Connect to Cammo
As you walk around the park, you may notice some signs with QR codes on. These contain snippets of information about the park and its wildlife. You can read these on your mobile as you walk, or you can find all of them here.
Welcome to Cammo
Welcome to the Cammo Estate Local Nature Reserve, a beautiful local nature reserve. Walk around and enjoy the wetland and boardwalk, the wildlife and the hedgerows. Lots of work has gone into making the park look this wild! So please respect the environment, take away any litter and have dogs under control. We hope you enjoy your walk and can immerse yourself in the natural beauty of Cammo.
Cammo's big trees
Cammo has lots of big old veteran trees. Some of these were planted the owners of the estate in the 1700s so are around 300 years old. Old trees are brilliant for wildlife – they have bits of dead wood and nooks and crannies for nesting birds and insects to live in. Sometimes the trees are completely hollow because the heartwood has died away, but a cylinder is a very strong shape so the trees can go on for many years. The oldest trees in Cammo are oaks and yew.
The Friends of Cammo have brought lots of logs and branches into the park. These provide cover and food for the park’s animals. Almost every pile has a wren and a robin catching insects. Frogs and toads hibernate underneath in the winter away from the cold, and mice and voles live here, too. There is also at least one stoat that is often seen in or around the woodpiles looking for prey.
Please don’t move the log piles or use them for firewood, you’ll disturb the voles!
This is one of around 5,000 trees planted by the Friends of Cammo to create hedgerows in the park. The green tube is a tree guard which is needed to prevent deer, voles and rabbits from eating the tree.
The species planted are all native to the UK. Around 40% are hawthorn, but there are also hazel, holly, oak, and lots more. Fully grown hedgerows are home to huge numbers of insects and birds. They have lots of flowers in the spring and berries in the autumn. Bats and our owls (tawny and barn owls) feed along them at night. The Cammo hedgerows are full of life!
If walking dogs, please try to prevent them from ripping up the tubes or breaking the wooden posts. This will leave the tree vulnerable to being eaten!
The Cammo wetland and boardwalk project was carried out in March 2022. The Friends of Cammo designed, oversaw and planted it.
The water comes from the big canal pond up by the ruined house. The water used to run under the field in a pipe but we broke into it and dug the stream down the slope to feed the wetland. The wetland was planted up with lots of native plants – flag iris, bog bean, flowering rush, and lots more. The water generally is only 200mm deep except for under the boardwalk. Sticklebacks, newts, and frog and toad tadpoles swim in the water and herons, kingfishers, moorhen and mallard feed here.
When walking dogs, please try to keep them out of the stream and wetland if possible, as they break down plants and disturb nesting birds. Dogs are welcome to swim in the canal pond next to the ruin, instead.
In the past, Cammo Fields were just plain, grass fields. This is because they were once a golf course, and after that were used for cattle grazing. Since 2015, the Friends of Cammo have planted thousands of flowers which provide nectar and pollen for bees, and seeds for birds to feed on.
The fields have been harrowed, seeded and had wildflower plugs planted. With the council’s help we have organised the cutting and baling of them too.
Today, the fields are full of life. There is a huge range of flowers, including orchids, cowslips, yellow rattle and many more. There are lots of bees, as well as voles and mice which provide food for our resident tawny and barn owls.
As you enjoy the fields, please try to keep to the existing paths wherever possible. The flowers do not like to be stood on!