A morning's work on a local nature reserve

An observation of 12th September 2010 by a 64 year old retired female from Wimbledon.

A morning's work on a local nature reserve.

Every few months a group of volunteers go to Myrna Close local nature reserve, between Colliers Wood and Mitcham, mostly to clear litter. It's a small area of green space among the houses, with a slow-flowing ditch and two small ponds, created where there was once a railway line. It provides a cut-through to the big supermarket, a place where people walk dogs, cycle, and can if they want see a peaceful bit of nature. There are no big mature trees, but plenty of smaller ones, birch, poplar, maple, ash, and lots of brambles, and reeds in the ponds. It was a brilliant early autumn day, blue sky, lots of white clouds, and there were six of us to work on the depressing job of getting rubbish out of the pond and everywhere else. We're in yellow fluorescent jackets, with our group name on them, so that no-one thinks we're doing this as a punishment! M stands in the water in waders, skimming through with a pitchfork to catch the litter, while the rest of us collect it up into rubbish bags and search the banks for more. Drink cans, drink cans and still more cans, and vodka bottles, we collected bags and bags of them for recycling. Five or six footballs, the obligatory shopping trolley, a large toy sheep, a bicycle wheel, lots of plastic tubing. M, up to his thighs in duckweed-coated water, bends down to take a photo of a dragonfly paused for a moment on a football floating in the pond. What were the smells? Stagnant pond, and worse, then occasionally the scent of mint which grows there. Wood smoke when we lit the storm kettle to make ourselves tea. There were small birds twittering, probably blue tits or something, and we eventually spotted one of the moorhens which are usually there, hiding in the reeds. Other sounds: us volunteers chatting, a lot of conversations from passers-by, many I think in Polish, some on mobile phones. A group of children "Ugh it smells, it's disgusting,ugh". And the sound of two men fighting with broadswords, grunting and thumping, a re-enactment society filming for their website! They were dressed in black, with baggy trousers, very long hair, and many straps and fittings. At first I thought "Pirates of the Caribbean", but then I saw the small round shield so would guess they were being something Celtic. We stopped mid-morning for a cup of tea and chocolate biscuits, then went on to pull out some of the reeds which otherwise start to choke the pond. They're very wet and heavy to heave out of the water and into wheelbarrows, they have very fleshy white stems and roots. Occasionally I would pause and appreciate how pretty the reserve is, and watch the dragonflies, the occasional butterfly, red berries on the hawthorn trees, some small purple wild plum fruits. I've been coming here for years and always feel the same, what a pity it is that this lovely little place is always full of rubbish, so that we easily fill a council lorry or a skip in a morning. But, one o'clock and we decide we've done enough, so I cycle home for a shower and a rest! Next meeting at the end of November.