Past Events

Please send any pictures and stories you have to share to ascot.wildlife@gmail.com

Saturday 9th December 

Conservation work at Allens Field - rhododendron control opposite the pond


Wednesday 22nd November

Working Party at Ascot Heath Primary School - Infant school wildlife garden. 


Saturday 11th November

Conservation work at Allens Field - we will be hunting and recording fungi. 

Tuesday 26th September 

Berkshire's Local Nature Recovery Strategy introductory webinar - Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs) are spatial strategies to recover nature across England: part of the 2021 Environment Act.  

You can look at the information given at this webinar here.


Saturday 14th October

Conservation work at Allens Field - removing the plastic guards from saplings here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/seRhoQSrTEsyqWw2A


Friday 20th October

Working Party at Carnation Hall on the pollinator patch carrying out autumn tasks and making the area presentable for the winter months.  See photo ---> 

yellow necked mouse

bank vole



Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd September


We carried out a Small Mammal Survey and Bat Survey at Mill Ride Golf Club

Wednesday 20th September

Ascot Heath Primary School - Working Party in Infant school wildlife garden.

Saturday 9th September

Allens Field - Rhodo and laurel removal


Friday 11th and Saturday 12th August

Allens Field - small mammal survey, pond dipping and dead hedge building.  Photos below.

wood mouse

Tuesday 22nd August 

Pond Dipping at Blackmoor pond


Wednesday August 16th

Pond Dipping at Englemere Pond

Tuesday 25th July

Another busy event at Silwood's Bugs, Beasts and Birds day. Tina's photos looked great on our stand with leaflets for gardening for wildlife and we had plenty of young visitors to our colouring in and bugs card game table. 

fox moth caterpillar

Purple bordered gold moth

Saturday 22nd July

Dragonfly walk with Des Sussex, The Crown Estate Conservation and Biodiversity Manager in Swinley Forest. We were led into areas fenced off for wildlife and found all sorts of creatures to look at, despite the dull weather which turned to rain!, including conehead bush crickets, emerald damselflies, fox moth caterpillar, essex skipper and a very rare purple bordered gold moth.

Wednesday 12th July

Our final session of the term working in Ascot Heath primary school wildlife garden.  We cut grass, turned the compost bins, trimmed back and removed some brambles and took blanket weed from the pond. We saw plenty of butterflies and found dragonfly larvae and efts (baby newts) in the pond.

Saturday 8th July    

Conservation work at Allens Field continued creating a dead hedge on the edge of the dog agility area. Good progress was made.

Wednesday 5th July

Weeding and general maintenance was carried out on the pollinator patch at Carnation Hall

Friday  16th June 

We took a very enjoyable Nightjar Walk on Chobham Common from Jubilee Mount led by David Calcutt. We saw meadow pipits earlier in the walk but no dartford warblers. As dusk approach we were very lucky to hear and see nightjars perching in trees and flying around us.


Saturday 10th June

Conservation work at Allens Field - We started the process of rebuilding the dead hedge at the back of the dog agility area; made repairs to the pond holly fence; carried out a thorough survey for birds; completed one FIT count of pollinators on red clover and also litter picked the car park which was much better than usual.

Saturday 3rd June 

Wildlife Gardens Awards event in Windsor, to hear about many easy ways to make a difference for nature in our gardens, alleys and allotments, roadside verges and balconies.  Hosted by Peter Gibbs, of Gardeners' Question Time on BBC Radio 4  it included two facinating talks: one about the key aspects to consider for wildlife in your outdoor space and the other on composting from "the compost queen" herself! This was followed by a Q&A panel session which included the new RBWM lead councillor for Climate Change and Biodiversity: Karen Davies.

Wednesday 10th May

Ascot Heath primary school wildlife garden maintenance work was carried out to ensure the children can use this space. Compost heap turning and pond clearing were the main tasks.

The Coronation Bank Holiday, Monday 8th May "The Big Help Out" 

Volunteers came to Carnation Hall to weed the new pollinator patch and build Bugingham palace using pallets, pine cones, bamboo canes, sticks, pieces of ceramic plant pots, pebbles, straw etc. finishing the structure with deadwood and a green roof. 

Saturday 29th April

David Calcutt led another, earlier, Dawn Chorus walk in Swinley Forest. A tricky walk with filming in Swinley affecting the route! However, 32 different birds heard by the group and a sighting of woodcock.

Friday 14th & Monday 17th April  

Annual maintenance on the South Ascot and Victory Field wildflower patches. It was raining on the Friday so we cancelled but I went to check that no one turned up in the rain, they did not. However, the patch had been mowed and was now grass with some weeds and it will be a big job to reinstate and not worthwhile if it is to be mown again.


It was a lovely day on the Monday but only one worker plus a welcome visitor giving moral support. The grass had really grown more than any other year. Perhaps it was the wet autumn and spring. Lots of couch grass and limited time left after removing dead stalks. So only a small patch was prepared and reseeded.  Top photo - before; bottom photo - small area cleared of grass and reseeded.

Sunday 16th April

A group of 14 early risers, led by David Calcutt, enjoyed the Dawn Chorus walk in Mill Ride Golf Club. We saw a lovely rosy dawn sky and heard nearly 30 species of bird and saw many of them including a reed bunting which sat still in a small tree by the reeds for us all to admire. We were given tips on recognising birds from their song and were all impressed by David's skill and knowledge and grateful to him for taking the time to share it with us.

Thursday 13th April 

We had a warm sunny morning for the first tree recording session of the year. We were very pleased to welcome 2 people who had not been tree recording before and we explored the woodland in the Blythewood Wildlife Heritage Site in North Ascot identifying and recording the larger trees and noting the habitat that they provide.

Thursday 23rd March

We had a lovely group of volunteers to plant our pollinator friendly flower bed at Carnation Hall.  The ground had already been prepared in January and we planted pollinator friendly plants in this new bed that was previously just grass.  We also sowed wildflower seeds; created a stag beetle loggery and will soon build a bug hotel or mansion :)

Wednesday 22nd March

The Wildlife Gardens Awards 2023 Launch event at The Sir Bernard Miller Centre, Odney Club was a very successful and well attended fun and inspirational evening designed to put wildlife at the heart of local gardens.

Wednesday 22nd March

Ascot Heath primary school wildlife garden maintenance work - we were pleased to have several volunteers come to help this session and were able to work in the Infant and Junior school areas preparing for children planting vegetables and using the spaces to learn about the natural world.

Saturday 11th March

Many thanks to the small hard working team at Allens Field who continued the work of relocating the wood chip mulch pile to make opportunities for creatures to use around the field.

Monday 27th February

The Wildlife in Ascot Quiz came back to The Stag Pub in Ascot High Street after the enforced break.

We welcomed teams from Bracknell Conservation Volunteers, Warfield Environment Group, Bracknell Forest Natural History Society and 3 teams of Silwood College students.

Our quiz master reports that they did not fare well on anything historic but were fine on genuine wildlife questions :)

Congratulations to the BFNHS team who retained their winners title and the WEG team who were close runners up.

Wednesday 22nd February

Ascot Heath primary school wildlife garden maintenance work - 

Saturday 11th February

Many thanks to the hard working team of 8 people today at Allens Field. We created numerous habitat piles from the wood chip mulch pile and fallen branches picked up from around the woodland. We found quite a few worms living in the mulch, baby centipede and one ground beetle. We hope that the smaller structured piles or "beetle banks" will provide homes for more beetles and their offspring as well as worms and other invertebrates. 

Friday and Saturday 20th and 21st January

Preparing a pollinator patch at Carnation Hall - The heavy work of clearing grass from the area and digging over was completed in the crisp bright sunshine. It is a large area of about 800 sq ft. Winkfield Parish council were very helpful and we give particular thanks to Paul and Felicity for their help especially with the tipper truck to take the turf away. Also thanks to Councillor Dorothy Hayes for all her support in this new venture.

There were five volunteers on Friday who broke back of task, but only two for most of Saturday which was disappointing. We did chat with several passers by who were very positive. One of these was a family walking who stopped to help us for half an hour which was very kind.

Saturday 14th January

Conservation work at Allens Field this month involved putting up bird nesting and bat roosting boxes. Five volunteers turned out despite the weather forecast of heavy rain. These hardy folk were rewarded by the rain stopping while the bird nest boxes were fixed up in the woodland near the car park and while we picked up a disappointingly large amount of litter from the car park then ate christmas chocolates during our break. Unfortunately the rain started again, but not too heavy, when we took the ladder over the field to put the bat boxes up near the pond where we detected most bat activity last summer. The pond is currently part of a water wonderland! Thanks to these selfless volunters we now have installed all the boxes. It was good to meet an enthusiastic local mother and son who came out after the rain to give support and set out to spot our handywork.