Events

Upcoming events

Volunteer session - Saturday 19 July 2025

Join us in the reserve to help with improving the habitat. Everyone's welcome from 11am! We normally spend a couple of hours on site and its advisable to wear trousers, a long sleeved top, bring water. You'll also need gardening gloves.

Our focus at this session will be general site management, including ensuring that footpaths are walkable and helping to clear barbed wire from the reserve.

Meet by the kissing gate on Charlcombe Way.

Butterfly walk - Saturday 26 July 2025

Come and join a slow butterfly walk around the reserve to find out more about these beautiful symbols of summer. Twenty species of butterfly have been recorded on the reserve in 2025 and we'll be looking for species that can be seen in July, including gatekeepers, meadow browns and common blues. We will have ID guides and butterfly books for the walk.

We'll be meeting at kissing gate on Charlcombe Way at 11am and you can book a place on this free walk here.

Big Butterfly Count - Sunday 3 August

Calling all citizen scientists - come and take part in the Big Butterfly Count, a nationwide survey to record butterflies that happens every summer.

The count takes 15 minutes and we will look to record at different spots around the site. Some butterfly ID sheets will be provided.

We'll be recording butterflies in both fields - Great Park (the field below the Kissing Gate) and Mudcombe (which is above the brook).

There is no need to book - you can come along at any point between 11am and 12 noon. After a short briefing we'll allocate different spots on the reserve for people to take part in the survey.

Events calendar

Past events

Native bluebells in Charlcombe Community Nature Reserve

Bioblitz

We recorded 105 species - including 46 for the first time - as part of the City Nature Challenge in April. 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.

Volunteers clearing brambles in Charlcombe Community Nature Reserve

Scrub and bramble clearance

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.

Using reptile mats to track species in Charlcombe Community Nature Reserve

Reptile counting

In April, we collected data on reptile species in the reserve, using specially adapted mats hidden around the site.

Long-tailed tit in tree in Charlcombe Community Nature Reserve

Big Garden Birdwatch

In January 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.

The nature of Charlcombe - 15 June

Our friends from the Bath Natural History Society will be sharing their knowledge and passion for nature, helping local people to find out more about the wildlife found at Charlcombe Community Nature Reserve. We’ll be running two sessions on the day as part of the Festival of Nature that happens across Bristol and Bath between the 7-15th June. The first, a drop-in session, will start at 11am, where you’ll have the opportunity to talk with naturalists about the surveys that they are carrying out around the reserve and what they’ve found. In the afternoon, starting at 1pm, there will be a free guided wildlife walk around the reserve, bringing to life the nature of the reserve (booking is advisable).

Volunteer session - 21 June

Our focus at this session will be: general site management, writing some signs for the site about the wildlife that we have and mapping out hazel trees for potential autumn coppicing and designing a route for recording butterflies.