Bird Hide Norfolk
Woodland lodges – bird hide Norfolk
On what was a particularly wet and windy Friday, well known botanist Professor David Bellamy officially opened the new Bird Hide on 24 May. The Alderwood Lodges site has just been awarded the David Bellamy Gold Award for Conservation for the 10th successive year, and owner Leigh Barnes asked him if he would cut the ribbon to formally declare the hide open. Leigh invited members of the local community to join in, including members of the local Brownie pack and pupils from Garboldisham Church Primary School.
As part of the site’s woodland management plan, a number of Leylandii trees were felled. Leigh asked local steam-driven saw mill owner Jonathan Wheeler to cut them into planks. Leigh’s husband, Peter Barnes used the planks to construct the hide with the help of local carpenter Ollie Jackson. Leigh and Peter took advice from the British Ornithology Trust about the best location, finally settling for a position on bank of the River Ouse giving views across the adjoining fields.
Before he cut the ceremonial ribbon, David said “If you’ve got a place like this and you look after it, the number of birds you can see is amazing”. He also told the youngsters that they should be “very proud” of assets like the bird hide.
The Bird Hide has won a David Bellamy Conservation Special Distinction Award! They are given to a small number of holiday parks to highlight example of “Best Practice” that other participants in the scheme can learn from. The award quotes Professor David Bellamy as saying “You were nominated for the work you did to design and build your new bird hide. Not only is this a wonderful new facility for your guests, but it was built using timber that otherwise would have gone to waste. When I visited your park to officially open the new hide, I was very impressed by what I saw and had a thoroughly enjoyable day.”
We even featured in an article in the BH & HPA magazine!