Five years on from the opening of the Hengistbury Head Visitor Centre, visitors have indulged themselves in the amazing live imagery from the wildlife cameras across the nature reserve.

Visitors have followed the trials and tribulations of our Herons, the egg laying, hatching and fledging of the young aloft the highest of Scots Pines swaying uncontrollably in storm force winds; and the first live images in the UK of the secretive Little Egret.  Blue Tits with their frenzied feeding of up to 8 young are always popular as are the multitude of hungry birds that visit our nut feeders; and children delight in remote controlling our camera situated on Christchurch Harbour.

In the last two years they invested in a new Tawny Owl Cam – is there anyone who doesn’t like a baby owl? And in 2018 our new Kestrel Cam beamed superb images of this ferocious predator and hunter tenderly raising its young.

Cathi Farrer who’s the Bournemouth Parks Foundation Manager which is a charity who working alongside the Council’s Parks Service, said: “We would love to introduce more cameras and to stream these images online to people who are not able to visit Hengistbury Head.

“Keeping cameras working for five years in the hostile environment of gales, driving rain and salty sea spray up to 50 feet above the ground is expensive.”

They rely upon donations to make this happen so please join them in donating towards their Wildlife Cam Campaign 2019. You can donate online at bit.ly/wildlife-cam or in person at the Centre via a cash or contactless donation.