer Pipe embankment. Thames 21 will be tasked with monitoring and managing this, after it was excavated to below water table level, landscaped for Water Voles and planted up with lots of Great Reedmace, sedges and rushes as a mitigation measure for loss of land to housing nearby. But I'll do a separate 'feature' on this site another time.

I also had a distant view of what was almost certainly my first Little Egret, just west of the railway line in a water body in the field south of the Sewer Pipe embankment.

12/8/09: Cray clean-up - plastic ain't fantastic

River Cray, Foots Cray Meadows, south of Bexley village.

I spent four hours today with Riverkeeper Ashe Hurst, and 3 other volunteers, clearing plant debris and litter trapped in the weir under the arches of Five Arches bridge. This event was part of the Thames21 programme. See here for other events across London:

http://www.thames21.org.uk/

I used to muck around here, and on the Cray at Hall Place when I was a kid. After listening to the obligatory Health and Safety talk I couldn't help thinking it made the fact I've managed to survive so many years sound like something of a minor miracle. Then it was into a chest high wading outfit and lifejacket.

My rather younger partner and I were tasked going into the arches and picking out litter - before those below raked out the plant debris from the downstream side and dragged it to the bank. One thing the H+S warnings had glossed over was the back-ache resulting from being bent over at an uncomfortable angle for rather a long time !

Given the birds on the lake, it was rather ironic that our first find was a concrete duck with its head missing. Apart from a number of decomposed tennis balls, most of the litter was bits of plastic wrapper and plastic bags. Some of it had become distinctly green and was both hard to spot and a fiddle to extricate from the piles of sticks and bits of reed. Definititely not fantastic. In fact a real pain in the ar*e.

Once we'd finished the job, I had a proper look round, and was pleased to see that a significant proportion of the meadows are now being left unmown.

A short distance upstream from the bridge was a large clump of Hemp Agrimony, my first find of the species in the Borough.

Five Arches bridge on the River Cray, looking downstream, with Hemp Agrimony front centre

There was also quite a lot of Gypsywort, with its whorls of flowers at the leaf nodes (above).

The highlight was seeing my first ever Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens)damselflies. Pictures here:

http://www.dragonflysoc.org.uk/caspl.html

By wading in the river I was able to get close views as they flew along the edge of a bed of Reeds and Great Reedmace (pictured below). There were 2 or 3 males with their superb purple-patched wings, which really show up the flight action. I also witnessed one take up a copulating position with a female.

Banded Demoiselles were active along the margin of this reed bed to the right of the bridge.


The reed bed (above) had 'bays' in it, which appeared to be attractive to these insects.

Plants in the meadows included Silverweed, Spotted Medick and this rather distinctly 'candy-striped' specimen of Field Bindweed.