Despite the weather, February was busy both outdoors and in. We began the month with the second of Julia Bott’s talks on exercise, encouraging people to act on their New Year resolutions and get out on the Common to exercise. Julia’s talk, the Myths & Magic of Movement & Mobility, can be found, as with all our talks, in the News & Events section of the website.

We headed outdoors for the first tree walk of the year, led by Enable’s Liam Hutton. We began by the three newly planted black poplars – 2 from Barnes Common and one from a cutting from our own pure (non-hybrid) black poplar. Black poplars are amongst the rarest of our native trees and we’re trying to replace the ones that have been lost in recent storms. Then we heard about the fastigiate oak, the invasive turkey oak, ash dieback – fortunately not a major problem for Wandsworth Common - the alder and its habit of taking over small ponds, and many others. As well as admiring the trees, it’s always good for our members to be introduced to the people who look after our trees.

The longer days bring more wildlife activity and we ran two of our regular bird walks with Nick Rutter and Barbara Littlechild. We also completed our final woodland litter clear up of the season, before the birds and invertebrates start nesting. Enable also organised a clean out of the Three-Island Pond for our volunteers – always a popular job – hard work but great fun.

Last but not least we put on a very successful quiz at the Althorp pub. Around 50 people turned out and really entered into the spirit of our Wandsworth Common themed quiz. A great success, to be repeated next year.