Springwatch holidays: going camping
Post categories: In depth
| 17:45 UK time, Tuesday, 26 May 2009
When you go camping you're only the thickness of your tent away from the natural world. Could there be a better way of being at one with nature than holidaying in a tent?
Springwatch is made under the cover of canvas (and a few other materials) and judging by the walking boots, technical jackets and fleeces we've got more than our fair share of avid campers.
A tent also makes a cosy place to hover with your binoculars, dig out a book or just listen to the dawn chorus.
But how have you combined camping with wildlife? Whatever your experiences, we'd love you to share your stories, dilemmas and experiences.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~28~RS~)
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Freakily being woken by very heavy breathing from the other side of the canvas from one's head - turned out to be the herd of milking cows who decided we were pitched on the best grass patch in their shared camping field!
Worst experience - a camp bed being exactly across a main highway for the local earwig population! A mass movement that would have been best encountered when not inside one's sleeping bag!
Best experience was having a cabin bed porthole at waterline level in a small yacht on the West coast of Scotland - eyeball to eyeball with gulls and seals ;o)
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Thanks Martin for last night,South Milton sands, been going there for 50 years and still go rock pooling on that same beach (how sad is that)but as we all know you are never to old to learn something new when it comes to nature!
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whilst camping at Shell Island [llanbedre]we where in a little two man tent some thing woke us up we had a baby rabbit trying to find his way back out!
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I heard and saw a cuckoo yesterday in the Sussex Wildlife Trust, Old Lodge Nature Reserve Ashdown Forest near Crowborough, East Sussex.
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cuckoo heard at wichenford worcs mid-may.Also heard at Dunley Worcs end of May.
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I have been woken by a squirrel wispering in my ear (through the canvas) of a tent in Castle Archdale and scared out of my wits by a Rook pretending to be a Duck up a tree beside out trailer tent in Clougher Valley!
When the rest of his friends joined in no-one got any more sleep - the dawn corus was bullied into starting early much to the annoyance of the wood pigeons!
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When i was younger me and my family used to go to a campsite called "forget me not" in northumberland the best thing i would say was good that we would sometimes go for a walk and when we did i used to love trying to catch butterflys and looking at all the different colours and things i think the worst thing there was in the next field there were some larmas that used to spit at us all the time it was horrible. i think the camping holidays are always the best ones as there would be something to remember on every one.
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Filming was done at Kelling Heath and I haven't as yet seen anything on the programmes, have I missed this or if not can you tell me when this will be broadcast. I was on holiday there the week the filming was taking place, though didn't get to see it happening. Kelling Heath is a beautiful place for a holiday, though I don't think all the holiday makers the week I was there were actually interested in the wildlife aspect. I went looking for Adders and found them, listened to the Nightjar for the first time ever and found a possible fox den on the bank on the opposite side of the rail track, having seen an adult fox disappearing into one of the holes and then a few moments later come out again, hang around for a few short moments and then head off for a probable hunting expedition. Also my husband photographed a great tit nest an adult entering the tree hole at just above head height and then a young one poke its head out - almost ready to fledge!
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I thought that Martin said there was a postcode checker for springwatch holidays in your area?
I may be mad and making it up too... lol
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Hi Martin
Think your style of reporting is great and love your bike too!! Just started biking myself and after your ideas am now considering biking out and camping all over the UK. Any chance of knowing who does that fab leather jacket of yours? Clare
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A few years ago I had to camp out while doing Iron Age reenactment. I arrived at the campsite quite late and started to put up my tent in the dark. As I lay out the ground sheet on the grass, I heard a low rumbling. There, in the light of my car headlights, was a huge wasp buzzing around sleepily. It landed on one of the headlights so I got a really good look at it. It was huge. The biggest wasp I had ever seen! I merrily batted it out of the way and got on with putting up the tent. The beast carried on its reconnaissance for a few minutes and then went quiet. I thought nothing more of it until next morning.......screams of pain were coming from the next tent, who were out in the early morning dew cooking breakfast. I emerged from my cocoon, to find one of my friends, large Celtic bearded type (male btw!)nursing an angry-looking hand. "B*****y hornet got me", he said, "don't know where it came from...". Oops. I knew. So, my "giant wasp", which I had been so blithely swatting the night before, had in fact been a hornet. I admitted my guilt at waking the monster. My friend sat there stoically, trying not to show the pain he was in, and smiled at my city ignorance. Lesson learned. Always check your groundsheet area before starting AND remember if you see Godzilla the Wasp then it is probably a hornet. ;o) Clare
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