We attended a talk by Sir David Attenborough for children yesterday entitled "Newts, Coots and Muddy Boots:  A Natural History of Richmond-upon-Thames in 5 objects" organised by the Richmond Environment Trust.  One of the other speakers was Keith Martin from Friends of the River Crane, who taught us how to recognise the sound of a song thrush.  So today, I headed with my two children to the Crane Park Island nature reserve...

We heard our song thrush ... (we remembered the trill 'repeat, repeat, repeat...')

The children were both thrilled to discover a wildnerness like this so close to home; could hardly believe we had never discovered it before.  

I also spotted this delightful, chubby robin.  

One of the speakers, Nigel Reeve, head of ecology from the Royal Parks spoke about the importance of rotting wood and described the role of fungus in rotting the wood, making it a good home for beetles.

He also talked about ancient trees, how some living trees in the Royal Parks were here around the time of Henry IV...

Inside the nature reserve, I was thrilled to spot this tit before it flew away...

Joe Pecorelli, acquatic ecologist also inspired us to  explore the River Thames and the children of Archdeacon Cambridge Junior School who spoke about their school ecology club.  The talks clearly had an impact, as I spotted another parent at Crane Park today who had also attended the event.  

We will return there often.