Great reserves to visit in October

Bowdown Woods, Berks

Autumn is a colourful time at Bowdown Woods, which contains woodland, grassland and heathland. Leaves turn to shades of gold and brightly coloured fungi push their way to the earth's surface. Follow our circular wildlife walks around each part of the reserve to discover more.

Explore Bowdown Woods and nearby Greenham Common on our circular West Berks Wild Walk.

Bowdown Woods

West Berks Wild Walk

Dancersend with Pavis Woods, Bucks

Dancersend is wonderful all through the year. Autumn brings a large number of fungi, including fly agaric and the amazing collared earthstar whose outer layer splits and folds backward into a star-shaped pattern. 

Our Tring Park Wild Walk is a circular walk from Tring that includes Dancersend and a section of the Ridgeway National Trail. 

Dancersend

Tring Park Wild Walk

Rushbeds Wood, Bucks

Most of the trees here were felled in the late 1940s, and only a handful of mature oaks remain. Today's 'wildwood' is a mixture of ash, field maple, aspen, hazel and oak along with blackthorn, hawthorn, spindle and a few old hornbeams. The woodland is damp and tussocky with a wide variety of sedges, grasses and rushes. Follow the circular Wildlife Walk and look out for fungi on the woodland floor

Rushbeds Wood

Sydlings Copse, Oxon

Tucked away to the north-east of Oxford, near Barton, Sydlings Copse is a treasure trove for wildlife enthusiasts all year round.

During the autumn a profusion of fungi erupts from the woodland floor, as well as the limestone grassland. Trees and shrubs are laden with berries and leaves are turning to shades of gold, orange and bronze.

Sydlings Copse

Find out more about the Wild Oxford project 

Warburg Nature Reserve, Oxon

This nature reserve nestled in the Chilterns is great to get away from it all. Filled with autumn colour from the beechwoods and fungi, there's plenty to discover as you explore.

Warburg Nature Reserve

Henley  Wild Walk

Wildmoor Heath, Berks

Wildmoor Heath is a precious area of rare heathland habitat in Berkshire, and home to a rich, but fragile, community of fungi, insects, reptiles, birds, mosses and flowering plants.

Why not explore Wildmoor and the surrounding countryside as part of our circular Sandhurst Wild Walk.

Wildmoor Heath

Sandhurst Wild Walk

Look out for a rainbow of fungi this autumn!