Volunteers from Coca-Cola pulling saplings on Thursday in the acid heathland at Stanmore Common to prevent this rare environment turning into woodland - thanks everyone!

Volunteers pulling bracken today to preserve the rare acid grassland at Stanmore Country Park - thanks everyone!

I know that everyone is seeing them but they are lovely! Painted Lady at Bentley Priory yesterday.

It may not look much but we were very pleased to see this Adders-tongue fern at Bentley Priory this afternoon. We found 20 individual plants so the colony, last recorded in 1993, is doing OK.

The boundary stream at Osterley was a lovely cool place to be yesterday morning; we helped CURB (Clean Up the River Brent) looking at invertebrates in the Boundary Stream near Osterley Park. Inset: water cricket after it let go of its prey, which it spent the first 2 hours sucking dry!

The mature Wild Service Tree at Wood Farm is covered with blossom. The flowers at the top are already a bit brownish (photo taken yesterday), the ones at the bottom are fresh and white.

Sunlight glinting on the wings of an immature male Broad-bodied Chaser at Stanmore Common yesterday. He will soon develop a lovely blue colour on the abdomen. The many new ponds being created on this site in the "Back to the Future" project will greatly benefit this and other aquatic invertebrates.

Discover the plants - and the wildlife on it - hiding in plain site on the streets of south Harrow this Sunday!

A caterpillar of the Pale Brindled Beauty moth seen yesterday at Stanmore Common. It was very tiny but impressively warty and hairy!

Volunteers building a leaky dam at Stanmore Common today - thanks everyone!

Wild garlic in bloom today at one of our sites - I won't say where since we don't want to encourage foraging.

This is the Siberian Crabapple Malus baccata in bloom at post 7 on the nature trail at Stanmore Country Park, photographed on Wednesday (April 29th). Not a native species but it is gorgeous!

Hawthorn in blossom at Wood Farm. Ten years ago, in preperation for handing the site over to Harrow council, areas of small trees and shrubs were planted. Hazel and hawthorn did well, here's the some of the hawthorn in bloom today.

Goldilocks buttercup plus violets in bloom at Lady Gilbert's Orchard, Old Redding yesterday afternoon.

Brimstone butterfly at Sylvia Avenue open space this afternoon. There was a lot of bee (and bee fly) activity too.

A patch of Wood Anemone in Lower Priory Wood at Bentley Priory yesterday. This area of woodland has a lovely mixed ground flora with anemone, lesser celandine, violets and a few early bluebells all in bloom now.

Two clumps of Lords and Ladies at Bentley Priory this morning. The scientific name, Arum maculatum, means Spotted Arum, referring to the black spots on the leaves, but only about half the plants in a population have that phenotype. The other 50%, like the top clump, have no spots.

Early Thorn moth, one of two seen yesterday evening while moth trapping at Lady Gilbert's Orchard in Old Redding Nature Reserve.

Before and after this morning - we removed a large cherry laurel in the ancient woodland of Heriots Wood at Bentley Priory. Should improve the ground flora that will now get more rain and light. Inset: warden Martin Fairley at work on the laurel with our Stihl battery chainsaw.

In the sunlight this afternoon: Chionodoxa naturalized in Bentley Old Vicarage nature reserve (www.harrowncf.org/BOV_home.html). Not a native species, but very pretty.

Free homes for birds! Workers at The Toureen Group have donated their time to create gorgeous sturdy bird boxes from offcuts of wood (see image). If you'd like one or more to put up in your garden contact Steve Bolsover at [email protected].

The marsh at the north end of Summerhouse Lake in Bentley Priory is now properly waterlogged, thanks not only to all the rain but also the work of TCV volunteers who a few months ago cut channels to make sure it stayed wet.

TCV @tcvnational.bsky.social volunteers created a second enormous stag beetle loggery at Bentley Priory today, helping to tidy up the logs created by our coppicing project and those created when we cleared a big oak that had fallen across Deer Path. Thanks everyone!

Yesterday volunteers from @tcvnational.bsky.social built a gorgeous big stag beetle loggery with logs from the coppicing work in Heriots Wood, Bentley Priory. The sky looks grey but it did not rain and we even got sun at lunch time!

Snowdrops in bloom at Lady Gilberts Orchard this afernoon.

Yesterday volunteers from @tcvnational.bsky.social cut scallops into the mature scrub edge of The Greensward at Bentley Priory. The scrub will regrow providing new young shoots and leaves for animals that prefer that - for example Brown Hairstreaks, which prefer three year old blackthorn.

Not a great picture but shows the thrashing "glad hands" growth pattern characteristic of oaks - but in this case taken to extremes. A lovely old oak at Sylvia Avenue open space. To the right are some of the non-native cypress trees that we hope to remove, giving the oak a better chance of survival.

Yesterday Harrow Council installed an information panel at Sylvia Avenue Open Space www.harrowncf.org/Sylvia_Avenu... giving information about this pretty little site. The artwork was created by local volunteers. You will have to go visit the site to read what it says!

Volunteers from The Conservation Volunteers @tcvnational.bsky.social worked at the marsh on Summer house Lake in Bentley Priory today, a beautiful cold sunny winters day. We coppiced alder and dug canals to make sure that the marsh remains wet. Thanks everyone!

We went off looking for flowers (yes, they have to be in bloom!) at Bentley Priory today as part of the bsky.app/profile/bsbi... New Year's plant hunt. Here we are recording a flowering white dead nettle!

The longhorn cattle are now back on Spring Meadow at Bentley Priory (photo taken today); the intention is that they will browse the young shoots of bramble as they appear in spring and help the transition of the bramble patches to open grassland.

Brown hairstreak butterfly egg spotted at Newton Farm last week (12th December 2025). One of two we spotted without looking very hard - no doubt there are more.

Monsters in the swamp: Pynding Mersc at Stanmore Common last week (7th December 2025). We love waterlogged dead wood - lots of specialized fungi and invertebrates need this ecological niche.

Volunteers from the TCV coppicing hazel at Bentley Priory today. As set out in the manangement plan, we coppiced a third of the hazel; another third will be coppiced next winter, and the last third the winter after that. The wood is not wasted: most will be used for fencing on other reserves.

While working at The Scrape yesterday we found a puffball and set it puffing.

Before and after our emergency working party this morning at The Scrape, Wood Farm, clearing an enormous number of trees that vandals had cut and dumped into the water - one of the best quality ponds in Harrow.

Gorse in bloom yesterday under blue sky at Stanmore Country Park. We are glad that we did not timetable any outdoor work today - the weather is horrible!

A lovely winter day at Stanmore Country Park today. Volunteers cut bramble on John's Ride to keep the ride open and maintain the grassland flora. We are using our lovely quiet Stihl battery brush cutters.

Low sun gives heightened colour to the green bramble and yellow hazel leaves in woodland at Old Redding Nature Reserve this afternoon.

Volunteers raked up cut grass and bramble at Bentley Priory today to help preserve the species-rich grasslands. It was damp but not nearly as bad as predicted! This is our last raking session; now we move on to winter activities.

Volunteers from Sainsburys raking cut bramble at Bentley Priory today to help preserve the species-rich grasslands. Thanks guys!

Volunteers from William Hill at Bentley Priory today - thanks guys! They raked up cut bramble then moved it to piles off the grassland; we hope this will reduce the bramble growth next year and encourage the growth of grassland flowers. The sky was blue and the sun shone!

The lovely ball of mistletoe in Furze Heath, Bentley Priory, photographed on a soggy misty morning today. This plant has been growing on that branch for at least ten years. Kissing under it would likely result in lots of scratches!

Lovely colours at Stanmore Country Park this morning as we used battery brush cutters to cut back the bramble along the edges of the grassy glades.

Volunteers from the Building Research Establishment today at Bentley Priory moving one of the many piles of cut bramble that they had raked up. Removing the bramble will help restore the species-rich grassland. Thanks guys!

Guelder Rose berries and foliage at Bentley Priory this afternoon.

Nice autumn colours at Bentley Priory today as volunteers from the Conservation Volunteers @tcvnational.bsky.social raked cut bramble to protect the species-rich grasslands.

Volunteers from @tcvnational.bsky.social raked cut bramble at Bentley Priory today to preserve the species-rich grasslands. Thanks guys! The cattle spent the morning eating acorns; then the one closest here investigated our arisings pile and had fun tossing it about and having a good neck scratch.

A misty Middle Dragonfly Pond this morning at Bentley Priory. Shows the wonderful mix of habitats at this location: pond, bramble, young willow, grassy meadow, trees. One man, Peter Peretti, was responsible for creating the dragonfly ponds which so enhance the site.

Like a natural Christmas wreath: lichens on a branch of hawthorn at Bentley Priory yesterday