Open Day

If you require any further details or would like to donate a prize for the tombola or bake a cake, please give me a call on 07808 283447 or 0191 250 4123. Hope to see you all there.

Go Green Article in Evening Chronicle

Well we have done it once again and made it into the Evening Chronicle. Wish they had used some of the boardwalk piccys though instead of this old one of me.

Official Opening of new Boardwalk, Pathway and Jetties

Our Official Open Day will be on Thursday 1st July at 1pm until 4pm. The theme will be "Bring a Picnic". Fordley Primary School will be asked along to open the afternoon. Invites will be sent out soon. If you would like to come along or offer your services in helping making the day run smoothly, please give me a call on 0191 250 4123.

We will be also having a bran tub and cake stall so I am after volunteers to bake cakes and donate prizes. Again, contact me on the above number.

Events on the day will be a duck race, pond dipping, mini beast hunt and a treasure hunt.

Chick Update

Just to let you all know that one of our pairs of oystercatchers has had 3 chicks. They are running around on the gravel outside my building at present. Let's hope they all make it.



On the geese front, only 2 chicks remain. Our resident fox has had them unfortunately. The other two are growing up fast so hopefully will make it through these first stages of life.

There are numerous families of coots and moor hens and nests seem to be popping up all over the place.

No bird count this week as Jimmy is on holiday.

Comb Building

Well at this weeks bee keeping practical we had to make some new combs to go into the hives. The weather was a tad too cold to get our little friends out to play. Here is my group's finished results. Not bad for our first time. Mind, me thinks its a bit of cheap labour for Kyle, our tutor. Saves him making them ha ha!

More next week. PS: still haven't been stung YET!!!

Visit from Tyneside BAP Committee

Yesterday, we had a visit from Tyneside BAP Committee. BAP stands for Biodiversity Action Plan. Its a plan to help stop the decline of vulnerable habitats and species in the UK. At the national level we have the UK BAP but we also have Local Biodiversity Action Plans (LBAPs) which are produced for local areas to help stop the decline in habitats and species in the UK and at the local level. The meeting yesterday was the BAP steering group which helps drive forward the delivery of actions and targets in the North Tyneside and Newcastle BAPs. They are hoping to merge the North Tyneside & Newcastle BAPs this year into one strategic document that covers the whole Tyneside area. If you would like to know more about this group, here is the link to their website:

http://www.northtyneside.gov.uk/pls/portal/NTC_PSCM.PSCM_Web.download?p_ID=29082

In this photo (from left to right) is: John Thompson (Conservation Officer NWT), Derek Hilton-Brown (Ecologist - Newcastle City Council), Lindsay McDougall (Northumberland & Tyneside Bird Club) and Jackie Hunter (Biodiversity Officer North Tyneside Council). Also here on the day was our good friend Steve Lowe but he had to leave for another meeting. Not to worry, we all know what he looks like!

They were very impressed with the progress made since their last visit, a year ago and can't wait to see it all finished.

Whilst they were visiting, our Canada Geese showed us their new additions. Here are some photos of them. They have had four chicks this year so let's hope they all survive.