Events

We held our second City Nature Challenge on 25 April 2026 and on a lovely sunny day recorded 136 species (33 for the first time). Thank you to all the citizen scientists who came along, and you can help us record wildlife on the reserve via iNaturalist (you can sign up for free and add ‘Charlcombe Community Nature Reserve’ as a project to help us collect records about wildlife on the Reserve).

Working with an amazing group, The Conservation Volunteers (TCV), we cut back invasive brambles to open the reserve up to a wider variety of wildflowers and other plant species.  

For the last two years, between April and September, we have been monitoring 17 reptile mats across both Great Park and Mudcombe. So far we have found two slow worms, some toads, froglets and toadlets, shrews and a field mouse. You'll notice some of the mats and corrugated sheets across the reserve - helping to create habitats, ideally for reptile and also amphibians.  

We've taken part in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch census in January 2025 and January 2026. Volunteers spent an hour recording birds that landed in trees, hedges and scrub; and in both years we counted 18 different bird species in the reserve — including this delightful 'flying teaspoon', also known as a long-tailed tit, and a kestrel.  You can use the free merlin app to help identify birds found around the reserve from green woodpeckers to goldfinches.

15 volunteers spent two sessions in November 2025 and February 2026  digging out two new ponds on the reserve, helping to create new habitats for amphibians and invertebrates. These new ponds in Mudcombe are spring fed and we'll be monitoring them throughout 2026. Frogs moved into the ponds within weeks of them being completed and froglets have been leaving them over the summer.