One of the many maintenance tasks in the park was finally attended to on the 7th: the yellow self-closing gate at the northern end of the big children's play area was repaired, three months after it broke and perhaps just in time for the dam safety works to demolish this area as they bring the brook through! Work is in progress on the toilet block and the bowling green is being top-dressed with sand and loam, but much bad news remains.
Car access into the park beyond the two car parks remains a problem. Apart from the fact that people are avoiding paying to park, the routes in are shared with park users, many of whom are small children playing in and out of bushes and who may run unpredictably into risk. Most of the drivers go slowly with warning lights flashing, but not all. Very few seem to need to go into the park to carry heavy gear, etc. Early in the month there were 6 cars parked near the bowls pavilion and another 3 or 4 by the bridge near the cafe. The barrier at the Revelstoke Road car park is never closed, so there is no control over who may drive in.
The small areas of grass were mown on the 11th. As usual this was not sensitive to our feedback on the requirements of natural habitat. The near half of Ashen Grove Wood was mown, so preventing regeneration of a woodland ground flora. Soon, I expect that the autumn leaves there will be blown right back to beside the golf course fence as in previous years, so preventing the maintenance of a good woodland soil through earthworms feeding of the fallen leaves. The long grass beside the tennis courts requires mowing twice a year to keep woody species at bay, but only a strip adjacent to the perimeter path was mown. If only this treatment could be applied to Ashen Grove Wood, where it would be appropriate!
Early in the month, we had another routine flood in the public park, following just 3cm of rain over a two-day period. The planning application to make the dam safe was passed by LB Merton's planning applications committee in late September, without any of the conditions suggested to avoid significant flooding in the public park. The good news is that the dam should not fail because of uncontrolled overtopping. The bad news is that the regulated level of the lake is still held far too high, so that a much wider outflow weir is required. The water that would put the dam at risk will now go quickly down the brook into the public park. The new sinuous course of the brook in the crazy golf area is insufficient to prevent flooding in the low part of the park near the cafe, which is predicted to be a little worse that it is now. So, the opportunity to require a modest lowering of the lake level has not been taken. The choice has been made that life and limb of park users and park facilities should remain at risk. The recent flood caused a few problems and a path beside the water feature remains closed off for safety reasons, but that size of flood is seen several times a year. Just wait for the one-in-five or one-in-ten year flood and remember my words!
On a monitoring visit to the veteran oak, I found a Yellow meadow-ant nest (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_meadow_ant). Yellow ants are a good indicator of old grassland and their sandy nest mounds often remain after a grassland has been overtaken by scrub or woodland, indicating previous grassland. So, only two years after the grass was allowed to grow long, we have attracted a notable, indicator species.
I did my monthly bird count on the 11th. Unusually, I saw no Egyptian geese. One wonders whether there's been some action to reduce their numbers? Great crested grebe numbers remain high. One of the Mute swans youngsters has departed. All 7 Mute swans were still there. I had confirmation, from a regular user, that a brood of Great spotted woodpeckers was raised in an Ash tree near the main path through Horse Close Wood.
There are plants of Black nightshade in flower around the edge of the stadium and on the bank of the lower brook.
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