May 2023

The monthly bird count was done on the 17th. The highlight was three Pochards. This duck is decreasing internationally and is Red listed in the UK but, in contrast, numbers in the spring and summer have increased here in recent years. It's a different story for the Gadwall, a pair of which were seen near to the outfall. Perhaps some time soon this increasing species of duck will breed here. There was at least one occupied heron nest on the island. The Mute Swan eggs hatched mid month and the cygnets were following their parents. Most other species were quiet, busy feeding their young. The Song Thrush, however, is not often seen except at this time of year when it ventures out onto grassland foraging for nestling food. Later in the month there was another Common Sandpiper foraging for food on floating material near to the outflow weir and three Grey Wagtails were seen together at the outflow. At least three pairs of Greylags had young.

The park was generally looking good with the deciduous trees now with fresh foliage and many of the wild flowers showing well. Hawthorn was in full flower and Elder just starting. Apart from the perennials, Jack-by-the-hedge and Green Alkanet provided colour at the edges of woodland and hedge. Cuckoo Pint was flowering in the hedgerows and woodlands, including the public park part of Ashen Grove Wood, showing the potential for a woodland ground flora to return, given appropriate managment. in contrast, only five of the the hedgerow shrubs planted there in compensation for the trees lost to the new outfall had survived, as might be expected when planted at the wrong time of the year under a woodland canopy. The cuckoo flowers were still there in the little triangle by the tennis courts. Let's hope that they are spared harm from the improvement works there. Yellow Flag Iris was beginning to flower in the last half of the month. This is another species threatened by the AELTC proposals, because they plan to plant new reedbed in its place.

There was a plant pokeweed at the base of a Railway Poplar beside the boundary fence, the first one north of the brook. It would need to flower for a full identification.

With maintenance over, the main play area was mown, as was the Great Field and the immediate surrounds of the Crazy golf and a strip beside the tennis courts in the east. This left long grass in the Crazy golf area and between the path and the hedgerow beside the tube line, a good move. We hope that the message has got through that these long grass areas will need to be managed as meadow: they need cutting once or twice a year. This is to ensure that they remain as grassland and are not invaded by Bramble, Ivy and trees.

The lake water was sampled on the 15th. As is usual in late Spring and early Summer, water clarity was high. Apart from that, however, the situation doesn't look good. Only a scrap of Rigid Hornwort and another of Small Pondweed were found. The shallows at each end of the lakeside promenade both had an accumulation of anoxic, black sediment. This is new, as these places had a stony bottom or weed growth in previous years. The common Blue-green bacterium, Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, was already visible to the naked eye and a new species, not previously identified, Lyngbya sp. was even more abundant. The latter is too small to be detected with the naked eye. Both of these species can form toxic blooms. This, and the scarcity of waterweed doesn't bode well for water quality this summer.

The damage to the coir rolls in the upper brook remains unrepaired. The lake level was low.

 

Aphanizomenon flos-aquae

Lyngbya sp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The other bit of bad news is that yellowed dead vegetation suggested extensive weed spraying under seats, around shrubs and at the base of fences. I thought that this practice had been discontinued. Many of these places would support common wildflowers in long grass if left to grow. The occasional cut with a strimmer, with the arisings removed, would suffice to prevent excessive growth and allow the longer vegetation to be enjoyed.