I did my monthly bird count on 27th, an early Spring (or is it late Winter?) visit. There were still plenty of Redwings around and not even any song, as is sometimes the case as they prepare to depart for breeding areas further north. They were busy feeding on the remaining Ivy berries, as were Woodpigeons and Starlings. Sadly, someone has taken it into his head to treat Ivy as an enemy and has cut the stems of climbing Ivy throughout Horse Close Wood. This is wholly against the adopted management plan for the wood, because the expert concensus is that Ivy causes little or no harm to the trees it climbs, and that this climbing Ivy is a great nature conservation asset: providing an abundnace of nectar in late autumn when little else is flowering and the fruit provides an abundance of natural food for birds. There was still quite a lot of fruit left on the ivy, but one wonders how much there will be next year on the depleted remains. Ivy also provides valuable shelter both for nesting birds and for roosting birds and bats in the winter, when shelter is scarce. Ivy supports a range of interesting insects, such as the Holly Blue, one of the common species seen in and around the park, and the recently-arrived Ivy Bee. Of course Ivy can fend for itself very well, and can obscure the statuesque trunks of trees and the Bluebells and other woodland wildflowers, but such drastic cutting back is clearly disproportionate and based upon ignorance. The cutting was done inexpertly and there was much damage caused to the bark of the trees, causing further harm. The winter flock of Starlings was beginning to sing. Many of these have come to England to avoid extremes of weather in northern Europe and will soon be returning to breed there. The same is true for Woodpigeons. Horse Close Wood had drumming Great Spotted Woodpeckers and singing Stock Doves and a range of other resident bird species were singing: Great and Blue Tits, Robins, Wrens and Greenfinches. Blackbirds will already be nesting and the others will not be far behind.
The most notable winter visitor on the lake was the Pochard, which comes to us in good numbers, despite the national decline. There were some 15 birds feeding out on the lake. There were two Mute Swans, so the female that disappeared seems to have been replaced. Egyptian Geese were defending territories, the most obvious pair being in the Crazy Golf area and I presume that they will be trying to breed in the lightning-struck oak there.
Sadly, the Pines and Needles left behind quite a lot of coniferous debris in the edge of Horse Close Wood. What a pity they take the easy way out and just dump this waste. I was unable to locate the Wood Sorrell amongst this debris, and just hope that it can make its way back. It's really sad that Merton seem quite unable to ensure that these concessions treat the park sensitively. One assumes that it's just too much effort to check and enforce.
The wildflowers also illustrated a transition from late Winter to early Spring. The winter-flowering sweet Violet was still in flower on the southern edge of Horse Close Wood, the early Spring Lesser Celandine was in full flower, and the very first flowers of Spring-flowering Cow Parsley were just appearing. Cuckoo Pint was much in evidence, but no flowers as yet. Elsewhere, Blackthorn flowers were breaking out in the hedgerows as were the early leaves of Hawthorn. The roles will swop next month with flowers coming on the Hawthorn and leaves on the Blackthorn. The last of the Hazel catkins were there at the same time as the first of the Alder catkins. Bright green Weeping willow leaves were out. Before the bud-break in the wood, the early-flowering Cherry Plums stand out and so are readily located. Around the edges of the lake, both Yellow Flag Iris and Sweet Flag were just beginning to emerge from the shallows.
Park users are still wondering if they will ever see the waterfall restored. Now, the bridge over the lower brook had been cordoned off for weeks, with no sign of repair or replacement and the same is so for a seat beside the children's play area. Sadly, Merton missed the opportunity to get a good sound bridge when they allowed London Underground Limited to have a depot in the nearby part of the park some years back. It would be so easy to secure gains out of such events. In the frosts of winter the perennially-leaking freshwater supply near to the Home Park Road entrance leaves the steep access path glazed with ice. This leak has been there on and off for some 30 years, with no significant repair. An other job waiting for action is the brook under the path near the cafe to enable the accumulation of debris there to be cleared. This accumulation causes flooding near to the beach volleyball courts when flows in the brook are high. Water was flowing other the perimeter path on the northern side of the athletics enclosure. The path here seems to impede the flow of ground water downhill towards the brook, bringing more water to the surface than elsewhere in the Great Field, but there was much standing water elsewhere also, the result of a particularly wet Spring. People just didn't accept this might happen as a result of climate change, but it seems that the predictions from 20 years ago are proving correct.
Arboricultural work in the park has been contracted out and there has been much work making the Railway Poplars beside the tube line safe and removing dead branches elsewhere. This is all good, but the lack of public information on the reasons for the work can lead to misunderstandings. It is great that the ugly plastic netting protecting areas of newly planted trees has been removed. The idea of planting whips is that one can suffer a good number of losses of these cheap specimens, and still get a good stand of trees. Where losses are heavy, it's cheap to acquire replacements. Where the aim is to replace an avenue tree by using a small number of whips, a large amount of protection is required. It would seem better to plant unprotected single standard trees insead, as these are visually obvious and they are protected from inadvertent harm by the mulched area around their bases.
I sampled the lake water on the 29th. Water clarity was poor, as is typical in early Spring. The planktonic species that have been seen in late winter in previous years, Daphnia longispina and Cyclops were abundant, but unusual was seeing a few Daphnia magna, which had previously been seen only in April, May and June. This may well reflect warmer water temperatures which have averaged higher in the last 18 months than earlier.
Daphnia longispina Daphnia magna
Cyclops
