Swan Ringing

Paul, his brother and friend came into today to carry out the annual ringing of the cygnets. What a mare they had!! They only managed to catch one out four of the cygnets and the male, who was not best pleased.

The hefty thing weighed in at 10lbs, 2lbs lighter than his Dad - and yes its was male.

Paul and co will be coming back in over the next few weeks to catch the others.

Thats the swans not speaking to me now for a few weeks - ha ha

If I am not on holiday next time Paul comes in, I will take some more photos.

Thanks to Paul for this one

This Weeks Bird Count from Jimmy

Here is Jimmys count from yesterday:

Mute Swan with young : 6 (4 are young)
Mallard : 4
Tufted Duck with young : 11 (7 are young)
Moorhen : 2
Coot with young : 6 (2 are young)
Black Headed Gull : 7
Lesser Black Backed Gull : 2
Herring Gull : 3
Woodpigeon : 3
Collared Dove : 4
Sandmartin : 1
Swallow : 11
House Martin : 6
Pied Wagtail : 15
Willow Warbler : 1
Magpie : 1
Jackdaw : 2
Crow : 1
Greenfinch : 2
Goldfinch : 5
Linnet : 1

Blagdon Visit

Yesterday, Helen, Paul, Kevin and myself were very kindly invited to visit Lord Ridley and Blagdon Estate to have a look at their wetlands area within the estate. This area is vast and is made up of two parts, both of which are fab. Lets hope that our wetlands can look like this some day, but obviously on a smaller scale.

Lord Ridley is a pleasure to be in the company of and has a lot of knowledge which we are lapping up with extreme excitement.

He has asked us to take some of the seeds of his collection of trees so that we can have a collection of our own on site. We are looking forward to planting these soon.

Here are a few pictures of the wetland areas at Blagdon.

Area 1

Area 2

We are hoping to go back soon and visit other areas of the Blagdon Estate and look forward to hearing some more stories from the Lord.

I would like to thank the Lord and Shaun Hartley for sparing the time to show us about. We were all very impressed and now full of more ideas on improving our wetlands area.

Update and Bird Count

Not alot happening at the mo with regards the Wetlands Project. We are sourcing new funding so that we can construct a bird hide and small bird feeding station - so I will keep you all posted on what is happening with that.

Our geese have finally flown. Good luck to the baby - who I name "Emu" and lets hope we see him again.

Thought I would give you some bird figures for this week:

Mute Swan with young : 6
Mallard : 3
Tufted Duck with young : 11
Kestrel : 1
Moorhen with young : 2
Cost with young : 7
Oystercatcher : 1
Lesser Black Backed Gull 2
Feral Pigeon : 3
Woodpigeon : 3
Collared Dove : 2
Swallow : 8
House Martin : 15
Pied Wagtail : 1
Jackdaw : 2
Crow : 2
Goldfinch : 2

Not alot of birds here at the mo when Jimmy is here. Lets hope this picks up too.

More bird counts next week

Our Open Day

Sorry everyone for not writing anything sooner. I have been a tad busy with other things.

Just wanted to put a few words on about our Official Open Day on 1st July. This went extremely well and all the kids seemed to have a fab time and have said they all want to come back (during the Summer holidays) - so you know what is going to happen don't you? They are going to be turning up at security looking for me.

A big thank you to all of you who came along to make the day special. We had lots of help from the Wildlife Trust as usual including pond dipping by Anthony and moth trapping by Elaine and Steve. I should also like to thank Jude, one of our neighbours and Jack Nevins who helped us on the day.

Three schools came along on the day - Fordley Primary School, Crookhill Primary School and Cramlington Learning Village. Fordley very kindly opened our new pathway and Crookhill put a new carp into the lagoons which they have named "Cabby".

Cramlington Learning Village

Fordley Primary School with Duncan from NWT

And again with Anthony from NWT

Crookhill Primary School

A big thank you to Kielder Birds of Prey Sanctuary who came along with a few of the birds they look after. The kids (and me!!!!) thought they were fab!

We had the News Post Leader here too. I will post the article from the paper soon.

Here are a few piccys of the day.

Lord Ridley's Visit to Wetlands

The Wetlands had a very important visitor today.......Lord Ridley. He came along with his Estates Manager, Shaun Hartley, and Steve Lowe from the Wildlife Trust to see the work that has been carried out to date. He was amazed at what had been achieved and at the abundance of wildlife and flora we have at present.

Lord Ridley actually opened the Shasun Site (known then as Hilton Davis) in 1968 and this was his first visit back since the opening. When he originally visited, all that stood on the Shasun grounds was Dudley 1 Manufacturing Plant. This has now grown to include 3 more manufacturing facilities and Development Centre to name but a few, and he could not believe the size.

We presented Lord Ridley with a photograph of him standing on the roof of Dudley 1 with The Duke of Northumberland in 1968 and he kindly gave us some willow to plant at the Wetlands.

We look forward to more visits from Lord Ridley in the future. He is welcome back anytime. What a lovely man.

"It's Official - Boardwalk is finished"

Well done to Dan and Anthony from Eco North, part of Northumberland Wildlife Trust, who after several weeks have finally completed the boardwalk. The boardwalk is 70 metres long and made from recycled plastic. This means the surface is non-slip and also will last a lifetime.

They will be a miss to the site. What a canny pair of lads. We hope that they will both be at the Open Day but Dan is due to be a Dad around that time so may not be able to make it. They have both become honoury members of the SWWAN team and their advice and wise crack jokes have been a blessing.

They have also constructed a bridge across the culvert to enable easy access to our bee hives when we get them sometime in the future.

Here is a piccy - bloody awful one of me (look like my Dad but with hair). Hope boot camp hurries up and helps me lose some weight!!!!