30/9/10: Danson Park aliens, new plant records and fungi

There were a lot of aliens in evidence at Danson Park, Bexleyheath, this afternoon. Apart from the Canada Geese, Ring-necked Parakeets and Grey Squirrels (slightly fewer after a dog-owner sat impassively on a bench while her mutts chased and killed one), there were a pair of Egyptian Geese which are turning up in parks all over London (but this was my first record of the species in Bexley Borough - no doubt it's been 'clocked' by serious local Twitchers already, however), a bevvy of Norway Maple seedlings, lots of Turkey Oak saplings seeded from the mature specimens and various clumps of Michaelmas Daisies.

A pair of Egyptian Geese (Alopochen aegyptiacus), with Danson Mansion in the background. The natural range of the species is mainly the Nile Valley and south of the Sahara.

In the Old English Garden there was the alien Narrow-leaved Ragwort, which is now all over the north of the Borough, at least from Erith to Belvedere/Abbey Wood, and which top botanist from the BMNH Mark Spencer says will probably be a major invasive nuisance in 20 years. In the 'potager' (mixed flower and vegetable) border of the OEG were some 8 plants of Fool's Parsley. I've only found it in 4 other places in London so far (of which 3 are in Bexley), and only a single plant in each case.

To the north west of the Mansion, where a lot of grit has been spread on the ground, both Swine Cress and Lesser Swine Cress were found, along with a lone Garden Radish.

Other new plant records for me from the Park (all on the sandy mounds/bare ground on the mini golf course near the Crook Log entrance) included Parsley Piert, Weld, a single Common Stork's-bill and 14 plants of Annual Nettle (Urtica urens), the latter probably under-recorded as it looks similar to seedlings of the usual large perennial one, but now I've got my eye in for it, I still think it's uncommon in Bexley - and this is only the third place I've found it in the Borough.

Annual Nettle (Urtica urens), Danson Park mini golf course

There were also several species of fungi out, but I'm no good on ID-ing these so readers will just have to enjoy the pictures without knowing what they are (but if you do, please leave comments .......)

Various Fungi at Danson Park

28/7/10: Sevenoaks and KWT urban greenspaces day

Down to Sevenoaks today for a Kent Wildlife Trust teach-in on the 'Living Landscapes' project, creating green corridors and enhancing urban greenspaces for people and wildlife. To be honest it turned out to be a little too basic for me in most respects. I was really after more depth on management for various species, more detail on dealing with various conflicting demands and how to resolve these, especially 'excuses' involving inertia, inflexibility and claims that we 'can't afford it' from Councils and various utilities.

Nevertheless, some useful stuff was picked up as a result, including an actual site-specific management plan for allotment wildlife, which I've not had a chance to read yet, but may be a help 'back home' in trying the establish the principle. My own Council hasn't even started the species recording process on its wildlife sites - 6 years after the target completion date - yet fills LDFs and BAPs with worthy pronouncements about protecting and increasing biodiversity in open spaces, including allotments, that it seems disinclined to act upon, data or otherwise.

The afternoon included a visit to a very large allotment site off Kennedy Gardens, with fine views northwards (below):


I only looked at a few plots, but there were some interesting 'weed' species, including Papaver rhoeas, 4 Fool's Parsley, Galinsoga (possibly Gallant Soldier), several Bugloss and Common Fumitory.

The streets I traversed in the area had a similar 'weed' flora to that in my part of Bexley, though Ivy-leaved Toadflax seemed more prevalant here.

Highlights were a couple of Hare's-foot Clover in the line of a recently planted hedge in Hollybush Lane Sports Ground, 5 Pyramidal Orchids in a front garden lawn on Vine Court Rd (next to, rather inevitably, a garden covered in a skip and gravel ....) and 15 or more Papaver (probably) rupifragum along the roadside boundary of The Vine cricket ground on Dartford Rd.

Time was then spent over a couple of pints in a local hostelry discussing ways to bring about a more radical approach to enhancing biodiversity, and maximising the amount of wildlife in Bexley, with a recent contact who has long been pushing for such improvements in the Borough.

10 and 17/9/09: Crayford Marshes miscellany

This post covers the route from the 'Jolly Farmers' public house on Thames Road, along the western bank of the Rivers Cray and Darent and then along the track leading to Moat Lane and Howbury Farm in Slade Green.

Passing under the railway line, there were around 140 Starlings flying back and forth between the Viridor waste disposal site and a telecommunications mast on the other side of the road.

As an access route onto what ought to be a flagship site - being one of the largest swathes of continuously open land in the Borough - the footpath out onto the marshes starts its life as a scrappy, ugly affair, squeezing its way between redundant machinery and spoil heaps on either side.

One is soon confronted with this view. I can't really remember what it was like back in 1979 when I filled oil cans in a now-closed factory nearby in the summer holidays, but it wasn't like this ....

Quite how building up this land fits in with all the official statements about the importance of what little is left of the marshes, and the modern view that we need to be able to buffer floodwater is beyond me.

The path is lined for a long distance on the 'landward' side with a shallow ditch and this ugly bund of what looked to be clay (and perhaps silt), which must be fairly new because it was generally quite sparsely vegetated. One of the plants I did find on it was a single specimen of Fool's Parsley, my third record for the Borough. Also an Opium Poppy, Coltsfoot and a Wild Carrot.

Salad Burnet (front left) was quite frequent along the side of the path.

Also present in some numbers were Fennel plants, here catching the evening sun.

The Salad Burnet, Fennel and plentiful Perennial Rocket provided rich pickings for a tasty, and free, salad.

Wild Clary (Salvia verbenaca) was fairly abundant at the sides of the path too. This was my second location for it in Bexley Borough, but this time it wasn't being prevented from flowering by a mad mowing regime.

Other plants along the riverside path included Sickle Medick x Lucerne hybrids (see separate posting), Goat's Rue, Horseradish, one Musk Mallow, some Black Knapweed, a couple of White Campion, and a modest-sized Swedish Whitebeam in fruit.

Along the lane towards Howbury Fram were English Elm, one Field Maple, Hops and Horseradish.

On the 17th I saw two Grey Wagtails in the deeply canalised section of the Cray by footpath 249 that leads out onto Dartford Marshes along south/east side of the river.

26/7/09: Riverside+Fraser Rd= 3 new Bexley records

There were several large, almost 'pure' flocks of Black-headed Gulls on the Thames mud between the end of Corinthian Manorway and Erith Town Centre. Three Cormorants were seen.

Proceeding eastwards, there was a patch of Tall Melilot (Melilotus altissimus) in the sloping river wall.

Two new records for me within Bexley were found round the 'bay' at the east corner of the Chandlers Drive complex.

Marsh Woundwort (Stachys palustris) was growing on the riverbank, and although I haven't seen it in Bexley Borough before, I suspect plants I saw by the Ravensbourne in Lewisham the other week were, in fact, this species, but I wasn't botanising at the time. The pinkish-purple flowers are reasonably large for a Labiate and are attractively patterned in white.

Marsh Woundwort by a former industrial site on the Thames in Erith

There were also some clumps of Sea Aster here.

In a crack between the pathway and the substantive 'sea wall' to the inland side was a run of Skullcap (Scutellaria galericulata), another Labiate, and a species I've never seen before. The flowers are bright blue with a white centre to the lower lip.

Skullcap in paving by the Thames in Erith

Some 21-25 Swifts were wheeling over the modern riverside houses here.

A Heron was sitting on the long wooden jetty at Erith.

The triangle of land between Bexley Rd and Fraser Rd, mentioned in a previous posting, was surveyed again. From the Bexley Rd side there was a very poor, stunted, Mahonia aquifolium, suckering Lilac, a couple of Viburnum tinus and lots of Robinia pseudoacacia 'saplings', plus some Laburnum.

This is the white-flowered form of Red Valerian, with the railings doing a passable imitation of Hemlock stems.

I then doubled back and went down Fraser Rd in order to get back up to Northumberland Heath via Birch Walk.

This 'detour' yielded a lot of Feverfew and a number of Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) - a new species for me in Bexley - above the retaining wall. The latter used to be grown commercially to produce a soapy liquid for washing wool and may be an escape from cultivation generally, and also at this particular site.

Soapwort on Fraser Road

A single plant of Fool's Parsley (my second record of it in Bexley) was spotted in disturbed ground under an advertising hoarding where the road levels out.

The bank at the western end of the large warehouse-like retail outlets just before Birch Walk was carrying a large number of strongly-growing White Melilot (Melilotus albus), the largest stands I've ever seen, along with some Coltsfoot. Fading light meant I only got some rather poor, fuzzy, pictures. On the bank behind these buildings is an area of Gorse and Buddleia, which today also had a good show of Wild Carrot.

12/7/09: Encountering new species in Erith

Continuing my walk home from Lesnes Abbey (the long way round), I crossed Bronze Age Way into Erith (a road that is a classic example of crazed 20th century car-dependent thinking, long after everyone should have known better - and a blot on the landscape right next to a perfectly serviceable railway line).

This time I checked out the uncut field on the east corner of Church Manor Way, ringing with the sounds of a less usual type of grasshopper/cricket, whose whereabouts I just couldn't pin down, even though some sounded like they were outside the fence.

There were the usual suspects for the area such as Creeping Thistle, Common Mallow, Common Ragwort, Mugwort, Rocket and Field Bindweed, but also Wild Carrot, a clump of Horseradish and several Teasel.

Most distinctive were a couple of patches each of sprawling, floriferous legumes, one type with clusters of yellow flowers and one with strongly red-purple flowers. They were just a bit too far inside the fence to be able to get hold of and have a proper look, and I didn't have my binoculars. But the short of it is that my initial determination is Sickle Medick (Medicago sativa), a totally new species for me. Subspecies falcata is native to East Anglia but has been introduced elsewhere. Francis Rose ('The Wild Flower Key') says it hybridises with Lucerne to produce plants with flower colours extending to purple-black. It so happens that there are Lucerne plants just up the road, in a strip of land between Lower Road and Bronze Age Way.

Sickle Medick (???)

Hybrid (foreground) between Sickle Medick and Lucerne (???)

My primary objective had been to photograph the Ivy Broomrape (Orobanche hederae), in St John the Baptist Churchyard, Erith, at the junction of West St and Lower Rd. I'd visited two weeks ago, having read in the past that the species occurs here, but my mobile phone was out of juice at the time so I hadn't been able to take any pictures. I did, however, count some 378 flower spikes - and that almost certainly wasn't all of them.

The leafless ivy parasite Ivy Broomrape, St. John's churchyard

Ivy Broomrape occured in three places near where I lived in Bristol, but here the flower spikes were sometimes feet from the nearest bit of Ivy, coming up in grass between graves.

According to the London Wildweb website, 'ivy broomrape [is] a nationally scarce species, [here] growing on Atlantic ivy (Hedera helix ssp hibernica); this is thought to be a recent colonisation from a nearby native population.'

Now in flower, I was able to confirm that an umbellifer under the gate by the Scout hut on St. Fidelis Rd was Fool's Parsley (Aethusa cynapium), with its distinctive narrow bracteoles hanging down from the partial umbels. This is another of those species described as 'common' that doesn't crop up very often, and it's the first time I've found it in Bexley.

Fool's Parsley

There was a plant of Shaggy Soldier in the road gutter at the end of Pleasant View.

This extensive, dense webbing, was draped over Cotoneaster at the bottom of Stonewood Rd, with no obvious occupants - but I didn't take a particularly careful look.

The narrow bank at the foot of Bexley Rd, high above the descending Fraser Rd, had an interesting flora, and there were hints of past cultivation before, one suspects, it was deemed too dangerous to continue.

There were about nine violet-blue-flowered plants of Viper's Bugloss (a better view to confirm ID was achieved with binoculars on 26 July), a new Bexley record for me, plus lots of Opium and Common Poppy, 'feral' cabbage type plants, some white-flowered Red Valerian and an unidentified (presumed non-native) grass with very large seed heads.

Opium Poppy seed heads

Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare) with Prickly Lettuce

An interestingly 'exotic' grass