Under a summer sky with light cloud cover last Tuesday, 11 NPNUK members gathered at around 10.30am over coffee outside the visitor centre at Warnham NR. Old friends, new friends, club colleagues and one member who had joined only 48 hours earlier, greeted and caught up with each other, then discussing options for what to see and where to go for their morning stint of photography. Some knew the Reserve well, of course, for others it was their first visit. This was precisely what the Network was set up to do in 2024 – bringing photographers together face to face from all corners of the South East to share their knowledge, experience and passion for wildlife and nature photography.

As the temperature rose and the sky cleared, the members split up into smaller groups and spent the morning exploring the hides, wildflower meadows, ponds and walkways that this lovely venue offers, capturing on camera the diversity of wildlife they offered, and the habitats in which they dwell. The succession of heatwaves this summer had clearly had an impact on some of those habitats, we discovered, but, as the attached images show, there was still so much to enjoy.

After a lunch break, the members went out and explored again, eventually packing their bags and setting off home later in the afternoon. Definitely a successful day in the field.