About Stocker’s Lake
Stocker's Lake, near Rickmansworth, is a place of great beauty and it supports a huge variety of wildlife, especially birds, particularly winter wildfowl. It is owned by Affinity Water and managed by Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust, actively supported by local people who are the Friends of Stocker’s Lake. There are four observation hides located along the southern shore of the lake.
For Stocker’s Lake Visitor information please see our Visit Stocker’s Lake page.
FoSL
Friends of Stocker’s Lake (FoSL), a registered charity, exists to :
conserve, safeguard and enhance Stocker's Lake as a Local Nature Reserve
foster public support for, and appreciation of, Stocker's Lake as a local nature reserve
Below we profile some of FoSL’s recent work at the lake.
Cattle at Stocker's Lake
Using a combination of external grants and FoSL’s own funds we have established three “cattle meadows” on the reserve, the long term purpose of which is to stimulate wild flower growth. The short video below explains further and tells the story.
The story of our Cattle Project
Offshore Camera Project
Since 2018 FoSL has had cameras located in the offshore island on which the Herons and Egrets nest. The technology challenges have been considerable but finally in 2024 we achieved our ultimate goal of streaming live pictures from an active nest.
The first video below was created in 2022 and tells the story to date as of then. The second video is more recent and shows edited highlights from our 2024 live stream.
The history of our camera project - 2018 to 2022
New for 2024 - we are now streaming pictures live from a nest. See the video below and/or visit our livestream page.
2024 Live Stream Highlights to 17th April