11/4/10: Some west London wildflowers

Some notes from the journey to, and a long wander after, a London Natural History Society meeting:

Three, possibly 4 Mahonia aquifolium seen by the railway between Queenstown Road and west of Isleworth station.

Hounslow - A White Bryony in a front garden in Station Rd. Sun Spurge and Hemlock in a garden on Hibernia Rd., and several Greater Celandine and Geranium rotundifolium on a vacant lot at the Staines Rd end of this street.

Bridge Rd - Ivy-leaved Speedwell, Black Horehound, Spotted Medick.

Twickenham Rd. - Green Alkanet and Dandelion pictured enlivening a street corner:



Syon Park - lots of Tansy along a fence line, Ox-eye Daisy and Sorrel by the roadway from the Park Rd. entrance. A few Crow Garlic and Pellitory-of-the-Wall by the lane leading to the eastern London Rd. entrance.

This large Barbarea sp. at the foot of a London Rd. street tree. There were also several Sun Spurge here:


Bank with a large population of Common Stork's-bill (Erodium cicutarium), north side of West Rd., just east of Syon Lane:



Closer view of one of the plants:

On a somewhat bare, slightly-raised, roadside bed just past Harlequin Av. were Buck's-horn Plantain and Danish Scurvy Grass - the latter pictured here:

8/4/2010: Dartford Loop Line railway reconnaissance

More on the botany of local railway lines as I headed for Mottingham from Crayford .....

There was a Sorrel and some Ox-eye Daisy in the grass around the Thames Water facility on Station Rd, Crayford.

Around 33 specimens of the small fern Asplenium trichomanes were in a wall at the (top) east end of Lower Station Road, only my second find of the species in the Borough of Bexley. There were also several Greater Celandine here, and a few more down behind Crayford station's 'up' platform. Also behind the platform were lots of Nipplewort, some Clematis vitalba, 1 Ox-eye Daisy and Forget-me-Nots.

A Gorse was spotted on the 'up' side just west of the Rochester Way overbridge.

Amongst the plants on the cutting side behind Albany Park station's 'up' platform were Lords and Ladies, some Daffodils, Viola odorata, Geum urbanum, Cow Parsley, Hogweed, a Black Horehound and a patch of Foxgloves.

New Eltham station had, amongst other things, Ivy-leaved Speedwell, three patches of what was probably Bush Vetch and 20+ 'wild colour' Primroses.

Mottingham station's flora included White Deadnettle, Garlic Mustard, Michaelmas Daisy, Curled Dock and Creeping Thistle. On a shallow 'island' in the station forecourt was a mass of probable Common Whitlowgrass, a very small white-flowered Crucifer common in some parts of Bristol, but here was the first time I've knowingly seen it in London.

6/4/10: Waterlow Park birds (Highgate, London Borough of Camden)

A fairly formal park, with some wilder areas and three lakes. Checked out the Middle and Lower Lakes. 10 Canada Geese, 14 Tufted Duck, 3 Moorhen, 3 Coot. Some Mallard, one male 'hanging out'with a pure white, while this 'harlequin' of a hybrid (apologies for picture quality ....) was nearby:

A Wren was seen in the undergrowth.

On the way back to a tube station, there were 12 Greater Celandine in wall/pavement crevices around the junction of Oakford Rd and Lady Somerset Rd, Tufnell Park, with a single Wall Lettuce (Mycelis muralis) and some Hart's-tongue Fern in the front garden on the latter street. Wall Lettuce was common around my old Bristol haunts, but I have only found a handful of locations for it in London so far.

17/10/09: Bexleyheath backstreets

More of the usual suspects - Black Horehound, Evergreen Alkanet, Common Mallow and Hop in the grass around the hall at the junction of Devonshire Rd and Standard Rd. Pellitory-of-the-wall and Oxford Ragwort by No. 28 Standard Rd.

On Heathfield Rd Ivy-leaved Toadflax was in flower by the gates of the warehouse next to St. John Vianney church, and there were several Greater Celandine by the church hall.

25/9/09: Sidcup

The usual array of species on the grassy bank behind Sidcup station's down platform on the approach road, such as Cow Parsley, Geum urbanum, Green Alkanet, Mugwort, Bristly Ox-tongue and Clematis vitalba.

A Greater Celandine was in flower by a derelicy building on Alma Rd. A Hop, Herb Robert and Pellitory-of-the-wall were in a garden on Birkbeck Rd.

20/9/09: Lesnes Abbey woods to Northumberland Heath - via Belvedere and Brook Street

More botanising along Bexley's highways and byways by means of another circuitous route home.

1 x Peacock butterfly on Buddleia in the Lesnes Abbey formal garden.

Several patches of Common Stork's-bill on shallow bank to west of store yard behind Visitor Centre.

Lots of Greater Celandine in flower along the Woolwich Rd margin of Lesnes Abbey Wood, from opposite houses No 99A/B to 105. Perennial Sow-thistle in garden of 270A. Adult Rosemary Beetle on Rosemary.

Buck's-horn Plantain and Spotted Medick in short grass just west of the top of New Rd.

Sheep's Sorrel in a garden in Burcharbro Rd and 4 escaped Feverfew by the pavement also.

Mouse-ear Hawkweed, White Campion and Greater Celandine in various gardens on Bedonwell Rd. Also this rather magnificent ivy-festooned Robinia pseudoacacia 'Frisia', something of a suburban tree that looks out of place in a rural setting, but I rather like it in the 'right' place:

Ivy-leaved Toadflax, Corydalis lutea, Black Horehound, Green Alkanet and also seedlings of Greater Celandine in Nuxley Rd, Belvedere, with more Mouse-ear Hawkweed and some Self Heal in grass at the junction with Grosvenor Rd. Yet more Mouse-ear Hawkweed in All Saints churchyard at the junction with Woolwich Rd/Erith Rd.

On the bank below the flats at the top (north end) of Brook St were Sheep's Sorrel, Gorse, Rosemary plants infested with Rosemary Beetle, a few patches of Sedum acre and Field Madder and several Dwarf Mallow.

Nothing of botanical note by the Streamway stream.

The Mouse-ear Hawkweed, Self Heal and Germander Speedwell, immediatly next to the Brook St retaining wall of the graveyard on the west side of the road, were all still present.

There was a 4 foot square patch of Common Calamint - with relatively large flowers - in short grass by the north east gate to Brook Street recreation ground.

26/7/09: Lesnes miscellany - purple haze imminent

More action on the heathland section with the Lesnes Abbey Conservation Volunteers, including an outdoor AGM. Apparently Bexley Council have not been very forthcoming about their Management Plan, if indeed there is one.

In the garden by the information centre there was a Small White butterfly, two Large Whites, one Peacock and two Painted Ladies.

I recognised Wall Rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria) on the ruined Abbey walls, as this is very common on walls in Bristol (but not around Bexley). A fellow volunteer identified the other, more prolific, fern here as Black Spleenwort.

Up at the work site the Heather was coming into flower, and will look good generating a purple haze over the next few weeks.

Heather in flower, Lesnes Abbey woods

An unusually low-flying Purple Hairstreak settled briefly on a leaf, and there was a solitary male Common Blue.

The son of one of the volunteers found a dead Common Shrew (a species I have to admit I've never seen before), and a few inches away a Vole or young Wood Mouse, down one of the nearby paths. Neither showed signs of obvious injury and it occurred to me later that they may have been dropped out of an owl's nest.

Later on, I saw a Holly Blue in 'Byway 7' (Leather Bottle Lane), now effectively a rear alleyway behind Elstree Gardens, bordering the north side of the wood east of the Abbey. There were also around 20 plants of Greater Celandine here.