Police update – the changing responsibilities
Main picture: the Richmond Park police team at their farewell event with staff from their neighbours, the team from The Holly Lodge Centre
Sadly, this weekend marks the end of the dedicated Parks Police unit in Richmond Park. This is a significant loss, following 150 years of service. We thank them for their service to Richmond Park. We will greatly miss their expertise and commitment.
Policing responsibility is being taken over by the Richmond borough Safer Neighbourhoods police (which has three wards/Safer Neighbourhood Teams bordering the Park). Two of those SNTs (Safer Neighbourhood Teams) – South Richmond and Ham, Petersham & Richmond Riverside – have now based themselves at the Park police office at Holly Lodge. This means that 10 officers will be based there and will be regularly seen travelling through the park to and from their wards. We are pleased there will be a police presence and the visibility this will provide.
All three SNTs will share responsibility for attending to Park criminal incidents as reported on 999, 101 or online.
The Royal Parks new film on the deer rut
The Royal Parks have released a new film as part of the annual deer rutting season.
The film explains the rut and provides clear guidance on keeping a safe distance, understanding deer behaviour, and taking care with dogs, helping to ensure both visitors and wildlife remain safe.
Deer rutting season in Richmond Park and Bushy Park | The Royal Parks
Busy month for the Friends’ Beverley Brook litter pickers
October was a busy month for the Friends’ team that collects litter from the Beverley Brook.
The first litter collection picked up a bicycle for the first time and also around 210 bottles and cans, 10 balls and filled 10 bags with litter. The second litter collection found a traffic cone, a model of a heart, 25 footballs, 248 bottles and cans and filled 13 bags of litter.
Autumn – time for fungi
Photograph: Janet Bostock
As temperatures drop, early mists, dew and rain encourage fungi to fruit producing mushrooms and other shapes. This year there has been a shortage of rain. Fungi are appearing but they are few and often smaller than usual. Honey Fungus has bucked the trend and has been around in abundance. This could be because trees have been weakened by droughts in this and previous years, weakening the trees’ defence, but there is also plenty on old stumps too. Honey Fungus slowly kills living trees but if on a log or stump it becomes useful as it breaks down and recycles the wood, returning nutrients to the soil and thus feeding the forest. Fungi are the only organism that can digest and break down lignin, the tough part of a tree, enabling insects to access and live in rotting wood. If the fungus caps overlap, look for white spores dropped from the cap above.
The inevitable question is “is it edible?” The answer is yes, for most people, if thoroughly cooked. But no picking is allowed in Richmond Park. All fungi are a valuable food source for insects and mammals and an essential part of the ecosystem.
Vis mig
Vis mig is a jargon term for visible migration, the practice of observing and identifying migrating birds in daylight hours. A small group of bird enthusiasts have been doing this by Upper Pen Pond in recent weeks, relying on good eyesight, sharp ears, binoculars, telescopes and an array of experience and skills to recognise what they see in the sky. It can be very exciting at times if rarities or birds not normally seen in the Park are spotted. There have been large autumnal flocks and sightings of chaffinch, song thrush, redwing and fieldfare, numerous ring ouzel, crossbill, brambling and linnet. Merlin, short-eared owl, rock pipit, tree sparrow (the first since 1990), white-fronted goose, great northern diver and more have been seen briefly as they head over and out of the Park.
Tree Art Walk – a magical combination
Photograph: Eric Baldauf
“This was a magical combination of an art and sketching session and a guided tree walk.”
The Friends’ first Art Walk, held on 27 September, organised by Vivienne Press, was very much enjoyed by both experienced sketchers and absolute beginners. The combination of a tree expert, Christopher Hedley, and an artist, Lynda Minter, worked very well. As one participant wrote: “To sketch the trees with any degree of success you had to observe them very closely, and the tree facts that Christopher provided as participants stopped to draw each tree prompted a close look and detailed observation”.