6/3/10: Erith School to Erith Quarry

22 Starlings over Northumberland Way.

1 Goldfinch in a tall tree in the grounds of my old school - Erith School - on the Ramsden Rd. boundary.

15 House Sparrows seen (and others heard) in the hedge around the school on the Ramsden Rd. corner, and part way along Avenue Rd.

Erith Quarry:

1 Robin
27 Wood Pigeon
Magpie
1 Jay
Blue Tit
Long-tailed Tit
2 Great Tit
Blackbird

Great views of a Kestrel hovering over the site.

2 Foxes.


3 patches of Common Reed (Phragmites australis) on 'dry ground', as above.

Large patch of Fennel plants found.

Some Japanese Knotweed.

Looked at north-west corner this time. Delighted to find another bit of 'heathland' (hurrah).




Several large Gorse - but some have suffered relatively recent and heavy vehicle damage, as in the lower picture.


A number of native Broom plants (above) in several locations nearby.


Also this substantial young Pine that looked self-seeded. Some Poplars. Plus 2 Cotoneaster.


Several clumps of Sedum (probably reflexum) found (pictured above) in the foreground of the following view.

22/12/09: North Heath's 'heath' and Barnehurst's Wood in the snow

Glorious Gorse!

I was delighted to see this Gorse (Ulex europaeus) bush in full flower at the end of the shrub bed by the Sussex Rd car park in the Brook Street recreation ground. I suspect a lot of Park Keepers /contractors would have long since hacked this out. Well done for leaving (or maybe even planting) this reminder of the area's heathland history.

More Gorse can be seen along the fence line on the wooded slope on the east side of Erith Rd as it climbs to Northumberland Heath.

The most compact and strongly-growing specimens are at the south end (at the right side of the previous picture) where they get more sun and are less shaded by trees.

Bursted Wood is on the west side at the bottom of the hill. Here are 'specimen' trees on the former pitch and putt course.

Bursted Wood's northern margin from the former pitch and putt course.

28/6/09: 'Weeding' in the woods

I spent this Sunday afternoon with the Lesnes Abbey Conservation Volunteers working in the more open heathland area at the top of the hill.

I was primarily weeding 'scrapes' where vegetation, leaf-litter, peaty bracken remains and some topsoil have been removed to provide a seedbed for Heather (Calluna vulgaris), so that the area of heathland can be extended further into areas where tree thinning has taken place. The main 'invaders' were bramble shoots, Rowan seedlings and bracken.

Heather-dominated heath within Lesnes Abbey Woods, surrounded mainly by Sessile Oak

Whilst there are several areas of remnant heathland vegetation around the Borough, this is the one with the finest show of Heather.

A 'scrape' seedbed for Heather

Flowered heather shoots carrying seed are deposited in the scrapes, with varying degrees of success in terms of seedling development.

'Scrape' with several Heather seedlings

Other volunteers were pulling Bracken and tree seedlings out of the more established areas of Heather.

To get involved in this and other projects in the woods check out

http://www.lacv.btik.com/

for more details and a programme of events. The actual meeting point tends to be on the west side of the information centre (round the back) by a fenced compound where the tool shed is.

18/6/09: Here be Dragons ... and Toads

Common Lizards and Common Toads, both now UK Biodiversity Action Plan Priority Species because of a worrying decline in numbers, occur on the Grasmere Rd. allotment site in Barnehurst. Both were seen there today. The site was once an orchard and has remnant heathland vegetation, including Pedunculate Oak, Silver Birch, Gorse, Broom and Bracken. A third UK BAP species, the Slow Worm, is found in my garden less than 100 metres away, but I have never found one on the allotments, despite searching suitable in places.

Yeah, we know you're watching us - we're watching you too

Here a pair of Common Lizards (Zootoca (Lacerta) vivipara) enjoy some habitat enhancement in the form of an old tyre, part-buried in the ground, with a 'bolt-hole' / possible hibernation facility excavated underneath at the rear, and bits of broken brick and rubble - also found on site - and a clump of grass put in the middle.

Last autumn I found four lizards on this tyre at once. Tyres are known to be lizard 'magnets' because they warm up quickly and retain some heat so are ideal for basking/raising body temperature, especially in cooler and changeable weather.

Here's a closer view of one of them - not pin-sharp because my mobile phone cam has trouble knowing exactly where to focus in this sort of shot.

Surrounding gardens are unlikely to provide suitable lizard habitat, so it's likely this is an 'island' population that has survived here since the site became hemmed in by houses in around 1933.

And here's a two inch body length young toad. A couple of larger ones were seen recently. Numbers are never high here, but specimens keep turning up, so there must be a breeding pond not too far away. There isn't one on the site.


Juvenile Common Toad (Bufo bufo)

Other amphibian species here are the Common Frog and Smooth Newt. The latter has bred in a pond made from an old bath.

29/5/09: At home on Erith Rd hill

Here are some plants to be found up the hill from Barnehurst to Northumberland Heath:



Bracken growing out of the retaining wall on the east side.



This picture of Buck's-horn Plantain (Plantago coronopus), often seen in local grass verges, exhibits its form better when seen here growing in the wall.



Knotted Hedge-Parsley (Torilis nodosa), the small ferny-leaved umbellifer in the photo above, occurs in the grass above the retaining wall where a 'slip road' provides access to houses continuing on the level. This is the first place I've found it within Bexley Borough.



Several Gorse (Ulex europaeus) under the tree canopy point to a sandy heathland past. If some of the Sycamores here were removed and the Gorse allowed to flourish, there would be a golden hillside welcoming people travelling through the area in the spring. In fact Bexley Council's Heathland Biodiversity Action Plan says that even the smallest scrap of remaining heathland is important so should be conserved and restored ......