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.