Jeskyns Community Woodland - Forestry England

Please be aware- From Monday September 2nd the car park will be closing at the earlier time of 8pm. 🚗

Tell us about your visit! 🌳

If you visited Jeskyns recently, we'd love it if you completed our online survey. It only takes three minutes to complete and then your email address will be entered into a prize draw. One lucky entrant will be picked at random every three months to win a prize bundle worth up to £200 (including Forestry England membership and your choice of Forestry England clothing). 🎉

Tell us about your visit Tell us what physical activity you do in the forest for the chance to win some great prizes

Have you noticed that our sculptures have all had a bit of a paint job?

Sarah has been working hard getting the sculptures ready for something special happening later this year!

Due to a break in, the cafe will be having a delayed opening today.

We're hiring!
Are you a practical individual who enjoys spending time outside? We are recruiting for 1 Forest Craftsperson to carry out the practical tasks that enable us to manage our 11 Community Woodlands across Thames Beat! 🔨🪓🔧
More info on how to apply here: https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi?SID=c2VhcmNocGFnZT0xJm93bmVydHlwZT1mYWlyJnVzZXJzZWFyY2hjb250ZXh0PTg5NjAzMzk4JnBhZ2VjbGFzcz1Kb2JzJmpvYmxpc3Rfdmlld192YWM9MTkxNTk1NCZzZWFyY2hzb3J0PWNsb3NpbmcmcGFnZWFjdGlvbj12aWV3dmFjYnlqb2JsaXN0Jm93bmVyPTUwNzAwMDAmcmVxc2lnPTE3MjE5ODc2MjQtZmNlYjkwM2FkNDczZDJiMzNmN2FhMGQ0MTBlOWU1MDI0MTVhZjU4Nw==

Get in the sporting spirit with the Gruffalo this summer Head down to Jeskyns and hunt down Mouse, Snake and friends to uncover hidden letters and enjoy some fun-sized Olympic style challenges!

Gruffalo Party Trail at Jeskyns Community Woodland The Gruffalo is celebrating his 25th birthday and to celebrate, everyone is invited to take part in a brand-new forest adventure. What to expect The interactive family trail features all sorts of party-themed activities and games, along with fun facts to teach you about life in the forest for the Gr...

Calling all Gruffalo fans! 📣 Get in the sporting spirit with the Gruffalo this summer. Head to Jeskyns to hunt down Mouse, Snake and other much-loved Gruffalo characters from July 23 to September 16 to uncover hidden letters and enjoy some fun-sized Olympic style challenges! Leaflets will be available from the Cafe.

We're hiring!

Are you a practical individual who enjoys spending time outside? We are recruiting for 1 Forest Craftsperson to carry out the practical tasks that enable us to manage our 11 Community Woodlands across Thames Beat! 🔨🪓🔧

More info on how to apply here: https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi?jcode=1915954

I have a few spaces left on the wildflower, bird song and invertebrates walk on Friday at 9am, if you would like to book on please email [email protected] or call us 01474 815738

A mouse took a stroll in the deep dark wood!

Our ranger Sarah has been working hard repainting the mouse sculpture in the Gruffalo Play Area, she hopes to move onto the next one soon!

Join them this week! they are discovering the Earth and the environment and planting tomato seeds in recycled cartons!

Message to book on. Mini wAVe Experience

The Gruffalo trail will be closed for essential maintenance work on Tuesday 11th of June, we look forward to updating you on whats happening in there soon!

Jeskyns works closely with Link 19 college. We have two groups which join us one on a Wednesday and one on a Thursday and Friday both groups work with our Ranger Michael.

This week the Thursday/Friday lads have been mowing the central part of our car park.

Well done lads, and thank you for the hard work.

Thank you to those of you who joined us for our first nocturnal walk of the season, our next guided walk will take place on Friday 21st of June where we will be looking at butterflies, wildflowers and birdsong to book yourself onto the walk please email [email protected] or call us on 01474 815738 to avoid missing out!

We had a fantastic range of bats which showed up on our walk and had an unusual visit but good views of a female sparrowhawk.

our Bat species seen were:

Daubenton
Soprano pipistrelle
Common Pipistrelle
Noctule
Liesler

See you next month!

Ranger Richard

just a reminder that from today. the below prices will be introduced and we will stop accepting cash in our Pay and Display machines. You can still pay via card in the same way, utilise the RingGo app or buy a yearly membership.
Thanks for your patience and understanding!

We still have a few spaces on our free nocturnal walk on Friday 17th of May, please email, [email protected] or call us on 01474 815738 to book your spot and avoid disappointment.

You will need to pay for car parking if you are parking in our car park.

We have a date for our change in parking prices and the introduction of cashless payments at Jeskyns.

❗️ 15th May 2024. ❗️

From the 15th May onwards, the below prices will be introduced and we will stop accepting cash in our Pay and Display machines. You can still pay via card in the same way, utilise the RingGo app or buy a yearly membership.

Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Yesterday was World Curlew Day.

The curlew is the UKs largest wading bird, they use there beaks to probe into mud for molluscs or invertebrates. unfortunately this bird is getting more and more uncommon. We do occasionally get Curlew on Meadow 1 but you are more likely to see or hear them flying over as they travel between the river Medway and the Thames.

They make a beautiful mournful warbling call, I will attach a link in the comments.

On another wildlife related note, we still have spaces on our nocturnal walk on the 17th of May, if you would like to join us please email [email protected] or call on 01474 815738 to avoid disappointment.

Wild about Jeskyns is ready to host its next event!!!

I will be hosting a Nocturnal walk on Friday 17th of May, a walk this time of year walks normally get a variety of different wildlife species and up to 4 different species of bat!!!!

The walk will have a maximum of 15 places, these walks will fill up quickly so please email, [email protected] or call us on 01474 815738 to avoid disappointment. You will need to pay for car parking if you are parking in our car park.

We are making some changes to our car parking payment system, which means that we are switching to being cashless. This will save us money, reduce machine errors and reduce the risk of vandalism, meaning we can spend more on looking after Jeskyns.

This upgrade is currently being worked on by our parking machine provider with an approximate lead time of 6 weeks, but we will keep you updated when we have an exact date.

We appreciate that cash is the preferred payment method for some visitors but we hope that moving to a cashless system will reduce the instances when our machines are out of order and create and overall easier visitor experience. More info can be found here: https://www.forestryengland.uk/parking

This update will also coincide with a small uplift in our parking prices, so please stay tuned for further details.

Thank you everybody for joining me today, despite the weather, we had a great walk!

We saw and heard 17 bird species the highlights being: a red kite over the orchard, some members of the group spotted a pair of bullfinch, we saw 6 skylark and a corn bunting was heard by myself and another member of the group.

I plan on running 1 guided walk per month, the maximum number I can have is 12, our next walk will be a nocturnal walk (keep an eye on Facebook for more info!)

Fancy hearing about the lifecycle of a forest in just 90 seconds? Tune in to Episode Five of The Forestry England Podcast

The Forestry England Podcast Each week, host Bex Lindsay visits a different Forestry England site to discover the hidden joys and wonders of wild spaces. From arts to history, wellbeing to wildlife, she's on a quest to learn more about the nation's forests and the people who spend time in them.

📢 A polite reminder...
We love dogs here at Jeskyns and while 99% of our canine visitors are very well behaved we have had some issues recently with out-of-control dogs causing injury.
Here are some ways you can help us prevent dog-related conflict:
🐶 Keep your dog on a lead in the area highlighted orange on the map. There are also signs to help remind you throughout the site.
🐶 Ensure your dog is under close control even when not on a lead. If vocal commands are not always effective with your dog it is recommended that you keep them on a lead, even in off-lead zones.
🐶 Be aware that other dogs may not act predictably and communicate to others if your dog is not comfortable with close contact.
🐶 Please do not bring dogs into our no-dog zones, namely our two play areas. These gates are now signposted!
🐶 Always clean up after your dog and use the provided dog waste bins.
🐶 we have ground nesting birds and sensitive wildlife on site which are susceptible to disturbance from dogs.
🐶 Contact the ranger team on 01474815738 or [email protected] if you become aware of any issues.

Have you ever wondered how our teams across the country are keeping England’s forests fit for the future? Wonder no more, as we unpick it all in Episode Four of The Forestry England Podcast. Listen now

The Forestry England Podcast Each week, host Bex Lindsay visits a different Forestry England site to discover the hidden joys and wonders of wild spaces. From arts to history, wellbeing to wildlife, she's on a quest to learn more about the nation's forests and the people who spend time in them.

Today our Tuesday Volunteer Group was joined by Steve Oram from the Peoples Trust for Endangered Species to teach us about different pruning techniques for Apple Trees.

Thank you everybody for the hard work and thanks Steve for your expert knowledge!

We run two volunteer groups one of which runs every other Tuesday and one that runs once a month on a Saturday, email us at [email protected] for more information.

The wildlife round up for you this week!

Our spot of the week has definitely been the sunshine which we got Thursday afternoon it suddenly became spring very quickly didn't it! The first sign of spring for me is calling chiffchaffs and common primrose, both of these were present on Thursday.

For me though my highlight was a very brief Merlin which is a small falcon that darted across Meadow 1 Tuesday afternoon I tried to point him out to one of our dog walkers but he was to quick! if you are reading this I hope you spotted him later on.

A Red kite flew over the main car park Thursday morning, this was being mobbed by herring gulls (I wonder if it is one of the ones that Shirley Frisby spotted in Swanley.

We have been seeing a lot of mammal activity around the park, especially the Orchard side, our resident wood mice have been having a field day eating the hazel nuts you can see signs of them on the hazel coppice closest to the road crossing. Our foxes have also been busy you might hear the v***n doing that lovely barking call they do when their cubs are up to mischief!

Invertebrate wise, our butterflies are starting to emerge from the overwintering hidey holes, Thursday afternoon the Beat Forester and I spotted several brimstones (which are the bright yellow ones!)

Have you seen anything around the park, let me know in the comments below