Tom Burt's Hill Local Wildlife Site

View location of Tom Burt's Hill on My Wycombe

Tom Burt's Hill has been recognised as a Local Wildlife Site due to the variety of wildlife that can be found on the site in spite of its urban location. It's a great place to go and get away from the hustle and bustle of town life without having to jump in your car.

Area profile

The site is near to Wycombe General Hospital and the busy Marlow Hill. Despite its urban backdrop and isolation from the wider countryside, it is an oasis for wildlife. The site has a wide range of important habitats including chalk grassland, scrub and woodland with plenty of dead wood for wildlife.

Best time to visit

If you visit Tom Burt's Hill at the beginning of May you will be greeted by a spectacular display of cowslips while you listen to a wide variety of birds, as they jostle for the best territories on the site.

Wildlife in the area

Foxes and badgers have set up their homes in the area and evidence of their mainly nocturnal goings on can often be seen on the site. Look for scrapes in the grassland where badgers have been rooting around for worms and grubs, also look out for large holes which emanate the typical pungent smell of the fox.

Listen and look for a wide variety of bird life that includes nuthatch, treecreeper and great spotted woodpeckers that take advantage of the many nest holes found within the standing deadwood on the site.

During the summer it is well worth a walk through the grassland to look at the wide variety of flowers found there, if you are lucky you may even see the unusual bee orchid. Also, look out for the butterflies and other insects which feed on the wildflowers.

Tom Burt's Hill: Rangers and reptiles

Over the past few months we have been working hard on this site with the help of The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, Bucks New University and members of the public, improving the footpath network, making the site easier to access and more enjoyable for all.

Our work also includes habitat improvement work for some slow-worms which are being moved by an ecological consultancy company from a site in High Wycombe earmarked for development. We are delighted to be able to offer them a suitable new home and to ensure the site is as good as possible before their arrival, we will be:

• Removing encroaching scrub.
• Installing wooden posts to ensure some areas of the site don't get mown and are left as long, rough grassland.
• Creating log piles with the cut material to provide shelter for the slow worms and many other creatures.
• Building a hibernaculum so they have an area to go and hibernate through the winter.

To help out or learn some more about this project, please contact us - details are situated on the top right of this page.