Nuthatch at Sydenham Hill Wood (John Walsh)
In this issue: International volunteers in action Local wildlife under threat Wildlife sightings The return of coppicing And spring and summer events Contact Daniel Greenwood dgreenwood@wildlondon.org.uk 0207 252 9186 www.twitter.com/wildlondon_SHW www.facebook.com/sydenhamhillwood
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Sydenham Hill Wood News
International volunteers join up to lay 200m hedge In December our volunteer numbers were swelled by the arrival of volunteers from Volunteer Action for Peace. Volunteers from as far as Russia, South Korea, and as local as Bristol, joined to help lay a mixed native hedge that had become overgrown and was maturing into crowded standing trees. We worked with the Dulwich Horticultural Society (DHCS) to lay the hedge and help create a barrier reduce risk of theft to protect produce and equipment. Barney Perkins, Chair of the DHCS, said: “Our site has been transformed: there is a lot more light coming in, all the gaps have gone and we now have a hopefully impervious natural barrier which will benefit us and all the local wildlife for years to come. We really appreciate all the work London Wildlife Trust have done and all the work they continue to do in the area.�
118 people discover winter trees In January we were amazed to meet 118 people for our annual Winter Tree ID walk at Sydenham Hill Wood. Four volunteers were deployed to support the group, at one point stretching an eighth of the length of the entire site. The Metropolitan police were also on hand but simply to learn a bit more about the Great North Wood. Donations of over £100 were made which is a massive boost to our management to support wildlife. Thank you to everyone who made it along. Our Winter Bird walk took place on a frosty morning in December when a more modest group of 30 observed a flock of redwing bursting through the Wood, as well as good showings from nuthatch, great spotted woodpecker, a tuneful coal tit and a flock of gulls crossing overhead. Our events in 2014 reached over 1100 people, a massive number. Thank you to everyone who attended, donated and offered their enthusiasm for our threatened wildlife and habitats. Photo Š Anto Ojeda
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Ring necked parakeet (John Walsh)
Wildlife sightings A peregrine falcon seen from Cox’s Walk was the highlight this winter On the 19th November a wasp and a grasshopper were observed, and the following day a volunteer fungi training session yielded hairy curtain crust, giant puffball, birch polypore, oysterling, jelly ear, King Alfred’s cakes, hen-ofthe-woods, coral spot, trooping and clouded funnels, artists bracket, purple jellydisc, dog vomit fungus, common bonnet, turkey tail, the deceiver, sulphur tuft, candlesnuff and cobalt crust. On the 26th a field blewit was found on Cox’s Walk as well as a hedgehog skin, and on the 27th a scarce umber moth was found on the bark of an oak tree. A mistle thrush was singing on the 1st December. During our Winter Bird walk on the 6th a flock of redwing were the highlight whilst lesser black backed gull, woodpigeon, ring necked parakeet, great spotted woodpecker, robin, blackbird, goldcrest, long tailed tit, coal tit, blue tit, great tit, nuthatch, wren, jay, magpie, crow, grey squirrel and brown rat were seen. A peregrine falcon was perched on the church spire at the bottom of Cox’s Walk, mobbed by a pair of herring gull before eventually flying off toward the Horniman Nature Trail. Volunteers saw two firecrest on 11th and again on the 14th. A great spotted woodpecker was hammering on the 12th. Redwing were again present on the 17th. On the 19th a northern long-tailed tit was reported on Bird Guides, and again on the 20th, 21st, 22nd, 26th and 27th but none could be officially confirmed as the subspecies Aegithalos caudatus caudatus. Firecrest was seen again on 14th January 2015, a flock of goldfinch passing through later. A bat hibernation survey on 21st recorded a pipistrelle bat in the Crescent Wood tunnel. Peacock butterflies were found at the Lewisham end of the tunnel as well as several herald moth. Redwing were spotted later that day. Song thrush could be heard singing from the 21st January. A mistle thrush was heard singing on the 8th February. Our second bat hibernation survey recorded no bats but peacock, herald moth and a hibernating bee-mimic hoverfly were recorded. Mining bees had been excavating nest holes by the 12th February.
England’s Local Wildlife Sites under threat
Local Wildlife Sites are often little known, sometimes hidden yet vitally important wild havens - identified and selected locally for their high nature conservation value. They range from ancient woodlands to vibrant meadows abundant with butterflies, quiet churchyards home to bees and birds, bustling flower-rich roadsides and field-bordering hedgerows. They act as refuges for a wealth of wildlife such as the green winged orchid, marsh gentian, the pearl-bordered fritillary, noble chafer beetle, harvest mouse and water vole. The Wildlife Trusts’ new report, Secret Spaces: The status of England’s Local Wildlife Sites, draws on new evidence gathered this year which suggests that more than 10% of the 6,590 Local Wildlife Sites monitored have been lost or damaged in the last five years. As if these losses were not bad enough, this evidence does not highlight the enormous and depressingly extensive history of loss over recent decades. With predicted growth in housing, new roads and other infrastructure all set to increase, changes to farm environment schemes reducing incentives for owners to gain support for Local Wildlife Site management and austerity measures, which threaten the management of publically-owned Local Wildlife Sites, these last important refuges for wildlife remain vulnerable. In London, the Local Wildlife Sites – known as the Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs), of which over 1,500 are identified - have benefited from a reasonably robust level of protection since the system was developed over the 1980s and ‘90s. However, London Wildlife Trust is particularly concerned that the incredible pressures for development in London will make them ever more vulnerable to damage and loss, and without their designation being more visible in the public eye planners and developers may seek to downgrade or remove levels of protection. The Trust is due to publish a report promoting the value of London’s SINCs in March 2015.
Volunteers of the world, unite! Volunteer Action for Peace joined forces with London Wildlife Trust to lay a 20-year-old hedge on Cox’s Walk
Volunteer Action for Peace (DG)
In the darkest depths of December we were joined by international support from Volunteer Action for Peace. Kyung (South Korea), Yves (Belgium), Ekaterina (Russia), Yoko (Japan), Corinna (Austria) and Celia (France) were led by group leader Molly as they undertook tasks in Dulwich for a week. We were lucky to have the group support us in the big job of laying a mixed native hedge which runs between Cox’s Walk and the Dulwich Horticultural Society Allotments. A total of 28 volunteers over three workdays helped to get most of the job done. Thousands of miles of hedgerow has been destroyed in England since the Second World War, going the way of our ancient woods and grasslands, as agriculture intensified and small holdings were bought up and merged to become vast open monocultures. This has led to a crash in farmland bird numbers due to loss of habitat and food sources (the invertebrates which feed on flowering hedge plants) like hawthorn, sloes and rosehips. We have already seen birds choosing which part of the newly laid hedge they want to nest in. The hedge was planted by Trust staff and volunteers in the 1990s.
In February our volunteers worked hard to replace and replenish ailing dead hedges. Dead hedges provide excellent habitat for fungi, moths, beetles and even amphibians as well as acting as attractive barriers to protect sensitive areas of the woodland floor from trampling and erosion. All the timber is sourced on site from coppiced materials, usually finished with a top layer of holly. Dead hedging is an age-old woodland management technique which was once used to keep pigs penned into plots of woodland and as a way to store the brash arising from tree felling and coppicing. Our volunteers take great pride and enjoyment in the process. As of the 1st March we have finished all coppicing, tree works and anything that may disturb birds during the breeding season, a period which runs until the 31st July. We ask that visitors keep to the main paths and have dogs on a short lead at all times to help prevent disturbance. Visitors should be reminded that it is an offence to deliberately disturb breeding birds, to remove wild plants and or animals without the landowner’s permission.
Volunteers replenishing dead hedges (DG)
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Coppicing An ancient woodland management technique is making a welcome comeback in the urban woods of south London
Wych elm brash (DG)
‘’When coppicing, it is not uncommon for volunteers to be accosted in
the following way: ‘Excuse me,’ a visitor will say. ‘What are you doing?’ Sometimes it can be a prospective volunteer asking how to get involved. Almost always the visitor will leave the scene content to know that we aren’t stealing wood or needlessly destroying habitat. So worried are many of us about the state of nature that the simplest act of cutting or the sound of a chainsaw can get most people itching to call the council or else intervene personally. When coppicing, our volunteers are enacting ancient techniques to benefit the Wood. No timber is sold, instead being used for green woodworking to make dead hedges, hurdles, path edging, handrails and the odd mallet, a vital woodland tool. But coppicing is worth much more than produce to a Wood that was once coppiced.
Since the collapse of traditional woodland management, including coppicing and the harvesting of wood for local tanneries and the increasing use of imported timber, Britain’s woods have become overgrown and their canopies are closing. Plantlife estimate that by 2002 97% of British` broadleaved woodland was classed as high forest, whereas in 1947, 49% was coppice or scrub. This means that woods are largely unmanaged and neglected resulting in a loss of species which were once dependent on management. Butterflies such as the dark green fritillary prospered in coppiced woods, likewise English bluebell, wild primrose and dog violets. These three plants are present at Sydenham Hill Wood and one of the key aspects of our management is to help these plants rebuild their colonies. But not all woods should be coppiced, and not all can be. The type of tree is important: hazel, wych elm, sycamore, holly, ash, willow and even the mighty oak can regrow as a coppice tree. Rather than coppicing being a death-knell for woods, species such as the small-leaved lime can live indefinitely if coppiced properly over time.
Wood anemone (DG)
Sydenham Hill Wood events spring and summer 2015 Booking is not necessary unless stated. Meeting point for Sydenham Hill Wood events is inside the Crescent Wood Road entrance. Donations are welcome but not compulsory
Song thrush Š Philip Braude
The dawn chorus Saturday 2nd May 2015 04:45-07:00
Evening tree walk Thursday 18th June 2015 19:00-21:00
Evening bird walk Thursday 14th May 2015 19:00-21:00
Bat, moth and owl prowl Friday 3rd July 2015 21:00-22:30
Wildflower walk Sunday 14th June 2015 14:00-16:00
Butterfly walk Sunday 12th July 2015 14:00-16:00
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Protecting London’s wildlife for the future
Registered Charity Number: 283895