Alien Smoothies versus Uckfield Roughs

We are still removing Himalayan Balsam from the Hempstead Meadow nature reserve, run by Uckfield Town Council.  Although the pink balsam flowers are lovely, the huge plants would simply swamp the wide variety of native plants in the reserve. The picture below shows a pretty, delicate looking crosswort, which in another week, would have been swamped by the nearby balsam seedling.

Cross wort (centre) next to Balsam seedling (bottom right)

The balsam plants are getting bigger now. Some of the biggest were two and a half foot high (about 70cm in new money) but seedlings are still coming through so we still need to look out for those. The plants are quite easy to pull out of the damp soil. The trick is to grasp them as near the bottom of the stem as possible and pull gently but steadily.  If you snatch at them their sappy stems just break at the joints.

Balsam plants left on the side of the path to dry out.

The young balsam plants are similar to many native plants so we have to be careful to pull out the right ones.  The photo below shows some of the differences.

Differences between balsam and similar native plants.

Himalayan Balsam	Native Species
Leaves - smooth Colour - light, sometimes has a reddish tinge, especially around the veins Stems - pale, smooth, and very sappy	Leaves - often rough, even if only slightly; or hairy Colour - often darker and I've not seen a red tinged one yet Stems - often darker, rougher

To sum up, the alien invaders are red-tinged smoothies while the Uckfield natives tend to be a bit on the rough side. What can I say?

There are a couple more work days to go (Saturday mornings, meeting by the Waitrose carpark gate at 9.00am). See the council website for more information.

Hempstead Meadow in June

I felt rather guilty about marching through Hempstead Meadow Nature Reserve on Saturday.  I had my hair trimmed and the grey touched out, which took most of the morning. Obviously it is the trim that takes most of the time! Unfortunately this meant that I couldn't join the working party who were removing the Himalayan Balsam as described in last week's post.

I did get a chance to look at the trees and June's selection of wild flowers.  Most of the blossom and the delicate spring flowers have gone but others have taken their place.

Hawthorn blossom and black poplar tree (just right of centre).

The first treat was the Hawthorn blossom. This is really thick on the bushes this year. The 5 black poplars that were planted about 15 years again are fine looking trees with shimmering shiny leaves.

Meadow Cranesbill

In the dryer meadow area, I found blue meadow cranesbills. This is a real treat, I have never seen one growing wild before. Once I get closer to the wet areas there is loads of treacherous white and frothy hemlock water dropwort.

Pulled up balsam

I have a quick chat with the working party and then move on. The pulled up balsam on the side of the boardwalk is clear evidence of their efforts.

It was a very short visit as I dashed back from the town to home, but that is the beauty of this local reserve. I can take in its beauty and tranquility without making a special journey.

May 2013 - Garden visitors

Below, I've summarised the visits in the camera captured during the 15 nights I had my Bushnell Trail camera out in May. I've allocated each visit to a 2 hour slot as shown below.

Animal visits while the camera was out in May 2013.

Oh dear. These results are quite frankly pathetic. The total number of visits (excluding cats) is down from 16 to 6 even though I had the camera out for the same number of nights, i.e. 15.  I have no idea why there were so few wild visitors. Maybe there were busy breeding, maybe I placed the camera badly. There was much less variety. No deer or badgers and just a few foxes.

A curious fox. I know it's a back view but it really amused me.

Exterminate! Ridding Hempstead Meadow of alien invaders

Each Saturday in June, starting today, there is a task day in the Hempstead Meadow Nature Reserve. The idea is to remove the pretty but thuggish Himalayan Balsam. A group of us located and pulled up seedlings to stop the adult plants overwhelming the native flora later in the year.

Himalayan Balsam seedlings, circled.

As the photo shows, at the moment the seedlings look small and inoffensive but later in the year the plants will be taller than me and causing all sorts of damage as described in TrUck's blog post on the subject. We have to be careful when doing this because we are 'invading' the nature reserve ourselves and are in real danger of tramping the plants and scaring the birds that live there. It was a rather lovely experience, methodically scanning the foliage looking for the slightly red tinged leaves of the balsam and listening to the bird song all around. Martyn Stenning, who was leading the group pointed out the song of several african migrants such as:

• garden warbler
• whitethroat

We have to be particularly careful not to disturb or damage the nests of these birds, which are found in vegetation close to the ground.

Balsam seedlings. Some of the tallest were already a foot high.

We took some time to peer into the clear areas of water next to the board walk.  I saw loads of wriggling tadpoles, about 3 sticklebacks, whirligig beetles, pond skaters and loads of caddis fly larvae. The latter are something I have often read about or seen on the TV but have never seen. They are strange little creatures that build an outer jacket out of bits of stick and debris. One, perhaps a caddis fly fashion victim, had decorated its brown coat with bright green disks of duckweed.

Further along the boardwalk we got a good view of Uckfield's primeval swamp.

Greater tussock sedges in Uckfield's primeval swamp.

Ancient plants like the tussock sedges and horse tail give the swamp a genuinely primeval feel. I almost expected to see a dinosaur lumber out from behind a clump of trees.  Returning to reality, we cleared the reptile basking rocks in case the resident grass snakes, slow worms and lizards wish to do a spot of sun bathing.  

There are more task days, running from 9am to 1pm each Saturday in June, so do come along. There is more info in my earlier post.

Springwatch - Who's nesting?

BBC Springwatch - 3 weeks of programmes tracking the progress of birds and animals through the spring - started today.  I thought that I would do a mini-springwatch of my own and see which birds were nesting and fledging nearby.

First out of the nest are - the starlings! The young birds have only been out of the nest for a day or two but they have already given me a terrific laugh.  This morning, a parent starling was clinging to a coconut hanging from the bird table pecking at the fat inside. Instead of the usual precise extraction of food, there was all sorts of flailing around, loss of balance and so on. Why? Because baby starling insisted on clinging to the adult's back. Kids!

Blue tit leaving box - taken in 1998.

Next up - still in the nest but I can hear the babies if I sit on the bench nearby - blue tits. These are really late this year. I had nearly given up expecting them. A pair did seem to start moving in at the beginning of April but the last cold snap sent them off again and we saw no real signs of birds going to the box until about the 12 of May.

Not quite sure but, I'm hoping, blackbirds. Or there had better be, the amount of abuse I get when I go to a certain part of the garden!

Hempstead Lane and Lime Tree Avenue in May

In my last post, I spoke about walking through Hempstead Meadow on the way home from the dentist. That, of course, wasn't the end of my little journey.

Hempstead Lane

Hempstead Lane is an old road that long predates the houses that line part of its route and the school hidden behind the trees in the photo. The grassy bank under the trees is covered in bluebells, cow parsley, stitchwort, alkanet and other wild flowers.

Bluebells, stitchwort and cow parsley

Turning right took me into Lime Tree Avenue. This wonderful avenue led up to the long gone Uckfield House. I feel very privileged to have worked there, removing unwanted growths from the feet of the magnificent trees. Over the last couple of weeks the new leaves have been bursting out of tight buds that protected them from the winter weather. Cow parsley, alexanders and other wild flowers have created white, frothy clouds below the trees.

Lime Tree Avenue, with cow parsley at the feet of the trees.

It was only a 30 minute walk from the dentist and was so much nicer than taking, and trying to find somewhere to park, the car.

Hempstead Meadow in May

An unexpected bonus of today's visit to the dentist was a walk through the Uckfield Town Council owned Hempstead Meadows Local Nature Reserve. I didn't have to go out of my way or take much time. I just swung through Waitrose car park and walked though to the Hempstead Lane playing fields.

Jack-by-the-hedge growing on the railway embankment.

As if to emphasise how close this little oasis of nature is to my normal working life, a London-bound train left just as I was walking through the reserve. It was partly screened by ash trees that were just starting to come into leaf and its emerald green Southern Rail livery contrasted with the fresh yellow greens of the surrounding spring foliage. Even so close to the train, I could see Jack-in-the-hedge, cuckoo flower, forget-me-nots and wild garlic.

Spring blossom.

There are so many other flowers to see now. Tiny jewel-like germander speedwell flowers vied for my attention with startling white greater stitchwort. The last of the king cups were fading out but there were plenty of buttercups and, I think, lesser spearwort, coming. The more subtle tones of ground ivy and crosswort added to the rich tapestry.

As I admired a clump of cuckoo flower growing in the stream, I noticed pond skaters and whirligig beetles on the water surface. Above birds flitted and twittered amongst the branches.

Wild garlic by the notice board, near Hempstead Lane playing fields.

The Uckfield news tells us that plans are afoot to tackle the pretty but thuggish Himalayan Balsam. A notice on the board says:

Task days will be held every Saturday morning in June,

from 9am to 1pm

If you want to help, you can come along to one of the task days and do as much or as little as you can. Meet at 9am Waitrose car park entrance to the reserve.

Full training will be given.

You can also support the Nature Reserve by coming along to the Advisory Committee's AGM on Thursday 6th June from 7.30pm, in the Green Room, Uckfield Civic Centre.

I hope to get along to some of the task days. It should be good fun and will help preserve the variety of damp-loving wild flowers by removing some of the Balsam.