Just arrived. The 2026 Richmond Park Calendar with 43 photos
Front cover and April image: Azaleas and oaks in the Isabella Plantation © Eric Baldauf
Beautifully produced, with 43 original photos, this is more than a calendar – it’s a wonderful memento of the scenery, wildlife and peace of Richmond Park throughout the year. Same price as last year – treat yourselves and delight your family and friends whilst helping to raise funds for projects in the Park. £10.
Our Christmas cards have also arrived with beautiful new designs. Packs of eight cards, each of one design. Same price as last year – £5 per pack.
Buy online: Shop – Friends of Richmond Park
or at the Visitor Centre at Pembroke Lodge.
Information and Opening hours: Visitor Centre – Friends of Richmond Park
Heathrow’s Third runway plans threaten Richmond Park
Heathrow’s Third Runway plans published last month threaten the future of Richmond Park and its tranquillity and biodiversity.
Following high level plans published on 1 August, Heathrow Airport expects to submit a planning application in 2028, with the runway completed sometime from 2035.
Heathrow have not yet published proposed flight paths with this new proposal. But both the previous third runway plans and the current Airspace Modernisation plans include flight path options over Richmond Park.
Our concerns include:
- a proposed increase from the current 480,000 to 756,000 flights per year;
- the expectation that regulations governing the environmental impact of such massive projects will be watered-down in a raft of government revisions later this year; and
- the threat that plans for Minimal Change to flight paths in Airspace Modernisation, which have gained support from MPs and others, will be shelved.
We call on Heathrow Airport and the Government to introduce no new flight paths and no more flights over Richmond Park.
Phase 2 of Wildlife Survey completed: 168,487 wildlife images classified
Images from the wildlife survey in Richmond Park
We have now completed the image classification phase of The Richmond Park Wildlife Survey. This was Phase 2 – the classification of the wildlife images from the 600,000 total images collected by the 150 cameras set out in the park in Phase 1 by Friends’ volunteers in April 2024.
ZSL Zoological Society of London set up an online project using the Zooniverse software platform to allow Friends’ volunteers and others to review all the images to identify the species they contain.
1,460 volunteers classified the 168,487 images which contained wildlife. Since each image had to be classified by up to five different people to ensure consistency this represented an enormous amount of effort. Thank you to everyone who helped.
We now start Phase 3, analysing the results of the classifications (called meta-data) to investigate all the species found and to track their behaviour. Then we will produce a report and ZSL will incorporate this into a wider ecology project across all London’s green spaces.
Fire in Richmond Park
Photograph of the fire in Richmond Park
On 12 August there was a fire in Richmond Park. Good work by The Royal Parks staff and the London Fire Brigade brought it quickly under control. It was near Sidmouth Wood.
If you see a fire in Richmond Park, call 999.
The London Fire Brigade use what3words, a system which divides the world into 3 metre squares and gives each square a unique combination of three words. They are keen for anybody who makes a report of a fire or incident to use what3words to help them pinpoint the fire/issue.
To help protect Richmond Park, download what3words to your phone.
For more information about what3words click here:
Discover some of the many ways what3words can be used | what3words
A passage of birds
A female wheatear in Richmond Park August 2025 Photo: Nigel Jackman
As autumn creeps stealthily upon us, summer migrant birds sense that it is time to be leaving our shores for warmer climes. With luck, a number of interesting passerines that breed further north and west in the UK may be seen in the Park in September and even into October as they make their way south towards Africa. Already a pied flycatcher and several redstarts, spotted flycatchers, whinchats and wheatears have been observed, particularly in the paddocks at Holly Lodge. Other possible visitors are ring ouzels (medium-sized white-bibbed thrushes) and, rarely, a wryneck, a diminutive and unlikely looking member of the woodpecker family.