{"id":23346,"date":"2022-12-15T11:37:04","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T10:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/?p=72523"},"modified":"2022-12-15T12:12:43","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T11:12:43","slug":"vote-for-your-favourite-wildlife-spots-in-greater-london","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/vote-for-your-favourite-wildlife-spots-in-greater-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Vote for your favourite wildlife spots in Greater London"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By BBC Wildlife Magazine\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 15 December 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

To celebrate BBC Wildlife<\/em> magazine\u2019s 60th birthday, we asked 60 people from our wonderful network of writers, presenters, photographers and conservationists to share their favourite places in the UK for wildlife. Believe it or not, five of those places are in Greater London.<\/span><\/p>\n

London may be more famous for its urban landscapes than wildlife havens, but it doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re not there. There are meadows, scrubland, wetlands and commons all teeming with wildlife. Vote for the one you love the most from the list below<\/p>\n

(Voting closes 10 march 2023)<\/p>\n

Our favourite places to spot wildlife in Greater London<\/h2>\n

Frays Farm Meadows, West London<\/i><\/h3>\n
\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
\u00a9 Dudley Miles, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n
This delightful reserve is one of my favourite places. A SSSI managed by the London Wildlife Trust, its wet grazing meadows are a hinterland of sorts, bound by the Grand Union Canal to the west and the roaring A40 to the south. Frays teems with bird life and I see raptors on almost every visit. Red kites and buzzards soar, while kestrels hover metres above the shrub, anticipating an emerging woodmouse. Hobbies dart through the air in summer, the sunlight illuminating their red \u2018trousers\u2019 as they search for dragonflies along the weaving chalk stream. At the same time of year, the vegetation bursts with the songs of warblers \u2013 chiffchaffs, blackcaps and whitethroats all belt out a chorus.My first visit was my most memorable. I witnessed a spectacular emergence of mayflies rising from the stream in their thousands to fulfil their goal of breeding. I never doubt Frays\u2019 ability to surprise.