Near Nightingale Bridge with Environment Agency Group

A group of volunteers from the Environment Agency came along to help tackle the very large stand of balsam in the paddock near to Nightingale Bridge. On a very hot day, they cleared hundreds of plants in a remarkably short period of time. 

The task ahead

A job well done!

Bridge House

On a very warm afternoon, we went into the grounds of Bridge House and along the river bed alongside. There weren't too many balsam in the grounds thanks to the work we did earlier in the year and we cleared them fairly quickly.

Wading along the river allowed us to tackle those plants low down on the river bank and also to access the opposite bank where there were a lot of balsam spreading into the grounds of houses along Park Row. The river bed was very muddy and still knee deep in parts despite recent lack of rain.  One section was still too deep to wade possibly because of a fallen branch slowing the river flow. The riverbank was also steep in most parts making access to and from the riverbed more difficult.

Lots of fairly large fish were enjoying some of the deeper sections until we waded in and stirred up the mud!

Return to Nightingale Bridge and Hilly Fields

We returned to Nightingale Bridge this week to carry on the work we did last week. It was nice to walk down there with no sign of balsam on this side of the river.

Nightingale Bridge

Initially we split up and while some started tackling the massive stand by the bridge, the rest of the group went to clear the large clump in the corner of Hilly Fields. A small amount of gymnastics was needed to get access to the river bank where huge balsam up to 9ft tall was growing.

A bit of gymnastics...	... and safely over
Seriously tall balsam	Nearly finished

A combination of pulling and slashing soon reduced this to ground level.

All cleared!!

Heading downriver to check the river bank

We then rejoined forces with the group by the bridge and helped to finish clearing all the balsam growing there.

The good news was that there were no ripe seeds yet. The less good news was that after we cleared the balsam by the bridge we could see the next field beyond which has a huge amount along the edge by the river.

Admiring our handiwork!!

A stroll upriver

There were still a few plants flowering along the edge of Glebe Fields which I dealt with but there are more on the other side which might be possible to reach from the river bed. I left those for another occasion as I wanted to revisit the area upstream from Black Rocks which we cleared in mid June.

The water level was low so wading was easy and I was able to clear quite a lot on the little islands in the middle of the stream. Thanks to our efforts earlier there wasn't a huge amount and it didn't take long to clear them.

There's still a lot along the edge of the field on the far side of the river. Some of the seeds are turning black now particularly where they are in the sun so there's not much time left this year to clear them.

On my way back I caught sight of an egret flying near to Black Rocks. I wonder whether it's the same bird John saw last week.

River fly monitoring and balsam bashing

We went down to Parsonage Bridge today to carry out a Riverfly Monitoring survey and while Hsusin collected samples and then counted the species gathered, I wandered 50 metres up and downstream cutting down any balsam I could see. Downstream there were a few on the ledge outside Bridge House and a lot on the opposite bank but it only took a few minutes to slash them down as it's unlikely they'll regrow to produce seeds now.

Upstream there were a few isolated plants on the Glebe Land side and a couple of large clumps on the other side which I managed to clear.

Sorting the sample

The sample

Picking off some of the stragglers Monday 25 July

I dealt with a few stragglers dotted around the field behind St Peter's and quite a few on the riverbank. Some were out of reach without getting into river but I cleared all I could reach, mostly by slashing rather than pulling.

I then walked up towards Cogmill and cleared a few hidden in the undergrowth on the way up towards Black Rock. I also cleared a few which were flowering at Black Rocks.

Nightingale Bridge and Hilly Fields

While waiting at Parsonage Bridge, John spotted this egret looking for its breakfast and managed to get a quick photo before it flew away.

We walked down from Bridge House to Nightingale Bridge clearing a few stragglers as we went. Thanks to our previous visits this area is a significant improvement over last year. Instead of pink balsam, the edge of the field is covered in white cow parsley.

2015

2016

The cow parsley and the nettles are making the footpath a bit more difficult to access however.

At Nightingale Bridge we crossed over into Hilly Fields and cleared huge numbers growing along the field edge by the river.

From this...	... to this

There's just one more massive clump in the corner of the field still to deal with. There's also a lot growing by the bridge on the Watley's End side of the river and spreading up a ditch towards the stables. We didn't come across any ripe seeds yet so we might be able to get in  few more sessions to deal with those.