To mark Butterfly Conservation’s annual Big Butterfly Count we were delighted to host Simon Saville of their SW London branch to talk (virtually) about what species to expect on the Common and where. Inspired by his talk we went to the Scope and found lots we hadn’t seen before - ringlets, skippers, green-veined whites and the comma - more here than on Box Hill a few days earlier. Get out there and start counting.

At the end of the month we were very pleased to open Wandsworth’s ‘Love Parks’ month - celebrating our lovely greenspaces that we’ve all come to appreciate better during lockdown. We know we’re a Common, not a park, but we decided to stretch a point for the opportunity to pile 140 bags of litter - mostly recyclable - in front of the huge pink ‘Love Parks’ letters. We were delighted to have Plogolution with us. Together we had around 50 people litter picking, adding to the haul we’d collected over a couple of previous events. The idea was to show how many recyclables can be collected across the whole Common in a single day. A drop in the ocean of course compared to what the professionals from idverde collect on a daily basis.

A total of 8 local councillors came along to help, including Cllr Sutters who has Cabinet responsibility for open spaces and litter. We had terrific organisational support from Enable and idverde which we’re very grateful for. THANKYOU to all the volunteers who came along to help make the day such a success.

Earlier in the month we were delighted to start weekly litter picks - Thursdays 10-11 - with a biodiversity focus. We provide the volunteers and equipment while Enable provide Annabel to organise. This means we can mount more regular picks, not constrained by our personal availability. We’re very grateful to Enable for listening to our needs. If you’d like to join one e-mail: litterati@wandsworthcommon.org