Winchester Youth Council

28 January 2026

A wonderful night time excursion...

It was such a pleasure to have Winchester Youth Council bring a group of young people to participate in nocturnal activities last week.  The RSPB led them on a night time walk in the woods and reserve to experience the silence of the woods.  The sound of their footsteps in the leaves and the odd  rustle or distant hoot or chirp was all they could hear plus the smell of damp trees and woodlands. 

They returned with a few objects they found in the woods to Cameron’s Cottage to do some bushcrafting as well as light a fire and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate

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Enjoying a cup of hot chocolate round the camp fire

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They returned with a few objects found in the woods

Autumn wonder at Cameron’s Cottage

02 December 2025

I’m Laura, I work for the RSPB and I run Cameron’s Cottage. I started working here last year and in Autumn 2024 decided to write a seasonal update of all of my goings-on. Here we are a year on with edition 5, Autumn!

As Summer quickly moved into Autumn, the woods surrounding Cameron’s Cottage came alive with colour – from leaves, to fungi, berries and everything in between, nature’s masterpiece was putting on an impressive display. Even while cleaning your teeth, young people could admire this beauty – see the view from our bathroom window!

And just like nature’s last bold act before the quiet of Winter, Cameron’s Cottage was too coming alive with a new wave of intrepid Autumnal explorers. September and October were busy with multiple residential trips and the beginning of November saw the last few day visits of the year. I’m writing this on the first day of December and Autumn is slipping away right in front of my eyes. For me, it’s now time to look ahead to Christmas, the wonders of Winter and planning for 2026 – I must remember to wear my thermals tomorrow!

But back to the slightly more balmy Autumn, where rain only disrupted plans a couple of times and where the sun’s dappled warmth was enjoyable through the golden shades of woodland oak and beech. A definite highlight for me was a sunny morning walk through the woods with a local university group, where fungi were seemingly popping up in front of our very eyes. There were so many of them and so many kinds! It made my day when I spotted my first fly agaric of the season – a firm favourite and a personal indicator that Autumn is surely here.

Behind the scenes I have been working hard to build a following on social media. Instagram has been a particular success, with 538 followers to date! Followers seems to enjoy nature themed content and practical ways to get involved in learning about and looking after the natural world. Showing a Facebook audience of home schoolers and forest schoolers how we use The Lost Words book to teach young people about nature has been a particular hit!

It's been great to have a new way to engage with young people and see their experiences at Cameron’s Cottage – both to follow along with their nature journeys and also a brilliant way for us to reflect using this valuable source of feedback. Here’s one young person who shared a video of his time at Cameron’s Cottage via his Instagram handle mustelid_man. See his post here.

I’ve also been working with the RSPB’s EDI team to raise awareness and improve how Cameron’s Cottage works with young people with Hidden Disabilities and accessibility needs. With initial discussions complete, this work will form a chunk of what I do this Winter – so more on this to come!

With the last group of the year been and gone, I am grateful for an amazing and fruitful 2025 and look forward to what 2026 is going to bring.

Free to be Kids

14 November 2025

I met Free to be Kids a while ago to discuss possibility of a camp at Cameron’s Cottage.  It was therefore wonderful to finally welcome their groups of young people for a stay.  

Free to be Kids is a charity that helps London children who are struggling with complex disadvantages, to feel included.  They support young people from vulnerable backgrounds.

They brought 2 separate groups to Cameron's Cottage during the October half term who said they were made to feel very welcome and loved being completely immersed in nature. This feeling of security and safety made their young people feel very special and cared for.  They specifically said the Cottage was warm and cosy and really loved the communal area as a hang out space, especially the chalk board where you could draw and contribute,  as well as read quotes made by other groups. 

Chalk board in Cameron’s Cottage

The RSPB ran all the activities which included nature rich walks, shelter building as well as wildlife creative sessions.  They loved the activities which offered them a new respect and appreciation for nature. 

"Overall just to say a massive, massive thank you to yourself and the team. We're beyond grateful for the chance to access your beautiful site Providers and organisations like yourself make it possible for groups like us to provide a safe and nurturing space for vulnerable young people who otherwise would not have these opportunities! Thank you so much.”

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Summertime at Cameron’s Cottage

15 September 2025

I’m Laura, I work for the RSPB and I run Cameron’s Cottage. I started working here last year and in the Autumn decided to write a seasonal update of all of my goings-on. This is edition 4, Summer!

In the last edition of this blog, I wrote of how busy April and May had been and early June brought the last of that particular busy spell. Summer has since been a little quieter, allowing for moments of reflection between incredibly rewarding group visits and activities.

The group visits to the cottage have been rewarding

My frequent visits down to the lake were a highlight as I could watch the toad tadpoles developing with every visit! Another highlight was seeing a cacophony of bats on each evening walk I led. Watching the young people be amazed and enthralled by this nocturnal display was so heartwarming – and the excitement from knowing bats were flying low all around us, almost touching our heads at points, was contagious and I couldn’t help but laugh with glee alongside them.

Behind the scenes I had also been working on setting up Facebook and Instagram pages for Cameron’s Cottage to engage young audiences in the nature around them, display some of the goings-on of recent groups visiting the cottage and inviting young people to take action for nature in their local green spaces. July saw the launch of these two accounts and I’ve been enjoying creating videos and taking photos to build an online platform for young people to engage with.

Things picked up again at end of July as we busily prepared for the New Forest Show. The 3 day event is a great opportunity to share what we do with the wider public and local community. Jayne and I designed activities to engage with families and made display boards to aid conservation conversations about our work and our nature reserve.

August brought a small flurry of residential stays and day visits to Cameron’s Cottage, and somehow the team were able to squeeze in some well-deserved holiday! I’m writing this in the beginning of September, with fond memories of the whirlwind year 2025 has already been, and excited for what adventures Autumn brings, especially as while writing this I’m seeing the first signs that Autumn is on its way!

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The reserve lake is teeming with pondlife

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Watching the tadpoles develop

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The New Forest Show was an opportunity share what we do

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We made display boards to aid conservation conversations

Romsey Young Carers

08 September 2025

We were delighted to once again sponsor Romsey Young Carers to spend time in nature, away from their daily responsibilities. Young Carers are young people whose lives are affected by caring for a family member who has a long-term illness or disability. Romsey Young Carers provides safe spaces for their young carers to discuss concerns, get support and have fun.  

The first group consisted of 15-18 year olds who enjoyed their stay at Cameron’s Cottage, immersed in nature, walking, pond dipping and participating in team building games as well as a bat walk and a BBQ around the camp fire.  The bat walk was definitely a highlight.

"During my stay at Cameron’s cottage I was able to decompress around the sounds, sights and smells of nature. We had the opportunity to explore the wildlife that surrounded Cameron’s cottage and we even got to create our own fires to make hot chocolate where we used the natural resources around us.  

"Overall I had the most amazing time being able to catch up with friends and my brother expressing the love of nature and the lovely cottage stay " - Gracie 

"At Cameron's cottage I enjoyed seeing my friends and having the opportunity to relax, enjoy nature and create stronger bonds with other people. I feel it was very beneficial as I am very busy working a full-time job and dealing with lots of adult responsibilities so having the time to just not worry was great. My favourite activity was going to the lake and finding bugs and eating lots of food. I also enjoyed late night uno and playing pranks on everyone". -- Ella

"Thank you so much to everyone at the Cameron Bespolka trust for enabling us to stay at the cottage and experience its surroundings, to be immersed in nature whilst learning new skills. We felt truly enriched and recharged by the end of our stay.”

We were also so pleased to sponsor their Family Fun Day at Cameron’s Cottage. The group consisted of the parents as well as the young carers and provided a perfect place for them to spend time outside together with their parents. A highlight was the campfire where they could play games. 

"Our family day at Cameron’s Cottage was an amazing opportunity that enabled all of us to spend quality time together in a supportive environment, away from the pressures of daily life. The activities – from exploring local insect life to learning practical skills like fire-making – were good fun and encouraged enjoyment of nature. For my daughter, who has caring responsibilities, the day offered both respite and the chance to simply enjoy being a child. Experiences like this have a significant positive impact on her wellbeing, family relationships, and confidence, and I am very grateful that Young Carers had the support from Cameron’s Cottage to make it possible" - Alison

A huge thank you to the RSPB for organising such amazing activities as well as giving these young people some down time to enjoy their surroundings and friends.  

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Spending time in nature helps the young carers decompress

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Enjoying a campfire BBQ

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Team building games are integral to the exprience

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Building a makeshift shelter

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Learning how to safely build a fire at the family day

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It was a chance for the young carers to explore nature

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Romsey Young carers spend time at Cameron’s Cottage

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It was a chance to put drawing skills to the test

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Making use of the outdoor classroom

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The family day was a chance to spend quality time together

Young Writers Camp

31 August 2025

Another group of enthusiastic and creative young people arrived for the 2nd Young Writers Camp.  It was such an honour to create a space for them where they can share an interest in nature and writing.  

They were able to forge friendships with like-minded individuals, learn from experts and have time to write in the beautiful New Forest. Hosted by Emily Hunt and Andrew Millham, the weekend was a unique experience and enjoyed by all. 

"A fabulous weekend. Refreshing to spend time in nature and learn useful tips for writing. I feel much more confident about writing now, especially with so many helpful workshops."

The aim of the camp was to provide young people with the opportunity to connect with nature and enter a space where they can focus on writing and nature. This was achieved by Emily and Andrew inviting a group of inspirational authors.  They talked about the various options you had as a creative writer: do you want to become an author, a blogger, a journalist, a communicator to the public or to write government wildlife policies.  

"It has been a huge help and has given me loads more ideas and tips which will definitely help develop my writing for exams and also my future career...also getting to meet so many young, like-minded people has been the highlight of my time here."

Writing and communicating about nature, wildlife and our environment is hugely important as well as meeting like-minded young people and having the unique opportunity to speak to such experienced writers. 

Thank you to Andrew and Emily for organising and thank you to all the amazing speakers:

• Roger Morgan-Granville,
• Andrew Millham
• Stephen Moss
• Jeni
• Alicia Hayden
• Emily Hunt
• Kabir Kaul

Cameron’s Cottage has a perfect outdoor classroom.  The Cottage can sleep 19 and is a perfect place for young people to come together.

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Class in progress

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Outdoor Classroom

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Dining room, kitchen and hang-out area

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Why do you write?

Leaside Trust’s Youth Club

27 August 2025

The trip to Cameron’s Cottage is a highlight of the year for the Leaside Trust’s Youth Club. This year was no exception, with 8 young people booking their places to attend the camp.

They arrived and were greeted by the staff from RSPB and had a wonderful afternoon taking part in problem-solving games. The young people were split into pairs and one of them was blindfolded while the other had to lead them through an obstacle course or through the woods. This was a new challenge for many of the young people and some of them took to it incredibly well and very quickly while others had to think about things a little bit more and figure out that that their partner couldn't see gestures while they were blindfolded. 

"It has become apparent that the annual trip to Cameron's cottage is one of the favourites of our youth club members.”

The next activity included the spiders’ webs and a slack line and set challenges for the entire group. This really helped them to bond and gel together, and it was great to see how inclusive they were with everybody having a role to play in solving the problems. 

After an excited evening and an early night, they got up the next day and the first food team prepared breakfast before they headed out into the woods for a morning of den building. There were many different styles on display some of which were almost effective at keeping the water that the staff were pouring over the top of the dent on the outside! We left the dens up for a couple of days and over the free time the young people went and added to them or took some branches down to scavenge the materials to extend other dens and they ended up almost with a village of small houses where they played in quite happily. 

After lunch they went outside and learned how to light fires with a Flint and steel and the youngsters then used Kelly kettles to boil up water and make themselves some hot chocolate this was one of the favourite things that they did so far. 

While we still have some daylight, we headed over into the SSI to plant some camera traps in the hope of catching footage of some of the exciting and interesting animals that live in the woods around the cottage. We left them there until the final day... Unfortunately, the only thing that we caught a glimpse of was a little rat scurrying around in the undergrowth, but we did get to see some footage that other visitors had caught, and it was great to see the variety of wildlife in the area. 

This was a very busy day it turns out as once it got dark, we headed off into the forest again for a long nighttime walk with bat detectors. We managed to locate several different sites where bats were active and even caught a glimpse of 1 hunting and catching a moth in our torchlight. On the walk back they found some amazing beetles before enjoying some marshmallows by the fire. 

The next day was also equally busy, and they spent the first half until lunchtime bracken bashing in the woods. Bracken is a problem for native Woodlands as it carpets the floor and stops lights from getting through and other plants from growing. The youngsters took great delight in bashing it with sticks and breaking it down so that other things had a chance to grow. 

They spent an afternoon enjoying craft making activities using natural materials, leaves and sticks. And finally a poetry session where everyone's thoughts were put together to make a story that was read out to the whole group. 

This was followed by our final activity, which was a big, long walk around the perimeter of the woods. We saw ticks up close with a magnifying glass and even found the rest of Mr stinky (a skeleton of a deer who died there last year the skull had already been recovered and we brought most of the rest of the bones back to be reunited and put him all together again!) 

"To have the opportunity to bring our young people here and expose them to a world that many of them simply wouldn't have access to will have an ongoing and positive impact on them for many years to come.”

Over the course of the week, about half of the kids kept a journal with sketches and phrases of things that they've been up to in the week, and they even drew a map of our nature walk so they could find their way home if they got lost. 

As we have come to expect from spending time in Cameron's cottage, the activities were fantastic, and each child had an amazing time. For one or two this was the first trip away from their parents outside of a school trip, for others it was the first time being in such an environment and interacting so closely with nature. There was a noticeable difference in their willingness to help each other, work together and avoid skiving as the week progressed - testament to the benefits that they got from the activities they took part in. 

The facilities, activities, location, staff and benefits of spending time in Cameron's cottage are phenomenal. We are lucky at Leaside that we are surrounded by open space, however it is very different to being in the middle of the woods where you can hear the creatures in the nighttime and the sounds of nature drifting on the breeze. 

BTO Bird Camp 2025

02 July 2025

We've worked with the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) for quite a few years now.  In fact they were our very first partner when we sponsored the first young birders camp they organised in Thetford, back in 2015.  

Today they run multiple camps throughout the UK.  These camps introduce young people to more in-depth knowledge as well as learning new skills in conservation.  Most of the participants are already keen ornithologists and conservationists and these camps are perfect for meeting other like-minded friends.  

We were therefore thrilled to sponsor the first camp to Cameron’s Cottage for 14 participants aged 13-16 years old.  BTO felt that Cameron's Cottage gave a holistic approach to connecting young people with nature, based in the heart of the New Forest.  

The young naturalists explored surveys such as Garden BirdWatch, WeBS, and BBS, and used BirdTrack to record their daily sightings. A Bioblitz – complete with pond dipping – introduced them to the diversity of taxa around the site and encouraged hands-on discovery.

Two ringing demonstrations with the New Forest Ringing Group gave the participants the rare chance to see birds up close. Licensed ringers shared their expertise, adding rich context to these unforgettable encounters.

They were thrilled to be inspired by local organisations: Wild New Forest brought extensive ringing knowledge, while Thomas and Eleanor opened up the fascinating world of Nightjars and Laura from the RSPB Cameron’s Cottage team brought invaluable insight during the Bat Walk and Bioblitz, helping to deepen everyone's understanding of the site.

They also learned about nurturing creative connections to nature. Jane from the RSPB team led a nature art and writing session that encouraged participants to reflect on their experiences, explore different ways of engaging with the natural world, and prioritise their mental wellbeing.

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Photo: Rachael Griffiths/BTO

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Photo: Rachael Griffiths/BTO

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Photo: Rachael Griffiths/BTO

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Photo: Rachael Griffiths/BTO

Spring-boarding into the busy season!

11 June 2025

Hello again! I’m Laura, I work for the RSPB and I run Cameron’s Cottage. I started working here last year and in the Autumn decided to write a seasonal update of all of my goings-on. This is edition 3, Spring!

The Cottage Chronicles will be a seasonal update, written by me, of what we’ve been up to at Cameron’s Cottage. I’ll try to include the highlights, some stories from recent groups and my general musings of what the last few months have been like.

The weather has definitely picked up since I wrote the last blog. Feb/March brought us our first residential groups of the year and since then it’s been a whirlwind of great weather and happy young people. Spring arrived in full force and it was wonderful to see the cottage and surrounding woodland come alive with wild flowers – seeing the bluebells was a particular highlight! With wall-to-wall sunshine for most of April and May, our busy season kicked off with a bang. A highlight was definitely doing a reptile survey with a group of young conservationists and finding a pair of common lizards basking in the sun.

And wildlife has been all around us! From moths to toads, goshawks to buzzards and everything in between, young people have been treated to an amazing array of wildlife.

At the start of May, we also welcomed Jayne our new Visitor experience Officer who will be delivering activity sessions to groups all through the Summer and Autumn. Jayne will be with us for 6 months and has great experience of working with children and young people both in a school setting and in the outdoors.

 It was a fun and engaging, full-on day, which concluded with me achieving the Bushcraft Assessment Level Two Qualification

A highlight for me over these Spring months was to head back into the woods and complete my bushcraft training, being assessed on the topics I had learnt and trained on last Autumn. This photo below shows the shelter, fire and pot hanger I made, all using bushcraft skills and techniques and culminated in me making myself a cup of tea right there in the woods! It was a fun and engaging, full-on day, which concluded with me successfully achieving the Bushcraft Assessment Level Two Qualification. A fabulous day on all accounts!

May has been jam-packed with several groups visiting the cottage, and while I was hoping to get this blog written earlier, I am glad to have touched the lives of so many young people, hopefully starting their journey in becoming keen nature lovers and wanting to help nature thrive where they live.

June and July are looking a little bit quieter, though bookings are still coming in for our Summer season. If you, or anyone you know might be interested in booking a stay at Cameron’s Cottage, particularly for June or July, please do use the links below for more information.

Booking a stay: https://bit.ly/cameronscottage

Volunteering with us: https://bit.ly/cameronscottagevolunteering

Until next time,

Laura

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The shelter that Laura built

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A pair of common lizards basking in the sun

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A toad

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A Moth

New Forest Young Carers visit Cameron’s Cottage

23 May 2025

We were delighted to sponsor the New Forest Young Carers to enjoy a day in nature at Cameron’s Cottage.

They spent the day engaged in numerous outdoor activities, namely collecting branches and building dens, various team building activities and whittling tent pegs and mallets (which they used to make their dens).  All activities were  brilliantly led by the RSPB.

It’s always a pleasure to see groups enjoy the beautiful peaceful surroundings at Cameron’s Cottage and we are particularly pleased to work with so many Young Carer Organisations.  Young Carers look after someone in their family with a long-term health problem or disability.  It can often be isolating being a young carer and New Forest Young Carers Organisation has a supportive team who offers them support to ensure they are well looked after.  

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Fabulous den built, can you see them hiding inside?

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