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.

Crookhill Primary School Visit 26th April 2010

Miss Cowley brought two of her pupils in today to do a bit of pond dipping and also to plant some lavender and nastertiums in some pots for "Jill's Jetty".

They also helped spread some wildflower grass seed on Butterfly Bank.

Here are the pots with the boys on the jetty.

The rest of the class will be here in a few weeks time to plant some more.

Whilst up there, I managed to take a photo of our new Coot chicks. There are six little "Ginger Eds" up there. Bless them!

The moor hen nest also produced 7 chicks. They were camera shy so didn't manage to get a photo of them. Will keep trying.

The rest of the class will be back in a few weeks time.

Busy as a Bee!

Well had our first practical with the bee hives at Kirkley Hall yesterday and I must say it was great. I didn't get stung once, either did anyone else there. The bees were quite friendly, in fact, and didn't need very much smoke to calm them.

The kit was a bit of a nightmare. Struggled a bit trying to get the boiler suit on and off over clothes, either that, I need to lose some more weight. We all looked very sexy in our get up.

Here is myself, Geoff and Dave.

It was a really sunny day and the bees were quite active. Here are some photos of inside the hive. The piccy with the bee with the green dot on her back is the Queen. She is marked like this so that you can easily see her and check her for any diseases etc.

Our group was divided into 3 sessions; we took the morning one. Here is the rest of the gang looking on as our tutor showed what to look for and also some photos of the feeding station. Bees need extra care during the winter months and get a supplement of a sugary substance. This keeps them going until pollen is available.

Here a photo of a bee coming in with her pollen sacks full.

Well that's all until next week on the bee front. I am now official photographer for the group so there will be alot more. We are actually going to open the hives and check the bees next week. That's when I get stung. Please feel free to visit me in hospital when it happens - ha ha!

Pond Dipping

On my trip with Brian and Alan to the Wetlands today to see how Anthony and Dan were getting on, had a venture onto the boardwalk on the reed bed.

Lots of life could be seen including tadpoles, newts and various bugs including snails, water boatman, whirligig beetles and caddisfly.

Caddisfly build the most fascinating houses. We found two today built from bits of wood. Did not have my camera with me today but will try and come in over the weekend and get some shots.

Our little new coots have ventured out onto the water and are swimming about quite happily.

Looks like it won't be long for the Moor Hen eggs to hatch as she didnt even get off her nest today when we were on the jetty. There is also a pair of Oystercatchers nesting on the island, next to the Canada Geese. Noisy blighters mind!

Whilst we were standing, two birds flew over our heads and landed on the far west bank. They were two Sand Pipers. That's a new one for our bird count.

Try and get some photos over the weekend and report back.