The Wild New Forest Camp

The Autumn Wild New Forest Wildlife Camp took place from the 25th October to the 27th, 2024, and it was an absolutely brilliant experience. Easily as good as the Spring camp, the activities took a completely new perspective as the season changed, with many of them remaining the same, like the Bio-Blitz, but looking for different species. For example, you’re going to find a lot more fungi in autumn than spring.

The main aim of the camps is to bring together young people who love nature. From the start its been a success, because many people, me included, find that most people they meet at school or around them don’t share an interest and passion for nature. For somebody who knows precious few people to talk about their passion with, suddenly everybody in the building has a common interest. And that has to be what I like the most, just being around like-minded people.

It was a really incredible experience and in the next few blogs, I’m going to share exactly what we did and how it went (nothing went badly by the way). I really enjoyed it, because everything was nature-based. There wasn’t a single moment during the entirety of the weekend where the natural world and a passion for it didn’t feature prominently. And it all began on that Friday evening.

The camp was held at Cameron’s Cottage, a unique outdoors centre designed to accommodate young people to spend time in nature. It is based within the RSPB Franchises Lodge reserve, a large and dramatic woodland deep within the New Forest National Park. All around the cottage lie the woods, glorious in their crisp autumn bloom. And just the separation, the isolation from the hustle and bustle of the outside world, is what makes this experience so special. A weekend truly in nature, surrounded on all sides by it.

Finally, the camp is run by Marcus Ward and Emily Louise, directors of Wild New Forest Guided Tours. They give guided walks and tours around the New Forest almost every other day, and pack a schedule full of talks and walks. True to form, they run the camp brilliantly, arranging a packed itinerary for all the young people that come on the camp. So big thanks for them for making this all possible, and also to the RSPB and Cameron Bespolka Trust, who both sponsor the camp and make it happen.

The Cameron Bespolka Trust is a charity set up with one main goal; to connect young people with nature. It was set up following the tragic death of 16 year-old Cameron, and they have worked hard to pass on his love of birds and nature to other young people. Their work ranges from school visits and weekend camps, to projects like Cameron’s Cottage. And every single time, its all about getting children outside in nature, rather than indoors and in cities. Their work is truly an inspiration for the rest of us, and they are just brilliant! Learn more about them here.

The camp this time around was quite different to the Spring edition. Of course, we still had activities such as lamping, Bio-Blitzing, and moth trapping. But there were many differences, many of them due to the time of year. Autumn’s nature is a completely different world to that of Spring, and this was reflected in what we found during the weekend. We found a lot more fungi than wildflowers, for example, and the array of bird species was wildly dissimilar.

We were also in a different location, this time in what felt like the middle of nowhere, a renovated woodsman’s cottage deep in the woods. It was the perfect base to be immersed in nature, because you are fully surrounded by nature, with a 10-minute walk to the nearest road. Back in Spring, we were at the CET (Countryside Education Trust), which was on a working farm, but here we were among the watchful trees of the RSPB Franchises Lodge reserve.

Which leads me perfectly on to the fact that from Cameron’s Cottage, we were able to walk to everywhere we were doing activities. In the Spring, we had a pair of minibuses to ferry us from place to place, as few of them were in walking distance of the CET. There were pluses to this, such as the fact that we were able to visit the incredible Lymington and Keyhaven Marshes on the coasts, but it was brilliant to be able to visit sites such as Eyeworth Ponds this time around, with a bird and fungi walk on the way!

We also set up camera traps in the surrounding woods, something that we weren’t really able to do at the CET. A camera trapping team (me included) headed off into the forest to set them up, looking for places that seemed to be a good spot for passing mammals. We were looking for churned up ground and deer tracks, as well as good points to cross the stream and marks in moss and on logs spanning the water. We even placed one watching over a fresh deer carcass, in case a fox came to call overnight. We didn’t manage to catch much in case you were wondering, unless it was laughter-inducing videos of ourselves setting them up!

The Camp was incredible, and I loved my second experience with Wild New Forest. As I have talked about above, it was a completely different camp, but equally valuable and enjoyable, and we spent virtually the entire weekend out of doors, searching for the weird and the wonderful species of the New Forest’s slice of the natural world. Stay tuned for more blogs about the Camp, featuring brilliant bird ringing, fungi photography and more…