17 May 2023

Our visit today included meeting a colleague from the Thames Valley Environmental Recording Centre (TVERC), introducing her to the Copse, and then enabling her to carry out a baseline survey. This Spring survey, along with a further one in late Summer, will help us to understand the trees, plant, and animal life in the Copse. We plan to invite species specialists to come and survey too – examples include Bat, Reptile and invertebrate groups. If you have survey experience and want to help at...

25 March 2023

Saturday’s visit on March 25th marked the point when from this day forward, days are longer than nights. What wonders will we see as the season develops?

12 March 2023

With the meteorologists telling us spring had arrived it was good to see evidence of it in our most recent visit to the Copse. Lovely blue skies and sunshine provided the perfect backdrop for Hazel catkins. Hazel is abundant, previously being coppiced. Records from 1852 (see below), as well as 1870 and 1877 show that the coppiced wood (underwood) was a valuable commodity offered for auction. The coppiced stands are now grown tall again.

30 January 2023

This is the first of a regular blog about the Copse, season by season. We will share what we notice on visits to Hutchcomb’s Copse, and provide updates about our plans. We bought the Copse last year and will work gently to preserve and enhance it. No ‘tidying-up’ is intended. We are thinking about when and how we might see and identify the flora, and the fauna who live there. Our most recent visit to the Copse was on a chilly and windy January morning. We were lucky – there was no rain!...