Autumn light at Bowdown Woods by Rob Appleby
Great reserves to visit in October
With nearly 90 nature reserves to choose from in our three counties, which are the best to visit this month?
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.
Fly agaric mushroom/ fungus. Picture: BBOWT
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.
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
Sydlings Copse in autumn by Ed Munday
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.
Warburg nature reserve by Nigel Phillips
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.
Dartford warbler by Paul Roberts
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.
Look out for a rainbow of fungi this autumn!
Rainbow of fungi video (https://youtu.be/Qo01JgdXKp4)
Photographs by Peter Creed
What's on this autumn
Forest School Leader Training (Level 3) - Windsor Great Park, 12 March - 4 July*
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