Last March we decided to join the RSPB (The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). We've visited our local reserve for years but with 170 places to visit all around the country, we thought it would provide us with ideas for some new places for days out.
A joint membership costs £60 per year, though you can opt to pay more if you want to as a larger donation enables the organisation to put more money towards saving wildlife. I decided to keep a note of all the places we visited over the year to work out how much we would have paid had we not taken out a membership, and discovered that we'd broke even within four months.
Sherwood Forest. There's no admission fee here but there's a £5 charge for the car park. It's free for RSPB members. £5 saved.
Bempton Cliffs. The admission fee here is £8 for non-members and a reduced price of £4 from November to February. We visited three times over the course of the year. £48 saved.
St.Aidan's. Theres's no admission fee but the parking charge is £4 all day. It's free for RSPB members. We've visited seven times over the course of the year. £28 saved.
Fairburn Ings. There's no admission fee but the parking charge is £4 all day. It's free for RSPB members. £4 saved.
We didn't visit as many reserves as we thought we might, mainly because dogs aren't allowed in the places we were interested in. It's also worth mentioning that we visited Bempton Cliffs a couple of times on an evening in addition to the times mentioned here, however, you're able to just walk out onto the cliffs when the visitor centre is closed so visitors don't have to pay. There is actually a public footpath around Bempton Cliffs so, in theory, you're able to visit free of charge at all times but we haven't tested this. We do always get challenged for our membership cards when the visitor centre is open.
Our membership also included the RSPB Handbook which details the RSPB reserves and what they offer. In addition to this members also receive the RSPB Handbook of British Birds and the RSPB magazine four times throughout the course of the year.
St.Aidan's is only four miles, and Fairburn Ings just seven miles, from our house and they were nice places to walk Archie, though he did have to be kept on his lead so we more often than not took him elsewhere instead. If we weren't going to visit reserves with a higher admission fee, such as Bempton Cliffs, the membership wouldn't have been worth it for us. We would have visited more reserves than we did if we hadn't had Archie.
We saved just £25 over the course of the year, mainly because many reserves aren't dog friendly so we were limited where we could go, though I have to say that the extras, such as the magazines and book, are very good. We haven't renewed our membership yet for this year but we've decided that we're definitely going to do so.
Do you have RSPB membership? What are your experiences with it?
