Moving forward after the lockdown

"While we struggled with the pandemic, nature took the opportunity to flourish"

Back in January, who would have known that our everyday lives were soon to change so drastically? Who could have predicted that nearly everything that we sponsor and support would be postponed; no nature, wildlife or bird camps, no educational scholarship to Cornell, no Young Naturalists monthly meetings and no Young Leaders course.

For all the above and more, we partner with a wide range of organisations who are actively involved in protecting and promoting the natural world. We can't wait to continue working with them.

This lockdown has shown us how important wildlife and nature are and how access to nature-rich spaces support our physical and mental well-being. Less pollution and noise have allowed nature to flourish in front of our eyes and this is something we have all been able to take advantage of and enjoy.

Some of the most unlikely household items can make an ideal birdhouse.

Help wildlife visit your garden by providing food and most importantly water.

Young Ambassadors
These last few months have given us time to explore our Cameron Bespolka Young Ambassador programme and how we can make a difference to these young naturalists. We want to offer them opportunities to improve their knowledge and passion, collaborate with like-minded young people, speak publicly, enhance writing skills and increase wildlife knowledge.

We are delighted that our Young Ambassador programme will be working in association with C.J. Wildlife who offer a wide variety of wildlife products.

Our Young Ambassadors are the next generation who will care and help protect nature and will be our leaders of the future. Lockdown has given them a huge amount of extra time to create wildlife gardens, write blogs, build a wildlife pond, record and submit vital data, improve their knowledge and use their social media platforms to campaign for conservation. And I am so proud of how much they have achieved. Have a look to see how much they have been doing:

We are also thrilled to welcome Amy Hall to our Board of Trustees. She is studying Zoology at Exeter University and is a passionate naturalist and will bring a heap of knowledge as well as an additional perspective to the Board.

Cameron's Cottage in RSPB's Franchises Lodge Reserve
A place for young people from every background to discover all things wild and natural.

Illustration: Moorhouse Architecture

Cameron’s Cottage has been basking in peace and sunshine in RSPB’s Franchises Lodge nature reserve in the New Forest. Despite obvious delays, together with the RSPB we are still very busy working behind the scenes. We are in the process of selecting a construction company to carry out the rest of the extensive renovation work as well as build the Field Study Centre. It's great to see the architect's illustration above showing how Cameron's Cottage will look once all the work is complete.

New roof at Cameron's Cottage

In the meantime, we are thrilled that Steve Cuff, who very generously and kindly offered his services, was able to completely water-proof and fix the roof. Thank you to Steve for this fabulous work! He also installed a bat box for the Rhinolophidae bat (commonly known as the horseshoe bat) and one for the Common Pipistrelle bat, giving them places to roost.

We can't wait to proceed with the next phase.

The Shop
We are enormously grateful for your continued support and generosity. We appreciate your donations, shop purchases and enthusiastic fundraising. Our shop continues to thrive with many new items available and even a beautiful hamper created by Megan, if you are looking for a special gift.

Megan and Aya

To say I was blown away by Sarah and Ed Neish walking an incredible 85km in one rainy day, is an understatement! We are so proud of them and so grateful. Sarah is one of our Trustees and she ended up raising an absolutely staggering amount of £4,031.25! Thank you Sarah and Ed.

The rain came down on Sarah and Ed during their 85km walk, but they carried on smiling through

A huge thank you too to Ben Porter for so generously donating the proceeds from the sale of his beautiful wildlife calendar to us and to the talented Jake Gauntlett for writing a musical tribute in memory of Cameron. Please listen to Jake's composition Nightingale , it is moving and very beautiful.

It is exciting that some things can still go ahead, such as the RSPB WildArt competition. This is a perfect opportunity for under 18 year olds to connect with wildlife by observation and creating beautiful pieces of art. More information on this exciting competition can be found on our website

And we are very happy to continue to work with Hampshire Ornithological Society and offer free membership to under 21 year olds so they can join and be part of this active and dynamic bird club. I am pleased to report that HOS has increased their young membership from 1 to 35.

Together let’s keep doing small things that make a huge difference.

Stay safe.

Corinne, Kevin, Nicholas, Megan and Sienna

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Registered Charity No: 1156567

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