Yesterday we visited Wilderness Island in Carshalton. A gorgeous little nature reserve managed by The London Wildlife Trust, nestled between two arms of the river Wandle.
...Although it's small, as you walk around and follow the trails there is loads to see. Fruit trees and blackberry bushes, loads of fungi, areas of shallow pond, bridges to climb up, birds and insects...
Of course, as I mentioned... the best bit for the boys is definitely the river itself. We usually take a long slow walk around the reserve, looking at the different trees and plants, listening out for animals...
When it was summer there were more birds around but I think they've gone somewhere a bit warmer now! Jakob likes bug hunting, lifting bits of wood or bark from fallen trees or moving rocks to see what lay underneath.
The river is shallow near the entrance, and has loads of interesting things in it, most importantly a large fallen log that hasn't moved since the first time we found it. The boys love sitting on it and watching the water flow past their legs. There are other, smaller logs and branches, and even some not so natural things - for example we found a large spanner in there yesterday!
I hope we continue to enjoy this nature reserve throughout the winter, I'm looking forward to seeing how the river freezes up and showing the boys what it looks like with ice :)