So a small number of the green spaces I’ve visited have been closed. There’s a different challenge with Farm Bog on Wimbledon Common – it’s very difficult to find. I resort to trying out a number of small paths which go south from Robin Hood ride and seem to be going in the direction of […]

Hillcrest Wood is on the other side of Sydenham Hill ridge from Sydenham Hill Wood and is where the the old rail line to the Crystal Palace emerges from the tunnel.  This small but precious green space narrowly escaped development in 2018 when Lewisham Council in the from of Lewisham Homes withdrew a planning application […]

I’m back to my local patch for number 26 and it’s the perfect time to enjoy the deep pink spikes of Rosebay Willowherb flowering alongside the old railway bed. This feels appropriate as I see it so often growing along rail tracks in this part of London. A nickname for this flower is Bombweed as […]

I’ve been down to the church tower a few times over the last week, but didn’t get a glimpse of the kestrels nesting there until Friday when I was without binoculars and camera. I thought I could just make out an adult and two young ones. This morning I set off down Cox’s Walk to […]

This is the last site on my tour east across the North Downs. The golf course spreads along a narrow chalky valley and above the greens, the rough really is rough. We work our way through the woods on the ridge until I find a narrow path through the hedge down onto the rough grass. […]

We visit more chalk grasslands today further east along the North Downs.  Riddlesdown was the most westerly on my list of sites to visit this month, then Hutchinson’s Bank and now Saltbox Hill. After parking in a strangely quiet housing estate, we follow a footpath between houses and into a small woodland. Despite the heat […]

Steep steps lead up to a glorious chalk meadow and thankfully, given how hot it is, there are lots of shady patches round the edges. I spot common and greater knapweed, agrimony, yellow rattle, hedge and lady’s bedstraw, quaking grass, perforate St John’s wort, kidney vetch, pyramidal orchid and goatsbeard… and hundreds of marbled white […]

A KINGFISHER! I’ve just set off along the River Wandle from Wilderness Island to Spencer Road Wetlands when I see it fishing from a curved branch.  It’s not a great photo as I don’t have my birding lens with me… but amazing to see this in such a built up area. I stay there long […]

Leaving urban Hackbridge Road behind me, I follow a footpath along the River Wandle to the entrance of the reserve.  It’s the perfect day for visiting a shady river-bounded reserve. The understory plants includes green alkanet (pictured), bittersweet (aka woody nightshade), hemlock water dropwort, a plant in the mint family I can’t identify and a […]