Autumn Newsletter 2025

Welcome to the September 2025 newsletter for the Friends of Kinsbourne Green Common.

First up, a date for your diary.

Litter pick in collaboration with St Mary’s Church Saturday 27th September 10.30 am St Mary’s church

Please come and spend an hour or two of your morning helping clear rubbish discarded around your local community.   It really makes a difference to the look of where you live, and you get to meet your neighbours too. Come prepared for some rummaging in grass verges by wearing clothing to cover your arms and legs, and strong footwear such as boots. Gloves would be beneficial too.  If you have your own litter pickers, please bring these too, but the church can supply the grabbers and plastic bags as well as hi viz wear if you don’t have any of your own.  We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible.

Common news

The parched grass of the common paints the picture we’ve all seen and felt over the past 5 months of an exceptionally dry spring and summer.  In some areas of the country there has been only 25% of the usual rainfall.  For farmers this is critical, for the common it means the grass didn’t grow so well for the annual hay cut, but the fruits of the bushes and trees have been exceptional as the plants work hard to ensure survival.

The summer was good for our nesting skylarks, and we were delighted to observe and hear several mating pairs from April to July.  Thank you for observing the area of the common marked out to minimise footfall to support these ground nesting birds. Their birdsong is so beautiful to hear, always making me look to the sky to see if I can spot the bird and always also amazed at how high off the ground they might be, yet the song carries so clearly. Amazing!

We’ve also had the best year we can remember for harebells. It might have been the lighter grass growth that meant they had fewer plants to compete with, but there were swathes of their delicate light purple flowers to see.  Whilst neither the skylark nor harebell are rare species, they are in decline so it’s heartening to see them thriving here.

July saw the erection of the long-awaited information board for the common.  Located close to the scout hut and church, you can’t fail to spot it sharing a map of the common, some do’s and don’ts and some birds and plants to look out for.  It was part funded by Cllr Allison Wren from her local councillor budget and the Harpenden Trust.  We are very grateful for their generosity.  As one person observed ‘it looks like someone owns it now’.  We tend to agree.

You may have also been one of the people enjoying the new bench – this work has been led and funded by the Parish Council.   There are also plans in hand for the litter bin to be replaced and located just a little further away from the bench, which will make it an even more pleasant place to sit!

Butterflies and birds

In July a group of us joined Malcolm Hull from the Hertfordshire and Middlesex branch of Butterfly Conservation on a walk around the common.  The date was chosen as it marked the start of the Big Butterfly Count which runs each year to do an annual survey a ‘state of the (butterfly) nation’ if you will.    Malcolm kindly showed us where to look to find a range of species and where they like to live.  He is keeping a record of the butterflies seen so we can spot if species are thriving or in decline and ensure we try and do what we can to support them.  We observed 20 species over a couple of hours.  In a world of hyperbole, the naming of butterflies seems to buck this trend with names like ‘Common Blue’ going nowhere near sharing the actual beauty of this species!

If butterflies and moths (I learnt they are one and the same) interest you then you may wish to download an app to record sightings.  The app is called iRecord Butterflies, and it can locate where you are from your phone signal and then suggest the most common species in your area for you to help spot and record them.  

Turning next to birds. We would also like to thank Geoff Horn from Harpenden RSPB who has been helping us to get a better understanding of the birdlife supported by the common, and he passed on the following advice:

“When monitoring the wildlife value of the Common, it is just as important to record the crows and the pigeons, as the more unusual treecreeper and lesser whitethroat that have been seen this year. Summer visitors such as swifts, swallows and martins are of particular interest as they have been in decline for several years. There are some excellent phone Apps for recording birdlife. Merlin and eBird both work very well. If you’d like any help or advice using them please contact geoffhorn@yahoo.co.uk “. 

Geoff has set up Kinsbourne Green Common as a ‘hotspot’ on the eBird app, so that all the data can be collated in one area. Two local RSPB members have also generously offered to help by undertaking an annual Breeding Birds Survey using the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) methodology. This will be of great value as we try to build up a picture of how our management of the Common is helping the biodiversity.

I close this newsletter with a note of thanks and photo of the annual hay cut by our local Flamstead based farmer, Stephen Behr.

I hope you enjoy the autumn days, and I actually find myself wishing for some rain. Mostly for the farmers, but also for my parched garden.

Best wishes

Sue Archer, Chair