Nature and the Environment
When I was a young teenager, I was always roaming the countryside looking for and learning about wildlife and places, etching out my own territory where I gradually got to know all that lived there. One of my favourite animals to watch was the water rat, or water vole, as its more accurately called. A small burn near where I lived was the place to… Read More »Ratty On the Tyne!?
‘Butterfly watching’; there is, believe it or not, several books with this title, a subject slightly ethereal and to most folks eliciting the response “what?”. Colourful in passing, intriguing even and increasingly uncommon (this year is a good one, last year abysmal) most people appreciate a butterfly fly by and welcome them in their gardens. But actually, standing and closely observing their detail, and behaviour,… Read More »Butterfly Watching
Recently I have been rather distracted from the Tyne Valley by another Northumbrian great river and its environs. So, I hope you will forgive me this time for telling you something of my work in Coquetdale, and the Rothbury Estate. Here, Northumberland Wildlife Trust has just taken on a large part, including Simonside, and is fundraising to secure the rest of nearly 4000ha, or 10,000… Read More »Change of Riverside
Of the Tyne. Have you ever wondered how an otter experiences and lives along and within the Tyne? I have many times, as I caught glimpses of their lives over the years and being lucky now and then to watch their habits. Putting these vignettes together and my experiences of watching otters in Scotland too, a typical autumn night might run something like this; Unnoticed… Read More »Otter’s Eye View
I’ve been spending most time lately either right up in north west Northumberland and the borders, on the coast, but also in Newcastle looking at nature and wildness in the midst of the city and its green and blue spaces. So, I thought this time I’d focus on the Tyne in its lower reaches, between the city and the estuary and how that relates to… Read More »The Urban Tyne
On 13 March 2010 I was one of 1000 volunteers selected to help light one of 500 beacons which, at every 250m intervals along its 84 mile route, truly illuminated Hadrian’s walls’ position in the Tyne Valley. It marked the 1600th anniversary of the end of Roman rule in Britain too. It was a very memorable event for many and being so close to it… Read More »Wildlife On The Wall
I’m walking the line, the line connecting the Northumberland hills to the estuary, along the bank of the Tyne. I’m just near Stocksfield, it’s early morning and a cold bright day. The sun is glancing off the ripples across the water and the willows and the occasional alder buckthorn have burst into blossom, like white and yellow candyfloss. For once there is no wind and… Read More »Walking the Nature Line
It’s a while since I’ve written for Tyne Valley Express about the Tyne Valley, so before putting words to pc, I went to seek guidance from NWT’s long serving Vice President and former RSPB Northern Director, Ian Armstrong, who is a long term Tyne Valley resident and has observed the landscape and wildlife here for decades. I was seeking oversight and insight of where to… Read More »Wild Tyne Tales
May was ‘No Mow May’ – so how did it go? Well for those who did participate, I hope you have stuck it out well into June because most of the flowers haven’t yet burst into bloom. May was such a chilly month that we are significantly behind an average year but even if it were a more typical year, May is still a little… Read More »Long & Short of it
With spring on its way and Easter coming up many of us will turn to our gardens. For some it’s the start of an annual battle to maintain some semblance of order; for others a carefully choreographed year of management to produce the perfect show of flowers or prize winning vegetables. Around 25 years ago this time of year coincided with an annual campaign to… Read More »Wildlife Gardening
