See cache CSW1 for details of this series.
Crofton Woods is not only an SSSI, it is also designated as a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation and is home to many birds, such as greater spotted, lesser spotted, and green woodpeckers, nuthatch, tree creeper, chiff-chaff and blackcap. There is also a variety of mammals, including badgers. There are also butterflies and moths in the woods, and each week from spring to autumn two butterfly recorders walk their own set circuit around the woods, called a transect, recording the butterflies they have seen.
Unfortunately butterfly numbers have been falling in recent years. In 2024 the three most commonly seen butterflies in the woods were the Speckled wood, Meadow brown and Large white.
This cache is located on the edge of an area of the woods that is known locally as Roundabout Wood. In this part of the woods there are open glades, including St Thomas’s open space, providing a different habitat to the denser woodland. Plants such as cow parsley, bush vetch and bird’s foot trefoil may be found at appropriate times of the year.
Permission for cache placement in the SSSI has been obtained from Natural England and the Senior Ranger and Site manager.