Trip reports

Ruxley Gravel Pits : Local Walk

Saturday, 14 April 2007

Our annual local outing continues to be as popular as ever and represents one of the few opportunities for Bromley residents to gain access to the reserve. This year was no exception for 42 people took part in a tour of the reserve on the 14th April. Thirty seven species were counted which is a good number for the time of year as some of the summer migrants had yet to arrive and some of the winter visitors had departed to their summer breeding grounds. Good views of kingfisher and grey wagtail were had by some of the group.

Ruxley is the Cinderella of the Kent Wildlife Trust's reserves, owned by the Environment Agency, it is in London (not Kent), is leased to the Orpington and District Angling Association with part of it managed by the KWT with restricted public access - you can imagine what an administrative nightmare that represents. Once surrounded by hedgerows, arable land and orchards this old gravel quarry has had a motorway pushed through it and had the area around converted into golf courses, a dry sky run, supermarkets, scrap yards and is a haven for fly-tippers and vandals. Yet despite all this it remains an SSSI (for invertebrates) and the small band of volunteers including Albert Watson and Frank Leyton, the warden and assistant warden, have remained optimistic and loyal supporters over the years.

In 2002 a number of water voles became homeless due to development project and two sites were identified in the Bromley/Bexley area for their release. Ruxley was considered the least favoured of the two sites but in the years following the release of 200 water voles only the Ruxley population survived. This prompted a long overdue visit by the Environment Agency/ English Nature and the KWT and the preparation of a successful application to the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund in 2005 for some £26000 to do much needed work at Ruxley mainly for water vole conservation but also to greatly benefit the breeding passerines. The reed beds have been extended and the large trees shading out the scrub and reed layers have been felled by contractors and the place has been transformed by the removal of burnt out vehicles and fly tip mounds which have so disfigured the place in recent years.

The lakes are refuges to large numbers of waterfowl in the winter including a bittern while the scrub, woodland, reed beds and river banks support a rich variety of breeding birds in the summer and roosting birds in the winter. Kingfisher breeds in the area.