Kingston University Biodiversity Action Group

24-11-2016: Weaving the day away

On Saturday we had our annual autumn woodland workshop. This year we concentrated on creating something from material that normally gets cut and composted/bundled on our site - brambles!

15-10-16: Mud, mud glorious mud


Last Saturday saw Kingston Hill playing host to the annual pond maintenance event at Coombehurst Pond.

24-08-2016: Kingston University’s 2016 Big Butterfly Count

The Big Butterfly Count (BBC) is a national survey run by Butterfly Conservation.
It aims to assess the health of the environment using changes in populations of butterflies and moths as these species react very quickly to change in their environment. This makes them excellent indicators of environmental health.

20-05-2016: Water water everywhere….

Duckling feeding on the vegetation in the KU riverbank
This week we attempted to get into the river to undertake one of our river TLC sessions...

12-05-2016: Eel’ve been batting around on the Hogsmill!

While I couldn’t resist the pun, it does sum up what we’ve been doing this week on the Hogsmill.

We had our annual bat walk around Middle Mill this year on Monday, followed by eel training on Wednesday.

27-04-16: April’s Mega Blog – Honey tastings, river habitat TLC and woodland workshops


As I’ve been a bit lax on blogging after events recently, this week’s blog is one of my famous mega blogs, four events, lots of photos and only one post to tell you all about it …

25-04-2016: Upcoming popular events - sign up now!


Its that time of year again. We are holding our next Bat Walk and eel training in May.
Please note that these are bookable events, you must be booked on with a confirmation email to take part.

15-03-2016: Local event this Sunday

A fantastic local event this Sunday in the Tolworth area.
Discover this reserves hidden wildlife wonders.

10-03-2016: The battle of the sexes lost in a river!

*Warning - best not read when having any meal!
On Thursday volunteers entered the Hogsmill at Knights Park to do a litter clearance on the naturalised bank that was installed by volunteers in 2014.
The section of the river in the summer with students and staff enjoying the terrace

03-03-2016: The D to R of water habitats

Come in and join the gang
What do these two images have in common? They are both sections of water habitats associated with the Hogsmill which we are trying to restore.

02-03-2016: From Land to Water and in-between...


The following events and projects need your help to get them off the ground. Many of them are brilliant opportunities to learn transferable skills, help promote the local area and gain some volunteering experience which can all help you in your future plans after Kingston University.

We also have a call for help from final year degree student at Kingston University for participants living in Kingston to complete a short 5 minute questionnaire for her dissertation.

See below for more details:

01-03-2016: The Birds…of Kingston and Dorset

The KU bird count in numbers
As promised last month, we've brought you the comparison between the bird counts for Kingston University sites and those surveyed by the pupils of Wimborne First School.

15-02-2016: We need more help for our Wildlife Ditch Day on Saturday


If you are free between 10am -4.30pm on Sat 20th Feb, and are looking for an unusual workout this weekend; why not join us in helping to make our ditches at Tolworth Court better for wildlife?

We will be reshaping the edges of the ditches so that wildlife can get in and out easily while clearing areas of blocked drainage channels.

Please sign up by emailing me by Thursday 18th Feb (10am) with your full contact details including a mobile number (used on the day if the event has to be cancelled).

Food will be provided, so don't forget to let me know if you have any food allergies or restrictions i.e. nut allergies, vegetarian, lactose intolerant etc.

Thank you,

08-02-2016: Counting Birds and Bashing Rhodo

Recycling our 2015 count sheets this year!
 Between the 29th January and the 1st February, voluteers were busy spotting birds and bashing Rhodo through some very interesting weather.

20-01-2016 - events calender updates and calls for help


If you are free on Saturday the 30th of Jan are are free to help with the Rhodo Bash at Kingston Hill, it would be great to see you. If you can let me know by Monday 25th January, it will allow me to organise extra supplies. 

If you have heard of the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch, and were thinking about getting involved this year, why not survey at KU site, we are aiming to survey all of our sites as we did with the Butterfly Count last year. 

We are still looking for help on the following sites, so if you have one hour free at any point between Friday 29th Jan and Monday 1st Feb, and would like to undertake a survey at any of of the following sites, please get in touch:
Tolworth Court
Surrey Club and the Reg Bailey Building
Seething Wells 
Kingston Bridge House
Dorich House

We've had a couple of date changes for some events in February and corrected some incorrect times on the previous calender. You can download the PDF of the updated calender here