Spring at Morden Hall Park

Morden Hall Park's wetland boardwalk in spring

Morden Hall Park is bursting into life again as spring arrives. Watch the herons build their nests in the heronry, listen to the woodpeckers hammering at the trees and enjoy the sight of ducklings bobbing on the wetlands.

Nesting season

We’ll be bidding the egret and greenshank goodbye and saying hello to swifts and swallows in the coming weeks. Our resident birds are nesting in the park, including the herons on the island at the far end of the rose garden. The Morden peregrines have their first brood in late spring – it’s fun to watch them hunting round the park.

Spring is here
A duckling in the water
Spring is here

Blossom and bloom

Our avenues become a sweep of brilliant white as the horse chestnut trees put out their flower spikes in mid to late May and the tramline looks spectacular lined with hawthorn and blackthorn blossom.

We’ve been busy clearing scrub to let in the light and create a bluebell walk along our boundary with the tramline. Pockets of bluebells already nestle among the trees and we’re looking forward to seeing them develop into drifts over the coming years.

Clearing scrub to let in the light
A volunteer sawing at a branch to clear scrub
Clearing scrub to let in the light

Giving nature a helping hand

You’ll see teams of volunteers and staff removing Himalayan balsam and pennywort to support the biodiversity of the wetland and river habitats on a Monday and Wednesday throughout spring and summer.

We also clear path edges to make sure you can walk along them with ease and with the added benefit that wildflowers, providing food for butterflies, thrive in the shorter grass. Longer grass offers shelter to field voles and water shrews so it’s important to keep a mix.

To allow fish to breed in peace in Morden Hall Park we enforce the traditional closed season for coarse fishing from 15 March to 15 June inclusive.