September round-up: Sustainable September

Many of our events this month were badged under the Council’s ‘Sustainable September’ theme, which highlights the various eco/green initiatives taking place around the borough.

We began with one of our regular ‘Moth Mornings’ where Richard and Laila Tillet identify and record the moths that have been attracted into our moth trap overnight, before releasing them back into the wild. You can see Richard explaining the process on our Instagram feed @wwcommon.

Our hugely successful second Dog Show attracted over 300 entrants and also contained a sustainability message. Two of the local vets involved collaborated on a leaflet to educate dog owners about the hazards of dog flea treatment to other wildlife and what owners can do in response. You can read more about this and the show, including images from the day, on the dog section of our website.

The ‘heavy horses’ finally came to Wandsworth Common, to mow the grass, bale the hay and spread wildflower seeds. This more traditional form of habitat management was introduced elsewhere in the borough a few years ago and Enable, with strong encouragement from FoWC, brought them to the Common on two occasions, attracting lots of interested onlookers and volunteers to help with the baling. You can watch a video clip here.

Vicky Smith, who runs a local sustainable travel agency, gave an interesting and energising talk with many examples of tourism which gives back to local communities and nature. Definitely worth a view on the ‘videos’ section of our website.

Greg  Packman returned for another of his fascinating tree walks on the Common, while we ended the month with our most popular ever bat walk with 30 people enjoying the aerial display at dusk before the bats start to hibernate. We also concluded another very successful bowls season with some very well attended sessions at the end of the month. Can’t wait to see you at Easter!!   

August round-up: Group bagging and a party

We were very pleased to hold our first group duck food bagging session in five years!! These used to be a monthly occurrence, and very enjoyable, but we had to stop them when Covid struck. Instead we moved to home bagging, with individuals or small groups doing bagging at home. Now we will do both. We held this group session now because we needed to build up a stock to cope with fluctuating demand. Everyone was very clear we should make them a regular feature, so we will probably do them quarterly. Get in touch if you’d like to be involved - just a couple of hours of easy work, accompanied by chat and a coffee break. What’s not to like?!

We held our annual summer party in the courtyard of Le Gothique this year. A surprising number of people have never been inside the gigantic Victorian building - the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building- in the middle of the Common.  With a delicious BBQ and accompanying jazz band as well, a very good time was had by all. The annual party started as a thank you to our volunteers but is now extended to all our members.

Nick Rutter’s latest bird walk was timed at the beginning of the autumn migration when, as Nick says, you never know what might turn up. This walk clocked 30 species, including a willow warbler and green woodpecker, not to mention a young toad.

July round-up: Boundary Oak loses a limb

One of the oldest trees on the Common - the so-called ‘boundary oak’ because of its position on the border of Battersea and Wandsworth parishes - and at least 250 years old, became a victim of ‘sudden branch drop’. The prolonged dry weather will have weakened the tree and then the sudden deluge caused water to rise up the trunk very quickly, increasing the weight on the weakened branch. Very sad, as it was such a distinctive and popular tree. Fortunately, the tree team have pronounced the rest of the tree safe and after some judicious pruning and the application of a large amount of mulch, the tree is still there to be enjoyed, hopefully for many more years to come (image courtesy of Lewis MoF).

We tried a couple of new-style events in July.

Nick Rutter, one of our birding experts and walk leader, decided that given that summer is a fairly quiet time for birds, he’d do a more general nature ramble instead, adding bugs, butterflies, dragonflies and wildflowers to his usual offering. Popular as always so we’ll look to repeat it next year.

And we put on a storytelling for children as part of the London Borough of Culture events, hosted by Karima Mohideen. Some lovely stories about dancing trees, the first tree huggers, a cross pumpkin to name but a few. The audience of children and adults were very happy so we’ll look to repeat that too.

We also repeated two of our most popular Heritage events: Sue Delafons and Stephen Midlane’s tour de force telling of the story of PY Betts, whose novel ‘ People Who Say Goodbye’ wrote about life around the Common during WWI; and Sue Demont’s tour of St Mary’s cemetery to examine ‘The Victorian Way of Dying’.

June round-up: Information Boards launch

We launched our information boards project with three Heritage themed boards: one near Skylark, one near the Three-Island pond and one on Northside. A fourth on the Scope will be ready later in the year. A collaboration with Enable, with the original idea going back over a decade. You can read more about the project HERE

Elsewhere, the Wandsworth Heritage Festival opened including three contributions from FoWC: a talk & film and a also a tour of the listed Fitzhugh Estate complex on the edge of the Common and another showing of our film Common Memories. Both of these can be watched in the video section of our website.

Finally, Roy Vickery returned to the Prison Banks for another of his wonderful wildflower talks. The area is a hotspot for flowers and butterflies and shouldn’t be missed.

May round-up: Bats about the AGM

May is the month we mark our birthday – our 7th this year – and hold our AGM – an opportunity to review what we’ve achieved and look forward to the coming year’s activities.

We maximise participation of our 850 members by holding a hybrid meeting which is also recorded. So you can watch a recording HERE and see the slides HERE.

In the past year we held our usual full programme of walks and talks on nature and heritage themes. We had great success with our social bowls sessions, which saw on average a dozen people play at each session. We’re also pleased to have helped bring pilates and yoga back to Naturescope and introduce outdoor Qi Gong classes to the Common. Another highlight of the year was our first ever dog show in September, which we’ll be repeating this year. We also held a successful quiz night themed on Wandsworth Common.

The Heritage group remain very active and is gathering more and more material on the Lost Houses of Wandsworth Common. Another enterprise is the acquisition of a collection of over 900 old postcards of Wandsworth Common and its surrounds, which we aim to display digitally in the coming year.

So there‘s a lot going on and we welcome anyone who’s willing to help us fulfil our mission to engage users in the protection and preservation of Wandsworth Common. To that end we also had a useful Q&A about the proposed changes to the Council’s events policy which attracted considerable interest.

May also sees the annual Beating of the Bounds of Battersea, organised by the Battersea Society and supported by FoWC. We gather for refreshments and stories under the ancient boundary oak on the border of Battersea and Wandsworth parishes which runs through Wandsworth Common.

May also sees our first bat walk of the year which this year confirmed last year’s sighting of the quite rare Serotine bat – making it the 7th bat species found on the Common. Our citizen scientists continue to monitor our bats on a regular basis if you’d like to join them at twilight.

April round up: Bowls season opens

The bowling season opened with our first social bowls session of the year. These are open to all abilities where new players can just give it a go and more seasoned players can have a game. Complete beginners receive basic tuition from our friendly hosts. Sessions continue throughout the season until September: Fridays 5.30 - 7.30 with drinks and nibbles available for a small donation; Sundays 3.30-5.30 with tea/biscuits/drinks. No need to book. GIVE IT A GO.

Our Heritage group continued its series of talks presenting its research into the Lost House and Gardens of Wandsworth Common. This latest session covered Nightingale Lane: Wilby Lodge, Stanton House, Ravenslea and Fernside. We’re considering how to make our findings more widely available.

Our regular monthly bird walks continue with some unusual spring migrants being spotted, including warblers and whitethroats. and the delightful blackcaps and chaffinches. Our summer programme has also started up again with a wildflower walk with Roy Vickery and the first moth trapping mornings hosted by Richard and Laila Tillett.

March round-up: New glade on the Scope

We marked World Recycling Day with a talk by Alice Stevens, Education Officer for Wandsworth Riverside Waste Authority (WRWA) at Smugglers Way. Loads of questions from a very keen audience about what should and shouldn’t be in our recycling sacks (see the A to Z on their website). We also talked about recycling on the Common. We’re hoping the new Groundworks contract, awarded to Krinkels, will introduce more appropriate, better looking and better located bins on the Common as part of their new contract. But make no mistake, our recycling is handled properly and sent to reprocessing sites all over the UK and Europe. By contrast, general waste is shipped down the river for incineration, meaning a lot of recyclable material is lost.

Our regular Monday morning litter picks separate out recyclables - mainly cans and bottles. About half is recyclable but around half the total waste is single use coffee cups which, despite what they say, are neither compostable nor recyclable, except in special facilities. So Alice’s clear advice was always to use a keep-cup. You get a discount at Skylark if you do!!

Our volunteers were busy again, implementing an Enable project to create a new glade in the middle of the Scope, in an area where two large trees have been substantially reduced. The debris was cleared and the new clearing protected by a dead hedge and habitat piles. Look out for what flora and fauna are attracted to the new habitat. Several bat boxes have been erected which we’ll be keeping an eye on.

Another month, another bird walk, identifying 31 species including a pochard duck, a gaggle of mandarins and the first brood of Egyptian goslings. Get your binos out to spot the incoming spring migrants. It’s even more important at this time of the year to keep your dogs on a lead and out of the water with the nesting season in full swing.

We reprised the RVPB film shown during our tour of the RVPB in January. If you missed it, as we now have a copy, we hope to be able to put on more showings in the future.

February round-up: Walk, Talk, Volunteering and a Quiz

Despite the weather, February was busy both outdoors and in. We began the month with the second of Julia Bott’s talks on exercise, encouraging people to act on their New Year resolutions and get out on the Common to exercise. Julia’s talk, the Myths & Magic of Movement & Mobility, can be found, as with all our talks, in the News & Events section of the website.

We headed outdoors for the first tree walk of the year, led by Enable’s Liam Hutton. We began by the three newly planted black poplars – 2 from Barnes Common and one from a cutting from our own pure (non-hybrid) black poplar. Black poplars are amongst the rarest of our native trees and we’re trying to replace the ones that have been lost in recent storms. Then we heard about the fastigiate oak, the invasive turkey oak, ash dieback – fortunately not a major problem for Wandsworth Common - the alder and its habit of taking over small ponds, and many others. As well as admiring the trees, it’s always good for our members to be introduced to the people who look after our trees.

The longer days bring more wildlife activity and we ran two of our regular bird walks with Nick Rutter and Barbara Littlechild. We also completed our final woodland litter clear up of the season, before the birds and invertebrates start nesting. Enable also organised a clean out of the Three-Island Pond for our volunteers – always a popular job – hard work but great fun.

Last but not least we put on a very successful quiz at the Althorp pub. Around 50 people turned out and really entered into the spirit of our Wandsworth Common themed quiz. A great success, to be repeated next year.

January round-up: New Year Events

The year began with our usual ‘Walk off the Wine’ event led by Trevor Morris. But this year’s was different, taking us to the new Springfield Park, just a stone’s throw from the Common. A record turnout of people were impressed by the extensive space, its landscaping and tree scape and facilities still to come, notably the outdoor events auditorium and the cafe.

Another first was a tour and film show at the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building, led by the owner of Le Gothique restaurant Mark Justin. Mark was able to show us parts of the building not usually open to the public, such as the great hall which displays shields commemorating the original donors to the Patriotic Fund in 1857. Mark was an excellent and entertaining guide and also provided a delicious lunch in the restaurant, followed by a showing of a film of the RVPB’s history made by Simon McNeill-Ritchie. The event was one of our most popular yet and we hope to repeat it later in the year.

Events were a major topic of discussion in January after Enable submitted an application to hold bigger and more frequent events on the Common. The proposal met with a huge public outcry and has now been dropped.

Finally, Enable’s habitat management volunteer sessions resumed with a team pruning, weedling and mulching the hedges and shrubs planted in recent years on St Marks triangle and St Mary’s cemetery. they are looking very healthy and proving to be a great source of new habitat to encourage biodiversity. These monthly sessions offer something for everyone who likes to get their hands dirty outdoors.

December round-up: Three black poplars & a Water Rail

Festive outdoor activities included another volunteer session planting trees and shrubs around the edges of the area between the cinder track and the railway. This will improve biodiversity by creating habitat and connectivity to other areas of the Common. We now know this works as bat sightings have increased above areas that have been planted on the Bolingbroke side of the Common. Two more black poplars were planted in the same area making three in total for these rarest of our native trees. These latest specimens were grown by Enable’s tree team from cuttings of a pure (genetically tested) black poplar in the Skylark playground. You’ll see the saplings protected behind picket fencing. 

Nick Rutter’s last birdwalk of the year identified over 40 species and brought Nick’s annual tally close to a record for the Common. His tally increased just before Christmas as he spotted a rare Water Rail skulking at the edge of the lake by the stone bridge. That brings his annual total to 86 – equalling the Common’s record. Barbara Littlechild meanwhile has spotted a rare firecrest.  

The Heritage group raised over £1,000 from the sale of donated prints from Ron Elam’s collection, part of which we now own. This will help finance the cost of digitisation and cataloguing in 2025. Members of the Lost Houses project team presented their findings about the houses that once stood on the edge of the Common near where Burntwood Grange and Collamore roads are now.  

November round-up: Trees, fungi & bats

November is always busy on the Common as it marks the start of the tree planting season and lots of other ‘winter work’. We held one of our regular tree walks to catch the peak of autumn colour. Although many of the Common’s native trees don’t have spectacular colours, many non natives do including Norway maple, red oaks, gingkos, liquidambar and the smoke tree. Around the bowling green is a particular hot spot. We also held a family friendly tree walk around the pond which was a lot of fun for kids and adults alike. 

Fungi are appearing in profusion and our walks, led by Enable’s biodiversity specialists, are always very popular. This year we arranged 3 to satisfy demand. Species identified included jelly ears, common stinkhorn, dead man’s finger and a rarity – the scarlet wax cap – only found on acidic unimproved soil. That was unexpected but a good sign. 

Bats are starting to hibernate but not our bat experts. They presented the results of the Citizen Science project our volunteers carried out over spring/summer. We knew there were at least 4 bat species on the Common but they found another 3 – Nathusius’ pipistrelle, Daubenton’s and the very rare Serotine. Our two areas of mini forest were key hotspots which demonstrates the importance of habitat. And to encourage the bats to spread to areas where they’re less evident, the volunteer planting team, under the expert watch of Mick from Enable, have already done a huge planting session - 400 tree and shrub whips in a dozen areas on the grassy area between the railway line and the cinder triak, easily identifiable by the mulched areas. More to come in December [e-mail: parksvolunteers@enablelc.org] 

As the foliage starts to die back we are able to send our litterati volunteers deeper into the woodland without risk of disturbing nesting birds and invertebrates. We’ll hold another in the New Year.  

Finally, our Heritage group remain busy, marking Armistice day with a talk on the wartime use of the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building as a hospital for war wounded soldiers. We also showed our ‘Common Memories’ film at a local care home. And the third reprint of our book ‘The Wandsworth Common Story’ was delivered in time for Christmas. When that’s fully sold our sales will have topped 3,000!! Amazing. You can pick up a copy at Skylark, Neals Nurseries or on our website.

October round-up: Craig telescope

The Craig telescope was built on the Common in 1852 ahead of the Great Exhibition. Unfortunately it never met the aspirations of its designer and engineer and worked imperfectly for only a short period. Nothing is left of it today except the name, given to the so-called ‘Scope’ area of the Common (see our heritage trail) where it stood. Greg Smye-Rumsby gave one of our first ever talks after the launch of the Friends in 2018. He has an encyclopaedic website about the telescope and we welcomed him back to speak to some old and some new faces. You can read more on his website and there’s a section devoted to the telescope in our book. Our film of his talk is in the usual place on our website.

It’s the time of year when you never know what bird you’ll find on the Common as the winter migrants start arriving or just passing through. Barbara Littlechild hosted another of her popular birdwalks and found more species on the Common (30) than in her subsequent walk in Richmond Park. We must be doing something right. Birds spotted included nuthatch, coal tit, jay, mistle thrush, woodpecker and of course, after the walk had ended, a goldcrest, little grebe and buzzard. Barbara also spotted a rare firecrest recently. As a member of the Friends you get exclusive invites to all our walks which are not advertised more widely because of our large membership. 

It’s been a busy month for meetings, with not only a routine Friends committee but also meetings with the Council about the new contracts for managing the Common and also the future of the Neals Lodge complex in the middle of the Common above Skylark cafe. Watch this space. 

September round-up: Dog Show/Sustainable September

We can’t quite believe it but we organised our first, and hugely successful, DOG SHOW at the beginning of the month. We’d been thinking about doing this for a while, prompted by the huge increase in dog ownership since the pandemic and the need to engage with owners. We’ve been very fortunate to meet Rebecca Byrne of SuperDog London who has provided huge canine expertise and know how based on her successful local training business. We also couldn’t have done it without the massive support from Enable’s Events team who did a lot of the heavy lifting. Then we must thank all our sponsors, for their fabulous prizes, our judges, exhibitors – including two vets and the Council’s Animal Welfare Team - and last but not least our volunteers.  

We had over 200 entries in 10 different classes and were really pleased with the enthusiasm, excitement and pure joy of the many owners and spectators who took part. Indeed, so successful was the event that we’re going to have to do it again next year!!  

We hosted a number of events under the Council’s ‘Sustainable September’ banner including a talk on sustainability from Mike Burton, a member and local expert in sustainable finance; our first insect walk, led by Connor Butler of the Chelsea Physic Garden; and our last bat walk of the year, led by Iain Boulton – all very well attended and much enjoyed. We tried to make the dog show as sustainable as possible too, with the vets informing owners of the problem caused by over use of anti flea treatments, which if they get into ponds, lakes and water courses have a devastating effect on insect life. Watch this video clip from BBC Spring Watch and a guide from a local vet on how to respond

The bowls season came to a close with our final event - a birthday bowls bash with almost 20 of us on the green. The season has been the most successful ever with over 400 players at various time for a total of almost 40 sessions. As well as showing that the green is well used, it has generated a revenue stream which will help fund the upkeep of the green and hopefully a bit of investment for next season too.   

The month ended with a well-attended talk by Sue Demont about the history of the Bolingbroke Hospital – formerly one of the Five houses of Bolingbroke Grove and now Bolingbroke Academy. You can catch it, along with all our previous talks, here. 

We, the MAC and our fellow greenspace groups elsewhere in the borough have spent a lot of time trying to understand the implications of the Council’s decision to transfer various service from Enable ‘in house’. These include the entire tree team, the monitoring of the ground maintenance contract (currently held by Continental Landscapes)  and biodiversity strategy. We’re now in discussions with the Council to make sure that the proactive, responsive and ultimately hugely effective Parks team are able to continue working with us as the Enable contract is revised and extended.  

August round-up: Summer Party

Every year we thank our amazing volunteers for their efforts by throwing a party. Last year, we started opening the party to everyone on a ticketed basis so we have an opportunity to get to know as many of our members as possible. Over 80 came along this year in what is becoming an enjoyable annual fixture.

Elsewhere we had Big Butterfly Count events and were pleased to have sightings of the hairstreaks we’re trying to encourage to the Common with dedicated habitat management And at the end of the month our bird walk leaders Nick and Barbara hosted not one but three bird walks, including one aimed at families. Booked out as usual and enjoyed by all who attended. Thank you to them

July round-up: Green flag award

The weather finally improved enough to run our first butterfly walk of the year. Not such a prolific count as last year but 10 species nonetheless including the less commonly observed green veined white and large and small skippers. Thanks to the Tillets for organising it and the moth mornings, which are welcome additions to the Common’s wildlife monitoring. The new bat transects are also proving popular with volunteers.

Sue Demont repeated her walk around St Mary’s cemetery with another full house. The ‘Victorian Way of Dying’ proves ever popular as this is the third of these walks for us.

Another of our local historians, Cathy Rowntree, former archivist of Honeywell school, described Honeywell Schools in the 1930s including fascinating memories of evacuation. Air raid wardens' reports and eye witness accounts also told the story of the V1 bomb disaster in June 1944 and its repercussions. 

Finally, we’re pleased to announce that Wandsworth Common has received the Green Flag award for another year, a great tribute to all those that help look after it. 

June round-up: Trees & Mindfulness

Some new and some more familiar events this month.

We began with a walk on ‘trees and ecology’ by Greg Packman, from the Royal Parks arboriculture section, explaining the habitat provided by trees for invertebrates - dead wood provides its own special habitat. One surprise, as we looked at the affectionately named boundary oak at the edge of Bellevue Field, was Greg’s estimate that this tree is at least 250 years old - which makes it much the oldest on the Common.

Walks on the Common are always very relaxing and Anja Myrsep, a professional physiotherapist and mindfulness coach, explained the meaning of ‘mindfulness’ and how the Common is an excellent place to experience the calming effects of nature. You can enjoy her talk, alongside all our past talks here.

Local historian Sue Demont repeated her walk in St Mary’s cemetery explaining ‘The Victorian Way of Dying’. Indeed, it was so popular that she will repeat it later in July. Meanwhile, Roy Vickery ran another of his ever popular wildflower walks, this time on the Prison Banks which always surprises people as a hotspot of biodiversity.

The MAC (Management Advisory Committee) held its Annual Public Meeting - an opportunity to quiz the mangers of the Common and the Parks Police. Proceedings of the meeting are available here

May round-up: Bowls season opens & AGM

The opening of the bowls season has been a key focus in May. We host ‘social bowls’ sessions on Fridays at 5.30 - 7.30pm and Sundays at 3-5pm. They’re open to anyone - singles or groups - and there’s no need to book. No experience required as we have informal tutoring on hand, followed by friendly games to practice your technique. Your first session is free, thereafter £5 per session. Tea & biscuits & wine/beer & nibbles are on offer for a small donation. All very sociable. Attendance is encouraging with 10-15 people per session.

A lot of effort has been put into getting the green in better shape this year and it’s looking great, thanks to Enable and Continental Landscapes, urged on by Lewis from the MAC. Help us keep the last remaining public bowling green in Wandsworth by coming along and playing.  You’ll enjoy it!!

Our AGM took place mid month, our annual opportunity to meet and report to our members what we’ve been up to. We held a hybrid session this year which worked faultlessly thanks to our A/V expert John Crossland. 40 attended in person, another dozen on line and almost 20 more have watched the recording, which you can see here. 

Our first bat walk of the year was as popular as ever and was informed by data from the monthly bat transect walks our volunteers are now involved in. 

Sarah Webley hosted a very popular family tree walk which conveyed lots of fascinating facts in just an hour, including with a session of Tree Top Trumps. Great fun.

As part of this year’s Wandsworth Heritage Festival, local historian Philip Boys related stories from the Surrey Pauper Lunatic Asylum, the site of the former Springfield Hospital. Most of the original patients were women but in some cases all the records that remain are photographs, including some very famous and poignant ones. Philip also very cleverly showed how the marketing material for the recently built luxury flats highlights some of the original architectural features which have been retained.

April round-up: Lots happening on the Common

April saw our outdoor events spring into life with a new walk on ‘geology and landscape’, a look at some spring wildflowers and the first of this year’s heritage walks. Talks included one about our local moths and a heritage talk about the Five Lost Houses of Bolingbroke Grove. Our bat and hedgehog monitoring projects, with Enable, also took off, with several new bat species identified (six in all) and signs of hedgehog activity for the second year in a row.

Dr Iain Boulton led a fascinating walk about the Common’s geology and how what’s underground affects what you see on the surface. There’s a huge 50m thick slab of London Clay just 5m down, under the gravel, with only a very thin layer of topsoil at the surface. That’s what makes the Common so wet - it’s always been like that - and why gravel pits, now made into our lovely lake - were dug.

It also determines the trees and flowers we see above ground as shown by Roy Vickery’s popular spring wildflower walk. Our heritage trail explained how bits of the Common, which because of the poor soil were no good for agriculture, came to be sold off and how efforts to ‘Save the Common’ culminated in Buckmaster’s campaign and the Wandsworth Common Act in 1871. Read about it in ‘The Wandsworth Common Story’ or buy our self guided walk at Skylark.

Les Evans-Hill of Butterfly Conservation and Richard Tillett, the Common’s moth recorder, explained what moths can be seen on the Common, some in the day time but some only with the help of a moth trap which is lit overnight and then opened in the morning. Look out for one of our ‘Moth Mornings’ later in the year.

Our heritage group have been hard at work and summarised their research into the Five Lost Houses of Bolingbroke Grove - where exactly they were, who lived in them and what they looked like. Very few signs remain but the three speakers brought these magnificent lost houses to life again. All our talks are recorded and can be watched on our website

Last but not least, our social bowls sessions began at the end of the month. It was too wet to play but over 20 people turned up for our opening reception and demo thanks to some of our keener, more regular players. Come and give it a go on Sunday afternoons - 3-5pm. First session free - £5 thereafter. No experience required and all equipment provided (flat soled shoes only please)

March round-up: Making space for nature

This month’s talk was entitled ‘Wild Spaces - making space for nature’, given by Simon Saville of Butterfly Conservation also a London National Park City Ranger. He explained what many organisations are trying to do to encourage people to plant for wildlife by leaving parts of their gardens less manicured but more floriferous and therefore more attractive to pollinators. Not paving over gardens is also helpful in preserving habitat and preventing water runoff, flooding and pollution. Gardens and window boxes can make a huge contribution to making space for nature.

On the Common, our volunteers are helping Enable with two citizen science projects: one to monitor the Common’s bat population and another to identify any hedgehog activity. 

Our birders have noticed several new species on the Common. This is the time of year when spring migrants start to arrive, and some very uncommon visitors have been recorded, including Cetti’s warbler and the wheatear. The month ended with another of our regular bird walks, recording almost 40 species , including sparrowhawk. 

The tree planting season has come to an end with 51 new trees on the Common, five of them funded by the Friends. Attention will now turn to watering them.

February round-up: Spring into action

Early in the month a very well attended talk by Philip Boys heard stories from the memoirs of war poet Edward Thomas and his wife Helen, who both lived near the Common, about their life on and around the Common at the end of the 19th century. 

Later in the month a few of our Heritage group were treated to a view of the nursery rhyme tiled friezes in the former Bolingbroke Hospital childrens’ ward (now the ARK Bolingbroke Academy library). It’s amazing how easily the words to Humpty Dumpty and Jack and Jill still trip off the tongue!

Exciting news from the Common itself - a newt has been spotted, the first for a long time. It was very timely therefore that this month’s Tuesday volunteer session built a dead hedge around the amphibian pool to create and improve habitat. Looking forward to more sightings as spring gets under way.

We ended the month with a spring in our steps after a talk by physio Julia Bott on the Myths and Magic of Movement and Mobility. This taught us why exercise is so important for us and why it’s never too late to start. The more the better. A definite must see. By popular request there will be a follow up talk on how best to exercise. Julia was instrumental in encouraging the Over 60s Fitness classes on the Common run by Open Air Fit that are so popular. 

All are talks are filmed and can be watched at the News and Events section of our website