Nature Conservation Lewisham

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Bug Day at Sydenham Hill Wood – Thursday 27 July, 11am-2pm

Honey Bee on ragwort (©Daniel Greenwood)

Honey Bee on ragwort (©Daniel Greenwood)

A family-friendly day to celebrate the amazing invertebrates that are so vital to our world

Join the London Wildlife Trust for this family event to celebrate the weird and wonderful insects that are so important to Sydenham Hill Wood and the ecosystems we depend on for survival.

If you love bees, butterflies, dragonflies, beetles, bugs and slugs, you will love bug day!

We’ll be leading pond dipping sessions to discover the wild world underneath the surface of the Dewy Pond, searching for beetles and creepy crawlies under logs, and identifying butterflies and bees in the Wood’s sunny glades.

Venue Location

Sydenham Hill Wood and Cox’s Walk,
Southwark,
Greater London,
SE26 6LS

Grid reference
TQ344725


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Butterfly Walk, Sydenham Hill Woods – Sunday 23 July, 2pm-4pm

Comma butterfly on bindweed

Comma butterfly © Daniel Greenwood

 

A guided butterfly walk in Sydenham Hill Wood

Please note booking is essential for this event

Join the London Wildlife Trust’s Sydenham Hill Wood volunteer Emma Pooley for a guided walk looking at the range of butterflies that can be found in an urban woodland.

Sydenham Hill Wood is a mixture of ancient and secondary woodland with large, sunny glades where butterflies bask, feed and breed in the spring and summer months. We are likely to encounter speckled wood, comma, peacock, red admiral, skippers and whites. This walk is also an opportunity to raise awareness of bees, moths, dragonflies and all the other invertebrates which play such a vital role in the ecosystems we depend on for a healthy environment.

The weather is key in the success of this walk. If there is prolonged rain, thunderstorms or high winds the walk will be postponed to a later date.

Please bring clothing suitable for the conditions (sun hat, sun cream and water if needed) as well as footwear suitable for uneven paths and gentle inclines.

This is a free walk, a minimum donation of £2 towards our work is recommended

If you love Sydenham Hill Wood please help us protect it in the long term by becoming a London Wildlife Trust member


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Friends of Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries open day 9 July 2017

FOBLC poster

The Friends of Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries (FoBLC) is this year celebrating the 10th anniversary of its formation.  Over the last few years FoBLC has held an Open Day within the cemetery to promote this beautiful, peaceful and historic Victorian landscape – leading tours of the cemetery, mounting an exhibition giving information on the history of the cemetery, its memorials, famous persons interred there, current and future conservation work, its flora and fauna. We also sell refreshments and publications. The aim is to enable visitors to gain an insight into the history of the cemetery, discover its beauty and its importance to the Brockley and Ladywell environs.


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New Nature’s Gym Programme, July-September 2017

Baxter’s Fields

The new Nature’s Gym programme is now available!  There are a few new sites on there and a couple of favourites, so hopefully there is something for everyone. Please note that if you have not been before, have a read through our FAQ to see if this is the right project for you. Here you will also find out what you need to do to take part in one of our events. You can also have a look at the Nature’s Gym page where you will find a lot more information. If you still have questions about the project, please feel free to contact us and we will be happy to help.


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Bat, Moth and Owl Prowl, Sydenham Hill Wood, Friday 7 July, 9pm-11pm

2016_04_11 LWT pipistrelle bat ©LWT

Pipistrelle bat © London Wildlife Trust

Guided bat walk in Sydenham Hill Wood

Meet at the Crescent Wood Road entrance.

Join the London Wildlife Trust for a guided walk of Sydenham Hill Wood to discover bats, moths and tawny owls. Using bat detectors, our site warden and volunteers will reveal a hidden, nocturnal world in urban south London.

Sydenham Hill Wood is part ancient woodland, one of the largest remaining fragments of the Great North Wood which once stretched from Deptford to Selhurst. The following species have been recorded at the Wood: soprano pipistrelle, common pipisrelle, nathusius pipistrelle, brown long-eared, natterer’s, Leisler’s, noctule and serotine.

Tawny owls are known to breed in the Wood and the local area and can be heard calling in daylight hours as well as in the deep of night. Males call ‘twoo’ and females ‘ke-wick’.

We will have a moth trap in the main glade to exhibit some of the many beautiful species which can be found in the Wood.

This is a free walk, a minimum donation of £2 towards our work is recommended

If you love Sydenham Hill Wood please help us protect it in the long term by becoming a London Wildlife Trust member.

Venue location

Meet inside the Crescent Wood Road gate,
Sydenham Hill Wood and Cox’s Walk,
Southwark,
Greater London,
SE26 6LS

Grid reference
TQ344725


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Wildflower Walk Sunday 25 June, 2pm-4pm

Red Campion ©Daniel Greenwood

Red Campion ©Daniel Greenwood

Guided walk looking at the diverse plant communities in this urban secondary/ancient woodland.

Please note booking is essential for this event

Join the Sydenham Hill Wood Conservation Officer and our volunteers for a guided wildflower walk. Please note this is not a foraging event. The Wood is a remnant of the once vast Great North Wood which stretched from Deptford to Selhurst, a wildwood that colonised the landscape after the end of the Ice Age 10,000 years ago.

The Wood has undergone much change and disturbance in the past 150 years meaning that the plant communities have changed and adapted to the conditions enforced upon them by man. Many of the Wood’s most common plants are colonisers of disturbed ground. The now closed Crystal Palace High Level railway allowed for the arrival of spectacular plants like rosebay willowherb, which is a mainstay of the Wood’s main glade in summer.

Attendees require no knowledge prior to the walk but an appreciation of conservation and the pressures on urban wildlife are important to bear in mind. Wildflowers are threatened at the Wood by trampling in sensitive areas, nutrification from dog fouling and the impacts of thoughtless foraging. These are all topics which will be discussed during the walk.

For your own safety please wear clothing suitable for the conditions, including sturdy footwear.

If there is inclement weather the walk will be postponed to a later date.

This is a free walk, donations to London Wildlife Trust are welcome.

Details

Location:  Inside the Crescent Wood Road entrance by the notice board,
Sydenham HIll Wood, London, London, SE15 4EE

Contact: Daniel Greewood -Tel: 0207 252 9186 email – dgreenwood@wildlondon.org.uk