Center Parc - Sherwood Forest

[Seajay]

My eldest daughter is taking Mum and Dad to Sherwood Forest Park a week on Friday. It says it's great for wildlife. Anyone been and any good tips? (Like don't go

Also a mate says Rufford park is nearby. Now I know many of you go there! Is it walkable from where I will be and would it be through woods and lakes (I hope, as I hate driving).

I am hoping to get loads of pics.

Colin

Colin

[Ollie]

Originally Posted by Seajay

My eldest daughter is taking Mum and Dad to Sherwood Forest Park a week on Friday. It says it's great for wildlife. Anyone been and any good tips? (Like don't go

Also a mate says Rufford park is nearby. Now I know many of you go there! Is it walkable from where I will be and would it be through woods and lakes (I hope, as I hate driving).

I am hoping to get loads of pics.

Colin

Colin

Hi Colin.

Graham (glsammy) is the man who can give you the info on Sherwood forest, but I can tell you Rufford and Sherwood are not realy within walking distance. They are a few miles apart.

Rufford is lakes, parkland and woodland. Don't know much about Sherwood, (obviously there is forest) as I've never got further than the cafea just through the car park but there are great photo oportunities in the actual car park.

Sure Graham will give you more info when he next comes on line
Roger

[poschiavanus]

Center Parcs certainly seems to have a decent amount of wildlife on site. It is actively monitored for a number of groups of animals, and I think there is active management for wildlife. Certainly, it frequently appears in the Notts Birders annual reports.

Both Rufford CP and Sherwood Pines CP are within a short (walkable distance). Slightly further afield are Clumber (NT), Sherwood Forest (The Birklands) and Budby Heath. I've linked these to the Notts Birders site guides.

These sites are good for birds, great for fungi, but its still a bit cool up in Notts for many insects and spring flowers yet.

HTH,

poschiavanus

[Seajay]

Very helpful and informative, poschiavanus, thankyou. Looks like I,m going to have a productive time weather permitting!

Colin

[mousychicken23]

The bird walk is really good, there are loads of species like crossbills and yellowhammers and the guides are really helpful


-mousychicken

[Seajay]

Thanks Mousychicken, Crossbills and Yellowhammers will suit me fine - don't see them where I live! If I can get a shot of either of those I'll be more than happy

Colin

[ron1863]

I've never been to the one in Sherwood Forest but have been a couple of times to the one in Elveden, Suffolk, and the wildlife spotting down there is really good. I think that the wildlife in these places have become accustomed to humans and you can get really close if photographing them.

Oh! and the holiday was fine.

[glsammy]

Centre Parcs is one of my favourite sites. I go every year. They have a wildlife centre with a bird hide.
You should see GSW's, (loads of them!) Treecreeper, most of the tit families, Finches, Siskins, Redpoll to name a few. You'll even see some of my pictures hanging in their display case!
I wouldn't want to walk to Rufford Park from there. It may only be across the road, but the main driveway is a couple of miles long at least. Rufford is again excellent for most of the birds you'll see at Centre Parcs, but not in the numbers. A good selection of tame water birds are on their lake, with the possibility of displaying Great Crested Grebes. I go to Rufford and Sherwood Forest every week, and often two or three times a week.
At Sherwood Forest the best place for birds is the car park. (Hence Rogers comment!) Take some bird food with you and you should soon have a variety of Tits and Finches around you. You can get really close, they're used to me hanging around.
Often the woods themselves are a bit of a disappointment bird wise, although I did last week put some food down on an old rotting post and was soon getting good shots.

You should have a great time there. There's far more than just birds, I never do much more than hang around the nature centre, there's screens with cameras set up on various wildlife.

Good look with the weather!

[Seajay]

Hi All,
Well just got back and what do I think?
From the family point of view it is absolutely great! They all loved the cycling and swimming and we all loved the accommodation and layout. Being as we were only there two days I concentrated on wildlife.

The chalets were set in threes, surrounded by trees and near small lakes. We were about 100 yards from a hide which overlooked a small lake! However all the windows were screwed down! (I found out from a Ranger later that children were damaging the windows opening and closing them and their was a H and S issue - no parents accompanying them). All the birds with the exception of a GSW and a pair of Mistle Thrushes I see at home and the small lake held no surprises but I still thoroughly enjoyed the location. For example a swan would come up and knock on the patio doors, using it's bill, for food! Tits, robins were also regular visitors to the patio. Lovely to watch.
The bird species on the lakes were a disappointment with fewer species than I would see in my local park however there were literally thousands of visitors there with families on bikes and walkers constantly passing even on the woodland nature trail.
This walk was pleasant and interesting but devoid of wildlife that I could photograph - any mammals would be well out of the way!
The area around the Wildlife centre was great for finches but the first day the light was too poor and the second bright sunlight straight into the camera and obviously crowds of people, however I did see my first Siskin and Redpoll!
The hide there was brilliant and I did manage to get a few shots there of GSW's on a feeding post. (Good idea that which I will adopt in my garden as there are some old trunks of leylandii which can easily be drilled with holes and filled with fat and seeds). The hide was constantly filling with children and parents worried about the noise until it was pointed out to them that the birds took no notice whatsoever The hide and the wildlife centre is very good educationally for children and does an excellent job of promoting the importance of wildlife conservation. Yes, Graham I did see your pictures in the display case! A good job for wildlife promotion and well done mate!

Would we all go again? Most definately! We all thoroughly enjoyed the two days. A little disappointing for me in parts but as we all know it could be completely different on another day as to what wildlife is seen. I think next time I will take my portable hide and encourage more wildlife to the actual chalet (not difficult as it is all around you).
I'll put a couple of shots in the gallery but there's nothing particularly outstanding - most were binned

Thanks to you all for your response to the thread

Colin

[glsammy]

I'm pleased you enjoyed it. We love the place. I've been every year since they opened, and often more than once. I tend to go December -January, it's often not quite so crowded then.
Your right re the lake, I rarely see anything on it worth bothering with. A Great Crested Grebe is about the highlights from there.
The main hide is very good, but as you said, the light is often challenging. I was lucky, we had a small period where the light was spot on so I was able to get some decent shots.