Hayes Common Circular

Sarah Adams showing the group some mixed heath
on the southern section of Hayes Common. 8 May 2011.
A good mixture to the right; too much gorse to the left.

Hayes Common is one of a connected group of local commons. One edge is only five minutes walk from my house, so it's satisfying to learn more about it. Today, Sarah Adams of BCS led a walk which followed the Hayes Common section of the Three Commons Walk.

The full walk takes in Keston Common and West Wickham common; Sarah is responsible for the management of the 80 hectares of Hayes Common, so that's what she showed us.

We started on an open area which is managed for recreation rather than conservation. The grass is cut several times a year and this space is used by people playing with their dogs and people playing games. Even so, there are wildflowers like harebell and bedstraw in one corner.

A patch of common cow wheat, Melampyrum pratense,
in woodland on Hayes Common. 8 May 2011.

Most of this end of the common is secondary woodland. 150 years ago it would have been open heath. Now there are oaks, beech and hornbeam, as well as the faster-growing silver birch; lots of holly, which has to be cleared regularly; and small numbers of several other trees.

The early spring flowers are gone, and now there are some slightly later flowers; herb robert, jack-by-the-hedge, cow parsley. Some plants that will flower later are there as ground cover or undergrowth; lots of blackberry and honeysuckle, occasional black bryony.

There is a great deal of common cow wheat, a plant which is spread by wood ants, so we know they are also present. It's mostly not quite in flower yet. It is an indicator species for ancient woodlands; this wood is not ancient, but it is developing some age and interest.

There were also a couple of clumps of bluebells. One, by the roadside, was the non-native spanish bluebell, no doubt dropped by someone dumping green waste. Dumping garden refuse like this can easily let in invaders and cause problems for the ecosystem. But I did see a small clump of native bluebells deeper in the woods, which might be the start of a natural bluebell wood.

Sheep's sorrel, Rumex acetosella, and gorse seedlings on a cleared patch
in the southern area of Hayes Common. 8 May 2011.

The common is criss-crossed by roads, and is split in two by the busy Croydon Road. South of this road, much work has been done to restore areas of heathland. A few patches are there already, including one patch of lichen heath that is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Here, and on the more recently cleared areas, there is a problem with invasive gorse. Sarah and her helpers work on this by cutting it back and treating each stem with herbicide. Just cutting would be a very temporary solution, and digging out the roots would also dig up the local plant life, so not such a desirable course. The photo shows a recently cleared area with a flush of sheep's sorrel and plenty of gorse seedlings, horrors!

There are some open grass areas here also, but unlike the one where we started, these are managed by "cut and take". The grass is cut once a year, late on so that the wildflowers will have seeded, and the cuttings removed so that they do not enrich the soil. One of these areas is the only place on this common where orchids grow; common spotted, pyramidical, man. The common is an acid environment, sited on Blackheath gravel, and it is thought that the concrete gun emplacements of the second world war created the alkaline soil that these plants require.

Open grassland in the southern section of Hayes Common. 8 May 2011.

This end of the common still has plenty of woodland, including some apple trees probably left by the people who were temporarily housed here after World War II.

At one point there is a stand of scots pines, very common in this area and almost certainly all planted by earlier landowners as decorative features.

Returning to the start point we saw on the path through the original open area a patch of bare soil full of the holes made by solitary bees.

Knowing these are here, I always walk around them, though ironically, if the soil were not compressed and the grass cleared by regular walkers, the bees would not be able to live there.

There were many other insects on the common, too. We saw a couple of nice butterflies; a brimstone, bright sulphur yellow, and a brown-and-white speckled wood.

Unidentified insect — a bug — in an arm hair forest.  Hayes Common, 8 May 2011.

This caterpillar came home unnoticed on my shirt. Hayes Common, 8 May 2011.