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Sara H

You don't have to visit one of our reserves to take part in our free Big Wild Sleepout, but if you do, we can't wait to welcome you!

This annual event is your one chance of the year to spend the night on our reserves, camping in an amazing nocturnal landscape.

Encompassing some of the best sites for wildlife in the South East, you can be sure that whichever reserve you choose; you will have a truly unique experience, so gather together your family and friends and book your place today!

We’ll be introducing you to a new reserve in each of our blogs over the next few weeks, but to see the full list of events now visit our website.

RSPB Farnham Heath - Saturday 29th July - Event fully booked for 2017!

Explore our lowland heathland, a habitat now rarer than rainforest, at this stunning scenic reserve. With wildlife walks, bug traps, cooking on campfires and much more, this event is perfect for all the family. Set in the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, our campsite will take a little longer to walk to than on other reserves, but is well worth the wait!

Here you can easily discover something totally new; heathland creatures have very specific needs and threatened species like field crickets and nightjar are just a few of our specialist species. Have you ever heard a nightjar 'churr' as it rises up from the heather in darkness?

Blogger Rollercoaster Mum talks about her Big Wild Sleepout at Farnham:

The kids..."went off exploring, den building and wildlife hunting with one or two of the RSPB volunteers whilst the grown ups tidied up. Before we knew it it was 9.30 and Mike the warden of the reserve had gathered us for our late evening walk on to the heath to hopefully hear nightjars and see bats and maybe some other wild creatures. The children followed him like the proverbial pied piper and he soon had them hunting for tiny wild strawberries and even eating nettles. As we made our way out on to the heath, he explained how and why it was managed the way it was and we were even joined by the herd of friendly cattle (there to help control the scrub and allow the heath to regenerate.)

It wasn't long before, with our ears cupped, and tuned in we heard the call or churr of the nightjars. I had never heard one before and my best description is that it was a bit like a very loud cicada or cricket or maybe even a bit like and electric drill! They are extraordinary and rather rare summer visitors with great huge mouths and silent flight. They are nocturnal and they used to be called 'goatsuckers' as people believed they stole milk from goats at night! We also heard and spotted owls, bats (with the aid of a bat detector) and even glow worms."
 
 
Places for these extra special events are very limited and we have already filled our places for this event. Why not check out our RSPB Pulborough Brooks, West Sussex or RSPB Rainham Marshes, Greater London events instead?