It’s been a busy year, so I thought someone may be interested in the numbers.

1. We had 41 school visits

2. We had 80 individual/family visits

3. We had 17 health enhancing visits

4. We had 31 work experience visits

5. We had 29 visits by our bee keepers

6. We had 24 bird ringing sessions

7. We had 11 visits from cubs/scouts/rainbows

8. We had 14 group visits

9. We had 7 moth survey sessions

10. We had 2 botany survey visits

11. We had 5 bird box surveys visits

12. I did 4 external talks

13. I did 1 external school visit

14. We hosted a 2 day chainsaw training workshop

Other projects we did during 2023 on site were:-

So it’s been a fun filled 2023 on the reserve and we have a big to do list for 2024. No rest for the wicked!!

Many thanks to all who have helped and supported us on the reserve during 2023.

We have seen our resident Roe Deer raise another set of triplets:-

Charles and Camilla our resident swan hatched 5 cygnets of which we have 3 survivors which will soon be leaving:-

We welcomed many thousands of new residents:-

I’d like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and a Happy and healthy 2024

Sad to see two deaths on site, one was one of our cygnets so we are down from the original 5 down to 3. No identified cause for the death.

The second death happened last night, it was a young dog fox found on the edge of the reserve. There seems to be an injury on the rear leg which could be from being shot. So depressing to see such a beautiful animal killed. Look away now if you don’t want to see the animal!

Its mouth is full of winter wheat, I’m told foxes do this when very stressed.

I have started to progress the pathway to the newest part of the reserve, however the wet weather has real held things up on this project.

Many thanks to Ross for the loan of one of his dumper trucks.

Also thanks to Richard for digging my drainage trenches.

We still have a long way to go but we have made a start

Well the hedge planting is in full flow and we are past the halfway mark. My fencer (Geoff Watson) has started work and we should have the fence at the bottom of Dunces field completed in the next couple of days.

Progress has been slower than hoped due to the constant rain so the last couple of days have been a boost.

Many thanks to the Morpeth scouts and explorers that volunteered at the weekend to start our hedge planting project.

We had four groups over Saturday and Sunday and they planted just over 1000 hedge plants. Libby organised the planting sequences which helped for a smooth operation.

Thanks to the scout/explorer leaders Dom, Sam & Rod who led the groups.

Only another 3500 to go!

My hedge plants arrived on schedule courtesy of Cheviot trees:-

You can get 4500 trees on a single pallet, who knew!

We have 9 different plants to make up our wildlife hedges.

We have hawthorn, blackthorn, buckthorn, dogwood, dog rose, elder, wild cherry, bird cherry, and holly.

Libby and I have been working out the planting mix, preparing the ground and we start tomorrow, with help from the Morpeth Scouts amongst others.

An early start today for our latest bird ringing session.

We had a good session today with, we ringed 65 birds which is higher than usual.

Our list included blue tits, coal tits, great tits, dunnock, tree sparrows, wren, goldfinch, goldcrest, song thrush, robins, blackbirds, and reed bunting, so not a bad variety.

Here is a couple of reed bunting, male on the left female on the right, pretty little birds when you see them up close.

It’s that time of year when the fungi are bursting out all over. I’m no expert on fungi but here are a few I spotted the other day.

If any experts out there want to name them?