Main picture: Snowdrops, Pembroke Lodge Gardens, February 2025
Photograph: The Royal Parks
Threat to the Parks Police
We remain deeply concerned by proposals to disband the Parks police unit and for its officers to be redistributed to other parts of London. Policing in Richmond Park would become the responsibility of the local community police team.
We await an announcement from the police as to the plans for policing in Richmond Park but fear that change is likely.
Wildlife survey update
Last year Friends volunteers set out 150 cameras across the whole of the Park for three weeks to record all nearby wildlife. Since then ZSL (the Zoological Society of London) have been working on the 2-3 million images including removing any identifiable human images.
We will soon be making images available to members to help identify the species.
Visitor Centre
New in at The Visitor Centre at Pembroke Lodge: Richmond Park Water bottles in two designs, each with two tops, one top attaches to a rucksack or bag. £12.50.
New automatic folding umbrellas made from recycled water bottles are now in stock. There are 3 designs – deer, birds and animals. £12.50.
Visitor Centre Information and Opening hours: Visitor Centre
New edition of The Birds of Richmond Park
The latest updated edition of The Birds of Richmond Park, listing 180 different bird species spotted in the Park over the last 10 years, is now published. It gives guidance on whether the birds are resident, summer or winter visitors, or if they are rare species in the Park. Compiled for the Richmond Park Bird Group by Nigel Jackman. Sources: Richmond Park Bird Group and London Natural History Society records.
By some margin, a record number of species were recorded in 2024, attributable to a combination of diligent observation, luck and the number of water birds drawn to the low water and mud of Upper Pen Pond while it was drained.