Celebrating and protecting
the rich cultural
heritage, landscape
and wildlife of
Redesdale.

We’ve recently been out surveying some of Redesdale’s meadows in preparation for helping to enhance them through our Re-flowering Redesdale project. To do this we introduce local provenance wildflowers that are typical of a Northumbrian meadow but are currently missing. However, the first step of this is to find out what’s in our meadows at the moment, so we can work out which wildflowers we need to add!

Some of our great recent meadow wildflower finds include:

Have you spotted any of these (or something else)? You can record your wildlife sightings with the Environmental Records Information Centre North East at: http://www.ericnortheast.org.uk/recording-wildlife-2/ You just need to know what you saw, when you saw it and where. If you have a photo then even better!

This year has been eventful to say the least, but we are delighted to be able to share a positive project milestone with you – we’re officially halfway!

We’re very proud of what we’ve managed to achieve so far in celebrating and protecting the heritage, landscape and wildlife of Redesdale; working through partners and local people to conserve, enhance and improve understanding of the River Rede catchment. As you can see from the fabulous graphic below, it’s certainly been busy!

If you would like to read our interim progress report in full, we’ve included the file at the bottom of this page.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported our project to date. To our fantastic partners, volunteers and supporters both within Redesdale and beyond, thank you so much!

The coronavirus pandemic has since thrown many hurdles our way, but it has also challenged us to look for new ways to reach our audiences, creating exciting opportunities for future development. We look forward to more great things to come!

The Revitalising Redesdale Team

by Jennifer Care, Revitalising Redesdale Farming and Wildlife Officer.

This global pandemic has changed the way we do things. Our world seems smaller. For many of us life has slowed down. However, it’s a good opportunity to re-engage with our local area and learn about the wildlife on our doorstep.

I have always had a fascination with nature. I feel better with it around me and I love having a job where I can protect and champion our amazing natural world. However, it was not until last year that I took part in The Wildlife Trust’s 30 Days Wild challenge for the first time. This annual challenge to spend time closer to nature every day in June made me aware of how much I already do, reminding me to live in the moment and to appreciate the everyday miracles of nature. It’s started again this week and there’s still time to get involved http://wildlifetrusts.org/30DaysWild.

I get lots of wonderful wildlife with my job, but I still try to sneak in some extras. So, here are just a few of the marvellous moments of nature I’ve snuck into busy days of events, practical conservation, meetings and more in Redesdale over the past couple of years and ideas for how you can easily add something similar to what you do:

You don’t need to be a professional to use a photograph to get a closer look at something interesting or beautiful and perhaps you, unlike me, can even photograph your subject without a blade of grass in the way!

2. Learn something new.

One of the amazing things about the natural world is that it’s so large, diverse and continually changing that there’s always something new to learn! I frequently puzzle why, how, or what about things I see, but much less frequently remember to research the answers later. However, after my second sighting of this strange fungus on a sheep skull I took a photo and tried to find out what it is.

Sometimes these things get very complicated, with lots of similar species, but luckily this one was pretty distinctive. It’s called Onygena equina, commonly known as the horn stalkball. Apparently it is not often recorded due to its unusual habitat requirements: Its spores germinate better having first been through the gut of a herbivore; they then need to be excreted near a suitable carcass, as this fungus digests keratin and grows on putrefying horns and hooves of cattle and sheep. It’s amazing the way everywhere is home to something!

The trick is to be curious. Wonder. Then go and find out.

3. Eat outside

This one is a bit of a cheat really – when on a practical conservation task, removing non-native Sitka spruce regeneration from a peat bog, where else were we going to eat but outside?! However, that’s the thing about meals, it’s a pause, so where better to spend that time than outside on a beautiful day. With the mosses and heathers as a cushion, a soundtrack of skylarks and expansive views (and of course a hard-earned lunch), I remember it as a perfect setting to immerse in nature.

You can do it at home. Take a sandwich outside. Perhaps go barefoot if you have a lawn. Listen, look, feel.

4. Become a citizen scientist

Those who know me will know I’m a huge wildlife enthusiast, constrained by too little time and too many interests.  I dip into a few different surveys and submit sightings to the local records centre. However, for the last few years, much of my spare-time wildlife activity has been focused on birds, participating in the BTO bird ringing scheme and, more recently, their nest record scheme.

Last year I found this nest of swallows at one of the Redesdale community sites I was working at and monitored it. There were two chicks and both successfully fledged.

My photo is a bit dark, but if you’d like to see swallow chicks in Redesdale then, Wild Intrigue have a camera on a nest in West Woodburn. Look soon before the chicks fledge!

You can become a citizen scientist too just by seeing some wildlife and letting your local records centre know (in Redesdale that’s ERIC North East, but if you’re outside the North East then look up your local centre here). You just need to know what you saw, when and where! Remember that all wildlife sightings are important, even those of species considered common.

Alternatively, you can get involved in a particular study. There are many citizen science projects going on covering all sorts of different wildlife; find one to suit you here.

5. Change your perspective

All this is very well, you say, but how do I actually find any interesting nature? My tip is to look at more than just what is immediately in front of you – change your perspective! Look up – watch clouds, see how tree branches can frame the sky, watch a buzzard or a skylark soar.

Look down and spot vole tunnels and latrines in tussocks of grass or beauties like this adder – he was basking on a road verge as I was doing a botany survey.

Look big, at hills, rivers, sunrise and sunset, and look small, at miniature landscapes of lichens and mosses, like this lawn of devil’s matchstick lichen with trees of heather at Benshaw Moor.

Test your imagination and think what it might be like to be one of our wild neighbours. What would the world look like (it’s not just about physical perspective – did you know bees see a different range of colours to us?!)? Where would you shelter or drink? How would you communicate? How would your offspring disperse?

Perhaps the more we can see things from a wildlife perspective the more we can see ways to help. If you’re feeling inspired, then a good place to start is The Wildlife Trusts’ host of ideas of simple things to help wildlife.

Finally, please share your wildlife experiences with others and help them connect with nature too (live wildlife webcam anyone?). Our natural world is facing a plethora of challenges and it needs all of us to help! For people to take action for nature, they first need to care. For people to care, they first need to know about the natural world and its wonders!

Perhaps learning to steal a moment with nature within our busy lives, marvelling at something different each day, is a good step to keep when normality (whatever it will be) resumes.