Tagged: conservation RSS

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  hilly 7:11 pm on May 13, 2013
  Tags: conservation, eaglesfield park ( 29 ), events ( 99 )   

  Dipping and Tidying at Eaglesfield Pond 

  

  Madeleine from the Friends of Eaglesfield Park wrote with the latest news about the pond, and about a Pond Dipping event this Sunday, from 10am to 12.00 Noon. This will be combined with the first weeding and tidying session of 2013 for the wild flower garden around the pond.

  Madeleine wrote:

  Finally Spring (and the sunshine)  have arrived and we can continue the development and tidy up of the pond and meadow.   The pond life seems to be flourishing, including newts, frogs, water boatman, water skaters, dragonfly with plenty of other interesting creatures we have yet to identify!  The meadow has “greened up” well, but we need to reduce the  invasive “weeds” and grass so that the wildflower seeds planted last year have a better chance of survival.  We also have more seeds to sow and will be adding further plants.  By now it is “old” news that there are up to a dozen ducks that regularly visit the pond. I also understand that bats have  been seen hunting around the pond.    We would like to thank everyone for their support and hard work in transforming this  once forgotten part of Eaglesfield Park into a beautiful focal point for wildlife and the local community.

  We are meeting on Sunday 19th May between 10.00 am and 12.00 noon to carry out litter picking, weeding and planting and would very much appreciate your help – whatever time you can spare would be a valuable contribution.  Sorry, but could you bring your own tools (spade, fork, trowel, builder’s bucket) and don’t forget to wear old clothes, wellies and gloves.  It won’t be all hard work though, we intend to have a bit of fun!    We will be POND DIPPING as well.
  So, why not bring the family to try POND DIPPING and help identify the various pond creatures.   We will supply pond dipping nets and information for identification.

  We do hope you will pop round to see us.

  Whilst writing, some news in brief:
  - We are still working with Royal Greenwich and the Lottery Fund and hope to have new signage in and around the Park in the very near future.
  - IT access is currently being updated and we will keep you informed.  Meanwhile, if you have queries or comments,  I am happy to help.
  - We are in the early stages of planning park events.

  On a personal level, I have lived on Shooters Hill all my life and have been a member of Friends of Eaglesfield Park (FOEP) since it was set up in 2006.   I remember the pond as a beauty spot that everyone visited but which over the years became overgrown, a dumping area and eventually a dried up scrub.  In fact many people did not realise the pond had ever existed!   I do hope you agree with me that the restored wildlife pond and meadow is a wonderful opportunity to study nature in a tranquil setting.   If you would like to know how you can help the FOEP, please get in touch.  We really could do with some extra help!

  The pond is looking good at the moment.  I notice that a new tree has been planted where the Mulberry that fell over during the pond work used to be. I hope it’s a replacement Mulberry!

  My sequence of pond pictures continues to grow, showing the changing seasons and weather.

  

  A new tree at Eaglesfield Pond

  

  Pair of Mallards at Eaglesfield Park Lilly Pond

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  hilly 1:55 pm on May 12, 2013
  Tags: conservation, events ( 99 ), shrewsbury park ( 17 )   

  Shrewsbury Park Bat Walk 

  

  Bats are just amazing creatures; flying mammals that are superbly adapted to their nocturnal lifestyle. And much maligned – they are not vampiric blood-suckers, swooping down to latch onto a jugular vein. Admittedly a few Central and South American bats do feed on the blood of livestock such as pigs and cattle, but they lap up the blood coming from the cut they make in their prey’s vein rather than sucking it out. Even this has a good side: a drug has been developed from the enzyme in the bats’ saliva that prevents the blood clotting, which may, one day soon, be used to treat people who have had a stroke. A scientist with a sense of humour has called the drug Draculin.

  The Friends of Shrewsbury Park are bat lovers. Their bat walk has become an annual event, and the next one is on Friday 17th May, meeting at 8.00pm at the car park off Plum Lane. Last year’s walk took place on one of the few dry spring days, and attendees were rewarded with detection and sightings of a number of hunting pipistrelles. Hopefully the long, cold winter hasn’t had too much effect on the bats and this year’s walk will be similarly successful. The walk will pass by the bat boxes the Friends constructed and, with council assistance, attached to trees in the park last year. Sometimes it is a year or two before boxes are inhabited, and bats move between different roost sites at different times of the year, so it will be interesting to see on Friday if the park boxes have any occupants.

  

  Putting up bat boxes in Shrewsbury Park

  Bats are a priority species in the Royal Borough of Greenwich Biodiversity Action Plan, which says in the species action plan for bats:

  Many bat species roost in loft spaces in houses and this sometimes causes people concern, as there are many misconceptions about bats:
  • Bats are not rodents, and do not gnaw at wood, wires or insulation.
  • All British bats consume insects and therefore their droppings are dry and crumbly, they do not putrefy like mouse droppings.
  • Bats do not nest and therefore do not bring bedding material or insect prey into roost spaces.
  • Bats are clean, and spend many hours grooming.
  • No species of British bat feed on blood.

  Aims for Greenwich:
  • To protect and enhance the present population through increasing the provision of roost sites in Greenwich.
  • To protect and enhance linear landscape features and wildlife corridors for bats to commute between roost and feeding sites.
  • To increase the abundance of insect prey available for bats.

  

  Pair of Pipistrelles under a thumb

  A good way to find our more about bats is to go along to the Bat Fest organised by the Bat Conservation trust and the Natural History Museum, which this year runs over the weekend of 1st and 2nd June at the museum in South Kensington. Volunteers from the London Bat Group will be on some of the stands. Last year it included various batty activities for children,  some more detailed technical stuff about echolocation and a series of Nature Live talks. Also there was the marvellous Jenny Clark, a bat carer who has converted part of her home in Forest Row, Sussex into a bat hospital. She brought along some of the rescue bats that couldn’t be released back into the wild because, maybe, they were unable to fly or had been hand-reared from babies. It was a rare chance to get close to live bats, and to learn how cute and fragile they are, and that they purr when stroked.

  If you share my fascination with batty matters, take a look at these Youtube videos of bats in action. First, on  BBC’s Top Bat, a sequence showing Daubenton’s Bats hunting at Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire.

  I just love this video of the Long Eared Bat silently stalking moths using its hypersensitive hearing.

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  hilly 5:47 pm on April 27, 2013
  Tags: conservation, oxleas woods ( 15 ), walks ( 12 ), woodlands farm ( 60 )   

  Wildlife & Woodlands Walks 

  

  Wood Anemones in Oxleas Wood

  Spring has sprung at last and our green spaces are shooting and blooming. Parts of Oxleas Wood are carpeted with Wood Anemones, and the first Bluebells have appeared. Next Sunday, 5th May, there are two opportunities to enjoy a walk in our woodlands guided by experts.

  In the morning, starting at 10.15am Woodlands Farm are hosting a Late Spring Wildlife Walk. As their poster says:

  Sunday 5th May 2013 10.15am – 12.30pm
  Winter was not behind us when we had our last spring walk. But at last the blossom is out in the hedgerows and lambing is finished! So put a spring in your step and enjoy a community countryside and wildlife walk around Woodlands Farm. Led by members of the Woodlands Farm Trust. Please wear appropriate clothing including sensible footwear. The walk will probably be a bit challenging for buggies but supervised children are very welcome.
  £1 per person (under 18’s free)
  Free for farm volunteers and members
  Meet at the Education Centre
  The Woodlands Farm Trust
  331 Shooters Hill, Welling, Kent DA16 3RP
  Website: http://www.thewoodlandsfarmtrust.org
  Email: wildlife@thewoodlandsfarmtrust.org
  Tel: 020 8319 8900

  

  Then in the afternoon, meeting at 2.00pm at the Oxleas Cafe, there’s a Bluebell Walk guided by the London Wildlife Trust. If it’s anything like last year’s walk participants will learn about much more of the flora and fauna of Oxleas Wood than just the Bluebells. It is expected that the walk will last 1 to 2 hours, but participants can join or leave at any time.

  

  Those who have lots of energy could do both walks, maybe fortified by a bacon butty from the Oxlea Wood Cafe.

  

  Wood Anemones in Oxleas Wood

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  hilly 8:09 pm on March 31, 2013
  Tags: conservation, events ( 99 ), shrewsbury park ( 17 )   

  Shrewsbury Park Improvements and Events 

  

  Putting up bird boxes in Shrewsbury Park

  It was a cold dry morning during the week when a group of children from Timbercroft School headed over to Shrewsbury Park to help Royal Borough of Greenwich Tree Officers put some new bird boxes up in the trees there. The boxes were built by Friends of Shrewsbury Park, several of whom also came along. A total of 13 boxes were fixed up on trees in the park, and should be just in time for this years’ nest building and breeding season.

  The bird boxes are the first step in a number of improvements that the Friends will be making to the park over the coming months. Work has already started on fabricating the wheelchair-friendly gates that will be erected at the park entrance near the Garland Road end of Dothill, and a sculptor is creating a carved noticeboard to stand at this entrance. Once the weather improves part of the Dothill path which is susceptible to flooding will have a new drainage system and will be resurfaced. There are also plans to plant wild flowers alongside the path: the Friends will be looking for volunteers to help with this.

  The improvement work is mainly being funded by a grant of over £11,000 from the The Veolia Environmental Trust, with the council also providing some support.

  

  Dothill – to be resurfaced and have a new drainage system

  Preparations have started for the Friends’ Summer Festival which will be held on Saturday 6th June. Previous summer festivals have been great fun. The Friends are looking for assistance  with the festival, in particular: donations of books and bric a brac; leafleting local roads over the weekend of 18th and 19th  May; setting up and running the bric a brac or books stall;  and providing music. You can contact them on fspdog@hotmail.com.

  They will also be leading a bat walk around the park again this year, on Friday 17th May. It will follow a similar route to last year’s successful night-time stroll, when lots of pipistrelles were  detected with the bat detectors and seen swooping just above head-height, hunting midges and other food using their high frequency echolocation system. This year the walk will take the opportunity to check the bat boxes that were put up last year for signs of bat inhabitants.

  

  Putting up bat boxes in Shrewsbury Park

  Nigel Smith, Kristine Inglis, and hilly are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Kristine Inglis 8:56 pm on April 1, 2013

    Thanks so much for the great article about Shrewsbury Park! But as the person who organised the children’s participation in camouflaging the boxes and coming up to watch the siting of them, I have to tell you they were from Timbercroft School, NOT Plumcroft!
    But no worries, thank you for the coverage for FSP.

    Reply
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      hilly 9:34 pm on April 1, 2013

      Thanks for letting me know – I’ve changed it to Timbercroft.

      Reply
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    Kristine Inglis 9:06 am on April 2, 2013

    Thanks very much, was pleased with your quick response.
    Regards
    Kris

    Reply
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    Nigel Smith 9:25 pm on April 6, 2013

    Thanks for the great article and good news! Having had to negotiate the flooded Dothill path on my bike commute this winter, it’s great to hear the drainage will be sorted. Also looking forward to seeing the new gates and noticeboard, and wild flowers sounds great :)

    Reply
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  hilly 10:59 pm on February 19, 2013
  Tags: conservation, events ( 99 )   

  Birds of Rye Presentation at Shooters Hill Local History Group 

  

  Yellow-footed Gull

  Greenwich Park Ranger John Beckham will be talking to the Shooters Hill Local History Group on the subject of “Birds of Rye Harbour and Surrounding Area” on Thursday, 21st February. The presentation will take place at Shrewsbury House, Bushmoor Crescent starting at 8.00pm. John regularly gives presentations on ornithology to local groups and is one of the leaders of Greenwich park tours and rambles.

  It should be an interesting talk. A very wide variety of different birds are seen at the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, and their January sightings included: over 2500 wigeon, 972 teal, 2130 brent goose,  bittern, a smew, 68 white-fronted goose, 10 goldeneye, six pintail, two great white egret, a little egret, large numbers of curlew, lapwing, golden plover, snipe, a flock of 26 ruff, 220 dunlin, 180 knot, 120 sanderling, 61 grey plover, three avocet, a bar-tailed godwit, several woodcock, five jack snipe spotted redshank, three marsh harrier, merlin, peregrine, a buzzard, a hen harrier, brent goose, red-throated diver, 75 gannet, 70 guillemot, 120 razorbill, three slavonian grebe, Mediterranean gull, 180 fieldfare, 45 redwing, 235 skylark, corn bunting flocks, a raven, a firecrest and the highlight, a hawfinch.