What happened to the Rendlesham Forest Bird climbing frame?
We're semi-frequent visitors to Rendlesham Forest, in Suffolk, England. A few years ago (probably 2008-2009), whilst walking not too far from the main car park we came across a large wooden structure roughly resembling a bird. You could climb up its back, go inside it and it had a firemans pole at one end. It wasn't anywhere near or part of the "UFO" trail and the associated games/climbing structures that are to the north west of the car park, I feel it was more to the south / south west amongst the red and blue walking trails.
On more recent trips within the last couple of years, we've been unable to find it again - despite being pretty sure we're back in the right area, there is no sign of it. Does anyone know if anything has happened to it, and if it's still there, a sure fire way to find it on a visit?
There are posts, along with the blue/red coloured walking trails, that seem to indicate "bird this way", but we followed those on a trip last year without finding it, and walking a lot further and in a different direction to what we remembered, so I'm almost sure that those posts are directing you to something else - there are a couple of RSPB sites nearby for instance.
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After the prompt by Liam in the comments, I got in touch with the Forestry Commission via their website - it seems they list an email contact for each site.
I received the following reply, confirming Joe's answer:
The Nightjar (wooden bird) had been repaired over many years. However, the foundations had begun to rot beyond repair; it was with some sadness that we dismantled it.
It used to be on the 'blue' walking trail - the site is easy to find as it has two benches on the edge of a clearing. In addition the years of woodchip has created something of a dome.
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Apparently it was removed due to lack of funding for repairs. Here's a link to an article about it. Here's a link to a picture for the curious. Too bad.
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