Three cheers for the small blue!

We’re been celebrating record sightings of the small blue butterfly at our Hutchinson’s Bank nature reserve! In 2014 we scraped back soil & scrub to expose the chalk below, allowing plants like kidney vetch to grow. And small blues love kidney vetch!

This chalk grassland now supports an amazing 40 butterfly species, and all thanks to our supporters & funding from SITA (now SUEZ UK).

To visit Hutchinson’s Bank, jump on a tram from Croydon and head to New Addington Tramlink stop, the nature reserve is just a short walk away. See www.wildlondon.org.uk/reserves

The annual Big Butterfly Count is a chance for everyone to help survey the nation’s butterflies. So if you're heading over to Hutchinson's Bank or butterfly spotting elsewhere, why not take part? The Count continues until 12th August and you can find out more here.

Celebrate the capital's wild side with the first-ever London National Park City Week!

We're taking part in the London National Park City Week (21st-29th July) when there will be more than 270 fantastic events and activities celebrating London’s unique green spaces and natural environment for you to enjoy.

Join us for wildlife walks, willow weaving, adventure hunts and much more!

Selling lemonade & helping hedgehogs!

Anna is an eight year old from Pine Valley, California, who loves hedgehogs. She loves them so much, she set up a lemonade stand and collected an amazing £130 to help us look after London’s hedgehogs, as part of our Urban Urchins project!

They don’t have hedgehogs in America, not wild ones anyway, and like us, Anna doesn’t want to see them disappear forever.

Anna was visiting London with her mum, so we invited them both to visit us at Woodberry Wetlands, where Senior Site Officer Alek answered Anna's many hedgehog questions and presented her with a special certificate of thanks and one of our fluffy hedgehogs.

Let’s give a big thumbs up to Anna, she’s a real hedgehog hero!

Every footprint tells a story!

Somebody small & spiky recently left their distinctive footprints in one of our Hedgehog Detective Kits, found in Sydenham Hill Wood by our resident hedgehog expert Emma Pooley! Cute or what?!

Thanks to funding from Heritage Lottery Fund you can get your own garden Hedgehog Detective Kit here: www.wildlondon.org.uk/hedgehog - they’re free, but stocks are limited.

Summer sees our events and activities really kicking off across London, with loads of opportunities to get closer to nature and the capital's amazing wildlife. Many of our events are completely free, but donations are always welcome! For a full list of events visit our website.

Darren Russell secured his dream job working in his local parks thanks to a National Lottery-funded traineeship with London Wildlife Trust. Here he tells how Lottery funding changed his life

Wildlife photographer Jack Perks visited Woodberry Wetlands and filmed the wildlife we can't see, the wildlife below the surface!

Here it is, speeded up!

Image credits: Fergus Hill / 2020Vision, Susie Thornhill, Chris Meadows, Emma Pooley.