Events

Time: 11am to 1pm 

Location: Mudcombe and Great Park

Meet at kissing gate on Charlcombe Way.

Monthly volunteering sessions will take place throughout 2026 to help manage this special place. Tasks will vary throughout the year from bramble management in the winter to citizen science in the summer. 

On Saturday 16 May the focus will be on helping to care the reserve, from work around the brook, creating tree guards for coppiced hazel and mulching around the recently planted trees. The volunteering session will run from 11am to 1pm. Please bring gloves, a small saw or pruning saw and its advisable to wear wellies as it’s wet in Mudcombe (you can meet us at the ponds if easier).

Future volunteering dates (all 11am to 1pm) are: Saturday 20 June, Saturday 18 July, Saturday 15 August, Saturday 19 September, Saturday 17 October (Big Bramble Bash - 10.30am to 3pm), Saturday 21 November and 12 December (week earlier due to Christmas break)

Want to stay in the loop? Contact us via email to join our new volunteer WhatsApp group! There will be additional pop up focused volunteering sessions.

We recorded 105 species - including 46 for the first time - as part of the City Nature Challenge in April 2025. Our aim was to see how many species we could record in two hours, joining in with over 650 other cities across the world as part of the City Nature Challenge.

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.  

Since April 2025 we have been monitoring reptile mats across both Great Park and Mudcombe. So far we have found two slow worms, some toads, froglets and toadlets, and a shrew. You'll notice some of the mats and corrugated sheets across the reserve - helping to create habitats, ideally for reptile and also amphibians.  

In January 2025 as part of the RSPB's Birdwatch census, 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 four hours 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.