The last conservation day for 2011 continued with the building of the observation screen and also included some bramble clearing on a nearby bank. 

The day began by levelling off the top of the bank before digging in stakes to weave the willow around. 

Other members of the group cleared an area opposite the sandbank of brambles. This will hopefully allow woodland plants such as primroses to flourish.

A picture of the whole group with the nearly finished screen can be seen in the gallery, it will be finished off in the New Year to give an excellent observation area and hopefully allow visitors to see the kingfishers.  Although fairly quiet for wildlife, a Shoveler duck was seen in one of the lakes.

03 December 2011

The group returned to Bedfont Lakes to help clear a sandbank on the shore of one of the lakes in the Nature Reserve. The lake has kingfishers and bitterns and the aim is to construct a screen made out of willow with a number of observation points so that the birds can be observed without disturbance. The sandbank to be cleared and the lake used by kingfishers.

Getting stuck into clearing the bank.

 The bank cleared and ready for the willow screen.

05 November 2011

For a change the BLCV worked at a new location, Hounslow Heath, helping the rangers maintain the heathland habitat.  At one time there were extensive heathlands across what is now south London but these have all gone except for a few small areas.  The main plant is heather and at one time this would have been allowed to flourish as cattle and human activity would have kept back the more dominant plants. However, although the rangers have a few cows there are not enough and so help is needed to keep back the gorse and broom.

The picture above shows a good area of heather, to ensure maximum wildlife benefit there should be a ratio of 70% heather to 30% other species, unfortunately the heath is not quite there yet and there is still alot of work to do. More information on southern heaths can be found on the London Heathland Heritage website.

The size of the problem can be seen in the picture below, fortunately we were not expected to clear all of this area in one go, it will take a number of visits.

22 October 2011

Another session of clearing; this time removing alder from the channels in the nature reserve that are used for birds for feeding. We also began clearing an area of woodland next to the lake to make a muddy feeding area for wading birds.

One of the Bedfont Lake's Rangers explaining the work for the day to an attentive volunteer.

It was also a great excuse to have a bonfire, unfortunately no jacket potatoes but maybe next time.

We were back in the nature reserve again doing more clearing.  The autumn, winter and spring are ideal times to do this type of work as the birds have gone and we will not disturb them. Besides clearing an area of bats the aim was also to allow more flowering plants to grow that are normally crowded out by the brambles etc. 

A recent bat survey has found a growing population of bats, making Bedfont Lakes one of the best sites in west London.  It now supports the three Pipistrelle species, Common, Soprano and Nathusius (all these links will need adobe acrobat to open). The first two are common while the Nathusius is rare and the park is very lucky to have them.

To support this growing population, the rangers asked for help in expanding an area that the bats use to feed. This meant we spent the day removing small trees and scrub, further pictures of the work can be found in the gallery.

If you want to learn more about the bats that live in the park, the Rangers run a number of "bats and bug" family evenings and these are well worth a visit. You will not only get to see bats flying around in the nature reserve but also hear them using bat detectors.   

10 September 2011

There was a good turn out for the first task of the autumn, with 12 volunteers.  We were asked by the Rangers to help clear holly from an area next to the carpark off Bedfont Road. The intention is to plant wild flowers next year, giving a colourful entrance to the park.  We also took the opportunity to create habitat for stag beetles using dead wood. This is their preferred habitat and its loss, due to the tidying up of parks etc, has meant that the beetles distribution has contracted in the last 40 years. 

16 July 2011

The job for the day was to continue to support the mining bees by clearing a bank opposite to the bank cleared in May.  Unfortunately the unseasonal weather had an effect on our efforts and we only did a couple of hours. However, we managed to clear most of the bank.

It's good to report that the terns have been successful and 9 chicks have been observed. The Little Ringed Plovers have also nested and there are high hopes that they will be some chicks as well.   There have also been sightings of the following butterflies, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood, Comma, Meadow Brown and Purple Hairstreak.

21 May 2011

The day was spent clearing a bank in the nature reserve of scrub that had grown up in the last year. The bank provides a home for mining bees that can burrow up to 60cm. In Britain there are about a 100 species.