Blashford Lakes nature reserve
Blashford Lakes nature reserve near Ringwood is one of our oldest and most beautiful nature reserves. The unique mix of habitats is home to a wide array of wildlife and is a firm favourite with bird watchers from across the country, as well as being much loved by the local community.
We know that more can be done help visitors enjoy the wonderful wildlife that Blashford Lakes nature reserve has to offer and so last year we started to plan a major revamp for the site.
This work to update the site starts in just a few weeks thanks to two large grants and generous contributions from some of our supporters.
LEADER are giving us a grant of £44,044.20 which will be spent on:
Veolia Environmental Trust, with money from the Landfill Communities Fund, are giving us a grant of £225,698 which will mainly be spent on:
Thank you to everyone who has donation so far, your support has made a real difference.
Get a first glimpse of some of the exciting change taking place.
The new tern hide open for business! It is not quite complete, but the hide is usable and we are delighted to see visitors enjoying the new space.
We have made the hide larger in every dimension and added large, fixed windows to accommodate families and school groups so more people can enjoy the view. One way glass has been installed so the birds aren’t disturbed, and higher windows and movable benches should make it easier to use a telescope on a tripod. Many of the windows can be opened to create glass-free slots.
We put a great deal of thought into the new structure of the hide, and designed it with the help of experts in bird hide construction to make sure that it can accommodate a variety of uses by different visitors enjoying the view. We wanted to create a more flexible space which is both welcoming and accessible for everyone, and hope to welcome you very soon.
Tern Hide
A donation from you today will help us to carry out essential repairs to our existing pond, which has been leaking for some time. We also want to update the interior of the visitor centre as well as complete work on our new viewing platform - the best place to watch the spectacular starling murmurations.
We are so grateful for your support all year round and we hope you will be able to help us with this request today to make Blashford Lakes an even more enjoyable place for people to come and enjoy nature.
