A great group of volunteers gathered at the woodlands on 1 March. Many regulars were joined by some new faces including two keen young visitors ready to help out with all that needed doing. Work took place on two main sites – completing planting started in February at Lasseter Place, and new work on the Tom Smith Escarpment.

The Lasseter Place based group unearthed a huge amount of rubble whilst clearing more planting space below the recently constructed maintenance path there. Most of the “heeled in” whips left over from the February session were planted, apart from a few Field Maples which were put back into the ground for another time. Lots of bulbs were planted too – including English Bluebells, Wood Anemones, Wild Garlic, Snowdrops, and Wild Daffodils.

As part of our work on saving rainfall for the pond, we have been building a “water harvester” system. Several square metres of tarpaulin will channel water in to a sunken water butt. When full, this will overflow in to our pond. We are actively looking at using our existing roof surfaces to capture any rainfall in to other water butts for future watering of our plants.

At the Tom Smith Escarpment some great bank stabilisation work was done with large logs staked-in to create planting niches, more tree planting and further spreading of wood-chip to surface the upper steps and paths. All planting of Snake’s Head Fritillary and replacing a failed Willow whip by the pond in the Main Glade. A very productive morning’s work with masses of energy given to the many and varied tasks by our amazing volunteers – heartfelt thanks to all of you for your time, skills, and commitment to the wellbeing of Westcombe Woodlands.

As seems to have been the case now for all of January, the 2nd volunteer morning of 2026 was another overcast and wet day, but this didn’t stop another excellent turnout of volunteers, members of the local “Good Gym” and committee members braving the weather. 

Today’s activity was at the Lasseter Place part of Westcombe Woodlands.  We are usually at the Seren Park part of the woodland but the smaller area at Lasseter Place was the focus for this morning.  We acquired recently several dozen young tree saplings and these have patiently waiting for their moment! 

In fact, the damp weather was perfect to allow for these to be planted as can be seen in the accompanying photos. 

The damp and cold weather’s activities were interrupted by hot refreshments, organised by committee member Gail Stirling. 

Wood chip from felled trees was spread on footpath, providing a useful source of future nutrients when the wood starts to rot. 

Finally, it wasn’t just people observing the action; a fox was spotted in the background inspecting our work!

Our beehives are already showing signs of activity. It might appear to be a quiet time of the year, but ivy, snowdrops, crocuses, mahonias, catkins and hellebores are the food that’s typically available at this time of year. In fact, mahonias can make up a very significant source of food for bees in urban environments.

Last Sunday, the 25th of January, once again we took part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch.  This annual event takes place in late January and we were delighted to welcome local wildlife expert Joe Beale.  Joe’s involvement with Greenwich Park and the Greenwich Wildlife Advisory Group is very much appreciated by Westcombe Woodlands, along with his expert knowledge of birds.  The morning event lasted for an hour and ended at around 11:15.  The light rain perhaps reduced the numbers of birds that interacted in the woodlands, but species recorded wood pigeon, wren, parakeet, magpie, gold crest, crow, blue tit, jay, stock dove and robin. The accompanying photo shows Joe Beale surveying the woodland sky.

Last Saturday, the 24th of January, committee members Rich Sylvester and Gail Stirling and another volunteer, were in Westcombe Woodlands to take delivery of several dozen tree saplings. They “heeled in” the delivery of 17 different tree species at the Lasseter Place area of the woodlands until we are ready to plant these during the February volunteer morning. As you can see in the photo, the greenery is laid on top of the soil to discourage our resident foxes from digging up the tree saplings. Some of the species that we took delivery of were blackthorn, silver birch, dog rose, elder, hazel, lime bird cherry, oak and hawthorn.