Hamble Conservation Volunteers

08/10/2026

Salicornia( Marsh Samphire) turning into its autumnal shade of red.
Hamble Common Salt Creeks .

05/10/2026

Next task will be on Monday 12 October 2026. Meet at the School Lane car park at 10:00.

We will be removing some old gorse stands to open up the heathland and encourage other heathland plants to colonise.

Bring thick gloves, all tools are provided and coffee and tea are available. Just come along for an hour to see if it is the sort of activity for you and meet some of our volunteers.

28/09/2026

Fox Moth Caterpillar curled round a pebble - Hamble Common .

28/09/2026

And so it begins - fly tipping season in Hamble.

Anyone had their leylandii / conifers trimmed back?

20/09/2026

No evidence of Nightjars nesting on the Common this year unfortunately. Hopefully next year .
Photograph shows their wonderfully cryptic plumage which acts as an extraordinary camouflage.

16/09/2026

Male Stonechat on the Western Heath - Hamble Common.

16/09/2026

Clouded Yellow on the grassy bank - Hamble Point .

14/09/2026

Our conservation task today was to start the process of clearing a large stand of aged gorse to open up the heathland in an area where gorse has become completely dominant. An excellent start was made by 8 volunteers and this will over time improve the habitat and make it a more diverse heathland.

10/09/2026

The Common has been quite quiet over the very hot summer months all sources of fresh water dried up apart from the cattle troughs. We avoided any major disasters and kept a fire watch which resulted in some irresponsible individuals being moved on due to the high risk of fire.

Now we will be turning to conservation tasks on the Common with the first one scheduled for Monday 14 September 2026, meeting at the car park opposite the currently dry pond on School Lane at 10:00. Later in the month we will be out checking our nest boxes, recording, cleaning and replacing as necessary.

This year we have experienced both squirrel and woodpecker damage to certain types of nest boxes with apex roofs and these will have to be replaced before next spring.

Unfortunately this year we were not lucky enough to have some of our rarer nesting birds breeding on the Common as in a previous years. So no kestrels, nightjars or dartford warblers this year but plenty of linnets, greenfinch, chiffchaffs, stonechats and whitethroats to add to the blue t**s, great t**s, long tailed t**s, blackbirds, robins, wrens, song thrushes and of course woodpeckers (all found nesting on the common).

01/09/2026