Patch of Life

If you visit Waitrose in Paddock Wood and perhaps park your car near the border with the railway land you may have noticed that there is a short drainage ditch about  80 - 100 metres long, which joins up with the main culvert near the John Brunt public house, just before it disappears under the railway.

The culvert is overshadowed by trees and bushes, but for about a third of its length sunlight reaches the banks & bottom of the ditch. 

Perched across one of the lower branches of one of these trees is an abandoned collard dove nest of twigs, which perhaps provided a place where new life began as young collard dove chicks started life in this nest.

However there is certainly life in the more open areas of the ditch, as a visit on Sunday 21^st August revealed.

The ditch had a wonderful display of late summer flowers, attracting honey bees and bumble bees to gather pollen and sip nectar. The flowering plants included Purple loosestriff, greater willowherb,, meadowsweet, greater birds-foot trefoil, ragwort as well as figwort & bulrushes.

Amongst the trees and bushes I found  buddleia still in flower and berries ripening amongst the guelder rose and a hawthorn bush.

Ok, so not exactly a nature reserve, but in this short stretch of neglected ditch, alongside an area covered in tarmac, nature has grabbed a toehold and was doing its best to bring colour and life to an urban setting. 

Lovely to see :-).

Church Farm - Abandoned Orchard

Following on from the last post I visited the abandoned orchard on Sunday 21^st August to see what summer delights could be found.

The start of footpath from Church Road was strewn with litter, but this aside the plant life hinted at the damp area this is in the winter time. There were large patches of mint and also clumps of rushes and willow trees dotted around,  as well as areas of bare clay, now dry and cracked. The steam, which was in full spate during my winter visit, was a calm backwater of still water on this visit.

The dormice tubes had been removed by the ecological surveyors, although the marking tape still dangled from tree branches, indicating where the tubes had previously been placed.

I saw one or two pear trees, but the area is now covered in self-seeded oak & hazel trees, plus the willow trees mentioned earlier. A further sign of dampness under the shady canopy of the growing oak trees was a great collection lichens attached to the branches and trunks of the trees and old dead bramble stems.

Growing up in the 1970’s lichens were pretty rare to find in south east England, but now that air quality has improved somewhat, lichens which require less polluted air are starting to reappear. It was good to see them in this neglected part of the site.

Perhaps that is just what wildlife needs to survive, patches of land which are just left to nature’s care.

Summers turning

Introduction

The last few months have been really busy for me with the main wildlife survey season in full swing but Saturday 13^th August was a quiet time so I popped along to Church Farm to view the fields, hedgerows and streams, at a time when summer is starting to wane and signs of autumn begin appearing.

I followed a route around the edge of the main field starting along the railway line, where the headland is currently 10 – 30 metres wide.

It is worth mentioning that in May the government appointed planning inspector confirmed what I had already assumed in January, namely that all of three proposed new main housing areas for Paddock Wood (Church Farm, Mascalls Court farm & Mascalls Farm) will be allowed to be developed over the next ten years.

The Railway edge

Wandering along the northern edge of Church farm the many blackberries were dark in colour, juicy in the mouth & sweet on the tooth. One or two damson trees displayed ripening drupes and I spotted an apple tree with apples still needing a month or so to swell and redden. The headland along this stretch is at its widest, some 30 metres in places and as such has a richer variety of wildlife to view.

The area was covered in late summer wildflowers and arable weeds, fleabane and ragwort forming colourful expanses of bright yellow blooms swaying in the light wind. The flowers were full of honey bees and bumble bees, plus hoverflies in smaller numbers. The path and crop edges contained many arable weeds;  mayweed, feverfew, scarlet pimpernel, creeping thistle, spear thistle, bistort & hawkweed amongst them. 

Further along a larger patch of common knapweed proved to be a great attraction for red tailed and buff tailed bumblebees, grabbing the last of the pollen and nectar before the colonies break up and new queen bees seek abandoned small mammal burrows to hibernate in until the early 2017 spring sunshine causes them to wake again.

Along the railway land boundary the poplar trees reach ever towards the sky, but it’s the call of their leaves which attracts me, for in the slightest breeze they flutter in unison and whilst being far from water they give you the feeling of being next to a gentle waterfall. I’m not sure at present what species of poplar or aspen they are, more investigation is needed for there are many cultivars and types produced by the horticultural trade, but on the ear they are a favourite of mine.

Bird life was sparse, for this is a time when many birds skulk in the bushes as they moult their main flight feathers. I saw and heard a number of hedge sparrows but little else. The most numerous avian species to be seen across the fields was the wood pigeon. I counted 25 birds perched on the power lines traversing the forest of broad beans, which covered most of the site.  The pods are full and ready to harvest soon, but the woodies seem to be tempted to harvest the crop early ! I watched as they disappeared in amongst the forest pecked at the pods and their bean feast, contained within.

 East Rhoden Stream

What was apparent, compared to my winter visit, was the much reduced water flow. The Tudeley Brook to the west of Paddock Wood keeps flowing at a steady rate throughout the year, as it rises in the High Weald and flows towards the River Medway. It would seem that the water in the East Rhoden stream is more of a drainage ditch, draining the lower area surrounding the eastern side of Paddock Wood and so during drier periods of the summer the water flow in much reduced.

Having said this the damp ground around the stream allowed a good number of late summer flowering plants to be on show, such as Purple Loosestrife, Greater Willowherb,  Meadowsweet and various species of rush & umbelifers. I also noted a couple of starwort species in the water.

Bird life was sparse, as was any signs of mammals, apart from human  activity.

Human Presence on the site

Along the northern edge of the field I had noted a large campfire area, with burnt logs and food rubbish. 

There was also a kids rope swing across the East Rhoden stream. Further along, in a southern wooded area of the East Rhoden stream, a more permanent presence was in evidence, with a tent and associated rubbish thrown in the stream.

Around the whole site a reasonable amount of dog poo could be found along the paths and indeed a rather amusing incident occurred along the southern path, bordering the Paddock Wood cemetery. Here two dog walkers came walking along when one of the dogs squatted. The owner saw me and got out a plastic bag to collect the doggy deposit. I walk past the couple and turned south along the middle field ditch. The dog’s owner, seeing that I had past their dog, put the plastic bag back in her pocket, unused, and left said dog deposit on the path !

The southern edge & middle field ditch

Of note along the southern edge was the abandoned pear tree orchard, with fruit in evidence. The crematorium hedge had been trimmed, so any berries had subsequently been removed, leaving little food  for the birds this winter, which was disappointing to see.

The middle field ditch held no water for its entire length, but was merely damp at the bottom. There was a good clump of purple loosestrife, two horseradish plants and one or two patches of bramble, but little else worthy of comment.

However the pond near the line of polar trees, whilst containing no clear stretches of water did have a good growth of emergent pond vegetation.

Summary

The summer visit matched my winter walk in terms of wildlife sittings. The areas of interest remain the boundaries of the site with the middle of the field, being a forest of broad beans, having  little opportunity for wildlife to establish a permanent presence. The best wildlife area remains the northern boundary alongside the railway line, but the East Rhoden stream was a little disappointing and I had hoped it would hold more wildlife promise.  

 

Professional surveys of the abandoned orchard have revealed dormice in this area last year, although I did not have the time to review this area in this visit. The other area I wasn’t able to explore was the land bordering Church Farm itself, but being rough grassland I suspect it holds more opportunities for wildlife than much of the rest of the site. Will have to see if I can find the time to study these areas in more detail, in the coming weeks.