Having fun on the hill bashing rhodo come rain or shine
So November was book-ended with Rhodo bashes at the start and end of the month, with an attempt at a moth survey at KH.
The first bash was a little bit damp throughout the day! But the team of KUBAG volunteers comprising of alumni and geocash volunteers, continued and manged to get a lot cleared and stacked despite the weather!
We managed to get the wall of cut rhodo started for the rest of the rhodo events over the 22/23 winter.
Later in Nov I’ve been monitoring the wildlife on our site, some issues with keys breaking in trail camera locks and wind blowing the moth traps open in gusts before we even got started!
But still managed to record 1 moth which was kind enough to wait on the outside of the trap for me.
This is a lovely mottled Umber – Erannis defoliaria – a common species in the UK – with a host of larval plants that mean its most abundant in woodlands – this is a species where I know every individual caught (and released) is a male – as the females are flightless! And can only be found by looking on the trunks of host tree species.
At the end of November saw a return to London Zoo for our annual Citizen Science Forum which was brilliant, lots of great talks and an opportunity to capture our traditional big group photo of the different teams across all areas and also the Hogsmill team who could make it.
The rhodo bash we had on Saturday to close off the month was fab-u-lous – the weather played ball with us and gave us a splendid crisp winter day to work on the rhodo (unlike the rain at the start of the month😊).
Starting the day with a mini wildlife survey as I collected the tools from our store, and found this beautiful protective mother spider guarding her egg sacks that she had deposited on one of the spades.
Identified by @BritishSpiders on Twitter as being one of the false widow species - Genus Steatoda).
The spade was left in the room for the spiders to hatch safely as I appreciate the room tidying role they undertake as they eat other inserts that may be in our stores! Read more about these cool spiders and why they may not be as bad as made out my the media fear-mongers in this Natural History Museum article.
Working with the fantastic volunteers we cut and cleared our way through some of the dense rhodo stands as well as working to dig out the roots at the standing stumps we had left from the last event.
Really happy with the progress made – and confessed, as this was the last one site event in 2022, I brought the minced pies!
And this time – on our last 2022 event, I remembered to take a photo of the litter we always collect, as the last few events were during the Big Hog-Friendly Litter Pick Challenge – any litter that we collected would have also counted towards our litter pick collection tally…had I remembered to get a photo of the bags!
This time, with the help of Hedgepiglet of the geocashers – coincidentally another name for a hedgehog – I remembered!! – one very large bag and an additional aluminium keg which had rhodo growing around it – it wouldn’t have come out unless the rhodo was cut down! Removed for re-purposing by a London crafting person.
We’ll be back in the woodland in January – probably continuing with the rhodo bashing and also removing the bamboo roots on the 21st of Jan – so hoping for good weather on the day…but rain on other days to keep replenishing the pond and groundwater at the Kingston Hill site!
You can sign up to help using this Eventbrite link (click here) – I’ll be sending out the joining instructions and questions about snack allergies in Jan.
Til next time,
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