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Hi everyone KiW Trainee Max here! Yesterday, KiW Trainee Lauren and I got to visit Camley Street Natural Park! It's a nature reserve hidden behind Kings Cross station and honestly feels like a hidden piece of paradise. It has so many habitats - wetlands, ponds, rivers, meadows, forest - it was gorgeous. We even got to see coral fungus which was really exciting.

Located at the bottom of the hill where it is very damp and humid. There are two logs and total of four different fungal species. The two logs are have been there for quite a while because they are quite far in their stages of decomposition. The fungi have started dying from week 1 to the next as you can see in the pictures.

Located halfway up the hill where it isn’t quite dry but not damp either. It is very interesting as it has a stump and the fungi in the stump are covered by a fallen tree which is also decomposing. The tree, at the end with the stump, has some fungal spores growing on it and at the other end has another two species of fungi growing but I still have to identify all of these four species. The tree is also next to lots of moss meaning that the air is very clean since moss can’t grow in spaces without clean air. A picture of a nearby tree with moss is included. I believe that some of the species in this location are the same as the ones in location 2.

Unfortunately, some of the trees at the back of the school had been blown down and some were damaged as the wooden supports had not been removed. As part of the Conserve challenge the school pupils had great fun learning about the trees, planting new beech and restoring the old birch and beech trees. Thanks to our NAC Park Ranger for joining us!

Elderbank family stories and pictures whilst exploring their Wild Places throughout the October break.

Last week i went to visit the Ash Close Woodland again to see if anything had changed. I predicted that since it was autumn and it was getting colder fewer people would go walking to. This meant there would be less litter. I was right however it didn't mean there was no litter. Even though the summer holidays were over, the school year had started. This meant that many people would use the pathway to go to and return from school. A lot of pupils buy food from nearby shops and cannot be bothered to put the rubbish in the bin so they just drop it anywhere. There was a lot of snack wrapping around. However there is evidence that even older people are not putting they're rubbish in the bins. They are lots and lots of alcohol cans thrown around. I still think there should be more bins placed around the path. There is only one in the middle but there should be some on both ends of the pathway. There were also dogwalkers using the path as usual as well. Towards the middle of the pathway there is a bin specifically there for dogs. However hung on one of the walls was a bag of waste. So not only is the problem of littering due to the lack of bins but its also just ignorance and laziness

On 21st Oct we saw the river Thames to see the river that the river Wey feeds into. Shreya also wrote a nature poem.