Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust

A young person looking at a mushroom that someone holds in their hands. There is a display of fungi on the table before them.

A group of adults and young people looking at a fungi display on a table. One person is holding a mushroom while another takes a picture of a separate specimen.

Two teenagers sat at a table sketching fungi from photos.

Two young people observing bracket fungi on a tree stump, holding a sheet with images of fungi for comparison.

🍄 Our recent Rangers session coincided with the Bucks Fungi Group running their national fungi day event at College Lake!

We had a great time learning from the experts before going out on the reserve to put our ID skills into practice, creating artwork from what we discovered.

Two landscape images of the sun just above the horizon, lighting up a frosty grassland and giving long shadows to scattered trees.

Let's put it to a vote... an extra hour in bed, or stunning scenes like this? ✋

One advantage of shortening daylight hours is that you don't have to get up so early to enjoy a sunrise! ☀️

📸 Greenham Common by Julian Cooper

Help us to continue a legacy of careful management for wildlife and protect Hamgreen Wood for future generations: https://www.bbowt.org.uk/hamgreen Continuing a legacy for wildlife at Hamgreen Wood

🌳 The current owners of Hamgreen Wood have carefully managed the woodland rides over the past thirty years.

When the time came for them to sell, they knew BBOWT had the expertise to care for their precious land.

👉 Please support our appeal: bbowt.org.uk/hamgreen

A view of a pond and reedbed under a bright blue sky.

We can certainly think of worse views! 💚

If you find yourself at a loose end this weekend, why not spend a bit of time in our hide at Gallows Bridge Farm? You never know what might turn up...

📸 Chloe Bradford

A group of people smiling at the camera, stood at a table with apples in bowls.

A group of people stood around an apple press, as juice flows out into a metal bowl below.

A group of people smiling, stood around an apple grider. One person is reaching in with a wooden stick.

We had a wonderful social to thank our incredible volunteers at the Sutton Courtenay Environmental Education Centre!

We made juice out of apples from the site before enjoying lunch together in the sunshine ☀️

Find volunteering opportunities near you 👉 buff.ly/4p68TyR

Wildlife Trust battles commercial-scale fungi foraging | Berks Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust Gangs of people reportedly sweep nature reserves with carrier bags stealing wildlife.

If you're going to take anything at our nature reserves, make it a photograph, and please leave the beautiful wildlife for others to enjoy.

Find out more 👉 buff.ly/V50EAEG

It also removes hugely important sources of food for a host of wild animals and even other fungi.

We want people to enjoy the wildlife on our nature reserves, including all the fantastic rare and unusual species that you won't see at a local park or other parts of the countryside.

A light-brown, wide, disc-shaped parasol mushroom viewed from below with its gills visible. It's surrounded by blades of grass covered in dew.

⚠️ Please note that we do not allow foraging on our reserves.

Mushrooms and toadstools are the reproductive part of the fungus and picking them can stop the fungus from releasing its spores to sustain a healthy population. (1/3)

📸 Jon Hawkins - Surrey Hills Photography

Defending the Protected Landscapes Duty We were successful in strengthening the law to mandate public bodies in England to take action for National Parks and Landscapes. Now we must defend it.

We are proud to support the Campaign for National Parks in standing up for our protected landscapes: buff.ly/XHfyaxP

#NationalLandscapesMatter

Defending the Protected Landscapes Duty We were successful in strengthening the law to mandate public bodies in England to take action for National Parks and Landscapes. Now we must defend it.

The news reports that they are planning to remove the Protected Landscapes duty – the duty on all public bodies to ‘seek to further’ the purposes of Protected Landscapes like the Chilterns, North Wessex Downs and the Cotswolds – are alarming. Such a step would be an attack on the places we all love.

A view of a path leading down to a lake in a valley, with hills rising up in the background. Text: Don't weaken national landscape protections. #NationalLandscapesMatter

⚠️ The Government seems intent on weakening protections for our most precious species and habitats. (1/3)

A black hairstreak perched on a leaf.

🦋 Hamgreen Wood is a hotspot for black hairstreaks. The colony here is nationally important and the site is often described as the ‘best’ for black hairstreaks in the country.

Will you help us to protect this special site for generations to come?

👉 Please support our appeal: bbowt.org.uk/hamgreen

A black hairstreak perched on a leaf.

🦋 Hamgreen Wood is a hotspot for black hairstreaks. The colony here is nationally important and the site is often described as the ‘best’ for black hairstreaks in the country.

Will you help us to protect this special site for generations to come?

👉 Please support our appeal: bbowt.org.uk/hamgreen

A group of women sat around a table either painting plant pots of holding crochet needles.

A plant pot painted with colourful pattens and an image of a red-petalled flower.

A group of women sat around a table painting plant pots.

A woman holding a decorated plant pot.

Members of the BBOWT staff team spent a wonderful morning with the ladies at Ujala Foundation in Slough to learn some new craft skills, including fabric painting, crochet, and traditional Pakistani plant pot decoration 🧶🪴

It was great to meet and socialise with the communities we support!

Hamgreen Wood | Berks Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust Help BBOWT raise £300,000 to protect and care for Hamgreen Wood, a haven for rare bats and butterflies.

Will you help us to raise the remaining funds to reach £300,000 and protect this special site for generations to come?

👉 Please support our appeal by visiting bbowt.org.uk/hamgreen

A fundraising totaliser graphic reading 33%. Text underneath: '£100,000 of £300,000 goal'. In the background is a blurred-out image of the woodland and large area of grassland viewed from above.

🎉 Just a week after launching our appeal, we’re delighted to have passed the £100,000 milestone to make Hamgreen Wood our next nature reserve!

Thank you to the huge generosity of our members and supporters who care deeply about protecting wildlife across our three counties 🙌

Thanks Patrick!

Wildlife Trust launches £300,000 appeal to protect ancient woodland in Buckinghamshire | Berks Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) has launched its £300,000 appeal to secure the future of Hamgreen Wood, an ancient woodland home to rare bat and butterfly species.

Great appeal here to protect a fantastic ancient woodland in Buckinghamshire. I've just walked through this landscape – the ancient royal hunting forest of Bernwood is being bisected by HS2 – and it is a magical area. Good luck @bbowt.bsky.social! www.bbowt.org.uk/news/wildlif...

Philippa, wearing a blue fleece and green gardening gloves, stood smiling at the camera with a scythe in hand.

🌳 "Recovering from cancer treatment and with an extended period of sick leave stretching ahead of her, Philippa was absorbed into the Finemere team. Like many of us, she discovered a quiet refuge amongst the trees."

👉 Read the latest blog from Finemere Wood: buff.ly/zYAP0tZ

BBOWT Celebration 2025 - Didcot Civic Hall, Sat 25 October | Berks Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust Join us for our 2025 celebration of BBOWT, including Volunteer Awards, Photography Competition, and our AGM for members.

Join us at the Dicot Civic Hall on Saturday 25 October to discovery more about our work to see more nature everywhere 👉 www.bbowt.org.uk/celebration-...

🛡️ Defending Nature in Hostile Times | Matthew Stanton, External Affairs Director

🦸 Community Super Heroes | Liz Shearer, Community Engagement Director

🐛 Glow-in-the-Dark Caterpillars: Lighting the path to nature’s recovery | Emily Coulam, Nature and Greenspaces Officer for RBOR

A graphic featuring the speakers and topics of their talks. (All information available in main post text)

🥳 It's now only a few weeks until the 2025 BBOWT Celebration!

As well as celebrating our Volunteer Awards, and finding out which nature photo has been crowned the winner of this year's competition, it's also a fantastic chance to hear from BBOWT staff about three key areas of our work:

A group of horse mushrooms which are large, roughly circular, and beige in colour. They stand alone in a field of grass.

A group of horse mushrooms viewed from above. A man's boot in the image which is roughly equivalent in width to the smaller of the mushrooms gives an impression of their scale.

Volunteer warden Phil Townsend found some impressive horse mushrooms at Bernwood Meadows!

The second picture includes a size-11 boot for scale 🥾

A Bechstein's bat with its body spread out facing down a tree trunk.

🦇 Did you know, unlike many other bats, Bechstein’s bats use woodland almost exclusively for feeding and roosting?

Hamgreen Wood is one of only a few roosting sites in the region - so it’s central to the survival of the species here.

👉 Please support our appeal: bbowt.org.uk/hamgreen

But we know the answer isn’t inaction — it’s action.

Not sabotage — but solutions.

Not decline — but restoration.

It’s time to step up, protect nature, and heal our planet 🌱

A large crowd of demonstrators with Big Ben in the background. A sign is held up, reading: 'Your planet needs you! (and all of us)' and features an image of the earth.

🌍💚 The climate and nature crises are two sides of the same coin — we can’t solve one without the other.

Repealing the Climate Change Act wouldn’t just be a setback, it would be a failure — a signal that we’re willing to accept a future where wildlife and communities continue to suffer.

Ban the sale of peat | The Wildlife Trusts Peatlands are one of our most important habitats, providing homes for rare wildlife and locking up carbon, helping us tackle climate change. But in the UK over 80% are damaged. Partly due to our use o...

A win for Nature! This week a ban on burning deep peat was extended to an area of 676,268 ha up from 222,000 ha.

But… still more is needed to end extraction of peat for horticulture.

Peat in bags means less in bogs.

Read more 👉 www.wildlifetrusts.org/ban-sale-peat

Have you ever seen a cuter sight than this? 🥹

Our ecology team were thrilled to find three dormice at Moor Copse as they monitored the nest boxes.

While we've previously spotted their signs, this is the first time they had been seen in person for around a decade!

⚠️ Due to staff shortages, The Nature Discovery Centre visitor centre will be closed on:

Tue 7 October
Wed 8 October
Sat 11 October
Sun 12 October

The car parks and reserve will be accessible as usual, and the Bean & Blend coffee van will be onsite Tue 7, Wed 8 and Sat 11.

A wood ear mushroom which resembles a human ear, sticking out the side of a trunk covered in green lichen.

👂 What did you say? It's October?

It must be time for mushroom spotting! 🍄

Click below to discover our favourite fungi to find at BBOWT reserves this month!

👉 buff.ly/nluzwWW