A Summer Summary

It's been a very busy summer so sticking with Rachel's trend of timely blogging, I decided to wait til the Himalayan Balsam had started to go over before kicking off the waders and getting back into the office to contribute to the blog. When you see the amount we've achieved in the last few months I think you'll agree that it was worth the wait! 

We’ve been re-surfacing woodland paths, creating new habitats in the form of bug hotels and reptile hibernacula, not to mention keeping up with the Great Gatsbees – our thriving Honey Bee population. As always, however, one of the most important jobs has been trying to control the spread of Himalayan Balsam (Glandulifera impatiens) across Gatwick’s conservation zones and beyond.

This impressive plant can grow up to eight feet in a little over sixteen weeks, using an explosive mechanism in its seed heads to disperse seeds far and wide, before spreading quickly to dominate river banks, displacing native flora in the process. If you’d like to find out more, there’s a helpful article on the Sussex Wildlife Trust website here: http://www.sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/blog/2014/07/greenspace-invader/

Himalayan Balsam in flower

Himalayan Balsam’s dependence on river systems for seed dispersal means that low-lying areas like Gatwick Airport, which is intersected by a number of water courses such as the River Mole, Gatwick Stream, Crawters Brook and Mans Brook, receives a constant influx of seeds throughout the summer. This makes the job of controlling its spread all the more important and begs the difficult question; where do we start?

After much deliberation (and some blindfolded pointing at a map), we decided to begin our battle at Povey Cross in the North West Zone with a team from Gatwick Airport’s Engineering and Asset Integration Department. On a scorching hot day at the end of June, this nine-strong group got stuck in, removing plants over an incredible 700 meter stretch of the banks of the Mole.

Engineering and Asset Integration with Balsam casualties at Povey cross

A little over a week later, volunteers from Southern Gas Networks took up the mantle in Horleyland Wood where Balsam had taken up residence in dense patches under the woodland canopy, encroaching from the adjoining Gatwick Stream and sewage treatment works. The following day reinforcements arrived in the form of GGP’s youth rangers. They set to work with boundless energy, pulling back more valuable habitat from the Balsam’s clutches.

Southern Gas came ready for action with matching overalls.

Youth Rangers at Horleyland wood, accompanied by one slightly less youthful ecologist.

By early July it was time to call in the elite squadron and GGPs weekly volunteer group got to grips with the Balsam in Riverside Garden Park, Horley, where the Gatwick stream joins the river Mole. Undeterred by the towering Balsam-covered banks, they put in a tremendous effort over two long and very hot days. Using ladders to scale the steep banks, they tirelessly removed plant after plant. This resulted in at least one volunteer taking a bath in the cool, calming waters of the Gatwick Stream. Despite these setbacks, their hard work paid off and we managed to clear the majority of the Balsam from the park, downstream from the underpass in the south-eastern corner.

GGP Volunteers tackle towering Balsam at Riverside

A final sweep of Riverside was carried out by a group of EDF office staff who came all the way from London to join the fight. The team were very thorough and spent the morning working away from the stream, removing any stragglers in the woodland edges where seed had been carried by winter flood waters. As the day wore on and we worked our way into open grassland, it became apparent that we were going to need a change of plan. Fueled by the scorching summer temperatures, much of the Balsam in these open areas was already setting seed and too much disruption at this stage would only facilitate its spread.

EDF's London team at Riverside

We proceeded carefully, using scissors and secateurs to carefully snip all of the seed pods into bin bags before ripping out the remainder of the plant. Six bin bags of seed were removed and prevented from entering the catchment that day.

As you can see from the map below we have made a big impact this year, and its all thanks to the fantastic work of our ever-growing volunteer network. All our volunteers have proved willing and able and always up for a challenge.  

But as I said earlier, it hasn’t been all about Balsam this summer. I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has turned out to help with our many projects. And just to prove it, here are a few more pictures.

UK Power Networks and the huge pile of rubbish they cleared from Horleyland pond back in April.

Dave and Stefan "discuss" how best to lay geotextiles while building a footpath in Upper Pickets wood.

Rachel's mum, Sue and ecologist Natalie get the job done with a little less "discussion"
(I'm not sure who that slacker is trying to sneak into shot)

Another gang from UK Power Networks turned out in force in June, working competitively on woodland and grassland footpaths

 And finally, the Insect Hotel has been slowly coming together over the summer with the help of Donald and Peter.

Not long until our programme of autumn works starts up again!

Roving Records - Land East of the Railway Line: 19/03/2014

Recently I've been really spoiled by warm and sunny weather, so I had to give myself a kick to get outside on this cool, blustery day.

Underside of a Mink: the colour is quite beautiful but the fur is rather oily in texture

On the way to the site, along the A23 was a grim but still an interesting find: a squashed American Mink (Neovison vison), which came off worse after meeting a car. I've seen plenty of tracks and droppings around our streams and rivers, but I've yet to see a live one. American Mink were brought in and farmed in the UK for their fur before it was banned in the '90s. Sadly this practice still goes on in European countries and the US. The descendants of the escapees here are an invasive species and voracious predators, thought to be at least partly responsible for the decline of the UK's Water Voles.
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Scots Pine and Birch trees dominate the entrance of Upper Picketts Wood

Into Upper Picketts Wood and a colony of Jackdaws were making the most of the stiff breeze, leaping off the trees and being buffeted happily about. A group of Goldfinches high up in the Scots Pine were also singing lusitly, a sound which I normally associate with my housing estate.

The woodlands are really alive with bird song at the moment, in particular Wrens, Robins, Goldfinches, Great Tits and Chaffinches. Great-spotted Woodpeckers were drumming and a Green Woodpecker was 'yaffling' in the distance. I regularly hear a Marsh Tit around the entrance to Goat Meadow and have occasionally seen a pair flitting around together. I really like its shrill 'pit-choo' calls, which can feel like a greeting, though in actuality is telling me 'where to go'.

I was sneaking a look under the reptile refugia around the meadow, when something which looked like a massive rubber snake draped over a branch caught my eye...

Refugia at the Grass Snake boulevard

A rubber snake

It was in fact a very real and pretty massive Grass Snake! It's close to a meter long and I've seen this big ol' female in the same spot last year. I was hoping she wouldn't mind our rennovating her brash pile, which was breaking down and getting a bit sparse, but it seems to have gone down nicely.

Grass Snake (Natrix natrix)

On to checking the hedgehog tracking tunnels, kindly lent by one of our Ecology volunteers George. We are hoping to get some indication of Hedgehog activity on our sites...

A Hedgehog tracking tunnel - corrugated plastic with an ink pad and pieces of plain paper at either end

They were baited with spam and tinned sweetcorn, as like some humans, most mammals don't seem to be that fussy! After just one night, all the food was gone and left behind were lots of little inky mammal tracks. Sadly no hedgehog prints yet, although it was probably a bit of a long shot.

These tiny tracks are most likely from Field Voles and Common Shrews

Halfway through checking the tunnels, I spotted two bees hawking over the grass... I had a quick sweep of my net and one got away, but I snagged this cute little fella - a mining bee of the Andrena genus.

Male Andrena spp. As well as two large compound eyes, you can see the three ocelli (simple eyes) on the top of his head which assist with light detection and navigation

I was told it is probably the Small Sallow Mining-bee (Andrena praecox), one of the earlier species to be out and about. Male Andrenas can all look pretty similar so I would need to use an identification key to be sure, but as I am pretty tight for time, I let it go.

He was released on Blackthorn flowers, though it might have preferred a Willow catkin

Finally, under the reptile refugia I am also finding many of these little click beetles...

Elaterida is the Click Beetle family and consists of 73 species in the British Isles

At some point I will have a crack at using some invertebrate identification keys, but right now I am on a steep learning curve in terms of Airport and Aerodrome Ecology, so it is on the back burner!

An introduction to Gatwick’s Greenspaces...

Gatwick Airport, its boundaries and our two main zones of conservation focus

Gatwick Airport is its own thriving town or city; just ask anyone who works here. It also happens to be an island surrounded by the beautiful Sussex and Surrey countryside; a very rare position for such a large specimen of airport... If you take an OS map you may be surprised by the amount of undeveloped land which exists here, also the number of public footpaths passing through habitats such as woodland, grassland, floodplain meadow and wild ponds. With such a range of habitats the resulting variety of wildlife is quite astounding, and seemingly unperturbed by busy air traffic. I am continually updating Gatwick’s wildlife records database which we began in summer 2012 (anyone who enjoys a spot of data entry do drop me a line) and I am excitedly anticipating what we might find each season. These records are shared with our local biodiversity record centres which collectively hold copious information on the species and habitats of the UK.

River Mole North of the runway

Our ultimate goal is to protect and improve what we can in terms of the existing natural habitats and species diversity on Gatwick landholdings. Over the decades Gatwick Airport has become ever busier, but equally people have been working ever harder to preserve its greener zones. Thanks largely to volunteers from the Gatwick Greenspace Partnership, the British Airways Engineering volunteers, the Sussex Wildlife Trust, helpful individual naturalists and the companies JS Agriculture Ltd and Ecology and Habitat Management Ltd, we are now making a concerted combined effort to achieve The Wildlife Trust’s Biodiversity Benchmark Award. 

                                Grassland and woodland habitat along the River Mole