We were delighted to welcome back mycologist Fabrice Boltho from SLBI who entertained us with a marathon fungus foray. You might have noticed there seems much more fungus around this year - a result of the damp summer. Fabrice’s enthusiasm held the attention of over a dozen people for 3 hours and uncovered over 30 different fabulous species.

His walk marked the final piece of the jigsaw as we’ve built back our nature walks programme - birds, butterflies, flowers and trees. This month’s bird walks identified almost 40 different species including a kestrel, green woodpecker, coal tit and the first autumn migrants - redwing and siskin.

Our weekly litter picks continue (Mondays 10-11am), with some useful new kit - two types of long handled litter pickers, great for picking litter out of the lake. The recycling pilot scheme is also going well with 7.5 tonnes of recyclables collected in just six weeks

After the phenomenal success of our book (almost 1,200 copies sold), the Heritage group has been formally constituted as a subgroup of FoWC with Stephen Midlane as chair and Sue Demont secretary. New projects will include an expanded walks and talks programme, more information on the Common itself about its heritage, and an oral history project to ensure peoples’ memories of the Common are not lost. Get in touch if you’re interested in helping deliver any of these.