11-12-2019 - Updates from October's ditch and slow worm habitat day

In October we had the first of our two planned ditch and slow work habitat restoration days at Tolworth Court Sports Ground.


The volunteers from KUBAG, Geocachers, Citizen Zoo and those who signed up at the last Kingston Biodiversity Network meeting; made great progress clear out the ditch run and a proportion of the scrub habitat on the area of the site which supports this wonderful reptile species.

Habitats before the volunteers got stuck in

Many hands made lightish work :)

During the event, while we didn’t find any smooth newts as we did last year, one of the volunteer’s bags was a hot spot for ladybirds!

Can you name the species in these photos?

We’ll be back again in the Spring to finish off the work in this section of the site in advance of the warmer weather when the reptiles come out of their winter rest.

We need all hands for our next day here (Saturday 8th Feb 2020), so if you are able to volunteer, even if it’s only for part of the morning, join us, you can sign up to the event using this Eventbrite link.

The area round our sports ground as well as the wider catchment of the Hogsmill falls into areas which may one day see the return of the water vole species which has been lost from this catchment.

The volunteer led Get InVoled project spearheaded by Citizen Zoo is the exciting project which aims to bring water voles back to the Hogsmill. They are building on their foundation surveys undertaken to map water vole habitat in the catchment, to plan the ways forward to create a successful well-rounded project, which could see re-wilding for this species happen in this area.

The recent volunteer meeting held at the university identified four areas and working groups which needed to be formed and functioning enable this work to proceed:
1. Habitat Restoration (potentially with an element of monitoring built in)
2. Community Engagement
3. Funding
4. Project Management

The next meeting will be held at Kingston University on the 15th of Jan, just before the Kingston Biodiversity Network Meeting.

If you are interested in joining in with either group or would like the details of the events and the room details, email either Elliot Newton (Citizen Zoo) or Sivi Sivanesan (Kingston University) 

Until next time :)