What to buy for a very outside loving loner 11 Yr old who has zero interest in gaming or football?

[WaterDroplet]

My gorgeous and always interesting son who's soon to turn 11. I've already looked at buying a whittling set and he has owl pellet disection kits. Any ideas please 🙏

A wetsuit & watershoes, plus a mini bodyboard if you can stretch to it, if there's a safe bit of water for mucking about in anywhere near you.

How about a great hoodie and backpack for when he's out & and about? Karrimore? & Columbia have some nice ones.

Mushroom ID book. We can spend hours on mushroom ID walks. Makes English Heritage garden walks more interesting too.

Metal detector from Robert Dyas

Trebuchet kit? (I'm thinking a miniature one ).
At his age my kids and DH built one out of scaffolding and launched lengths of heavy drainpipe across the garden... Luckily we live out in the middle of nowhere.

How about an ant farm? https://www.bestantsuk.com/ant-farm-kits-with-ants

Fishing magnet for the outdoorsy aspect, mine have also like a lock pick set ( comes with a set of lock picks and a transparent padlock to practice on) and a suture kit ( comes with fake skin and a set of needles)

Butterfly hatching kit?

Worm farm??

Slack line
tent
lantern
hsmmock
high ropes day
bird of prey flying
blacksmithing course
weather station
zip line
archery set
night scope or camera
astronomy book
paracord craft kit
foraging book

he sounds like my lot!

Membership of your local Wildlife Trust. They have a junior membership and send out a very well produced magazine every season. Our Grandchildren are members and love getting the magazine, full of information and ideas. Your local group will also do activities, often in the school holidays.

That was the age my DD got her first camera. Wildlife photography became her main hobby for years and years (hence my username).

A tripod with an attachment for phone/camera whichever he has, and a remote. Can be used for wildlife photography, long nighttime exposures, stop motion films (you can get a set of stop motion characters).

Compass/ binoculars/ survival stuff/geocaching something or other? That kind of ballpark?

Personalised Swiss Army knife

The obvious answer OP is a tent !! A cool 2 man one for him and his stuff. Perhaps you could take him camping with mum and dad in their own - or him in the garden . It's the sort of think that my kids absolutely loved both boys and girls.. might even find a like minded soul who would join him (if he wanted that ) kids LOVE camping especially at that age ..

This, and you can get some really fun kit on army surplus sites too, I've got a DS who's similar. Whittling is magic, how about a curved knife so he can do spoons and bowls, and a lesson with a woodcarver for you both to do together?

Also lots of fun to be had with a strong neodymium magnet attached to a rope in a river...

Rent an allotment for him for the year

Activity vouchers for a bushcraft course or kayaking or something along those lines. Our local outdoor pursuits centre does day long or 3 day with an overnight camp out on the last night.

My son is similar though a few years older. He is a Scout so he often gets new kit for Christmas /birthday which saves us buying stuff for the sake of it.
I was going to suggest a survival kit or hiking kit, if he likes hiking. So a new rucksack, emergency blankets, first aid kit, hiking boots, kendal mint cake, base layers (from decathlon), decent waterproof jacket /hat /gloves. Also penknife and flint and steel, mini fire pit.

My son is also into making animation. He has a collection of klikbots and a gorilla tripod to help him with his stop animation films he likes making. He also uses Lego to make little animations. Would he be interested that?
https://www.google.com/url?q=zing.store/collections/klikbot&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwiGheGV-OKFAxWvW0EAHaExAjQQFnoECAcQAg&usg=AOvVaw10FqLFC7ZFYIunB6mhMDhN
https://joby.com/uk-en/tripods/flexible-tripods/

Tarps, bungee cords, tent pegs, an actual tent, a.mesh fire thing (look on amazon), kindling pouch, ropes, microscope (you need to spend £200-300 for a decont one I would say), bushcraft book.
All of thee3 have been successful for my children.

Wildlife camera.

Binoculars.

A pony