Trying to save me patch

What I really mean is the most picturesque and productive part of my patch,as some of you will know by my blog I live in Holywell village ( part of which is a conservation area) and an area of natural beauty.This may soon change if planning permission is granted for an out door horse riding arena on the flood plain area adjacent to the burn in holywell dene see plan.

                                                             The view at present

This view shows the proposed arena area shaded in blue which continues to the right (out of shot) the red spot is where the roe deer hind is standing when i took the shot below.

As most of you will know the burn itself forms what you might term as a super highway for deer and otters commuting between Big water NR, Gosforth park NR,Holywell pond and Seaton Sluice. Lets not forget its also a good place if not the best place in Northumberland to watch Dippers in the  burn in fact one nest of Dippers is less than 100 met away and this development will probably devastate this pair who raised 3 young last year.

                                  One of the two breeding pairs of Dippers along the burn
                                                             

                  Dog Otter in burn not 15 met away from prop development ( pic taken last year).

The arena can accommodate up to a max of 13 horses as I understand it ,all this movement within 15 met of the burn and along the length indicated in pic will have a devastating effect on all wildlife in this area. 
It is stated that the surface of the arena is to be a mixture of sand and fibre, the amount needed to cover the area I have shown runs into hundreds of tons and will cause irreversible damage to the flood plain not to mention what will wash off into the burn when it floods (even more likely with global warming) what effect will this have on the burn ?

I feel I have to put this last picture in as it was taken in the middle of me writing this post.

Nine Roe deer directly behind prop development  1-22pm 31/01/2019 wound't it be a shame to possibly loose all this.

If you feel you would like to register your comments please see below.

                                                publicaccess.northumberland.gov.uk
                             Manor House Stables Holywell Northumberland ne250lb
 Register and make your comments ,consultation ends on 6th feb.

                                                         Thank you all in anticipation

                                                                                   Joe.

Snow on New Years Day!

A refreshing walk along to St Marys on New Years morning in the hope of taking a few shots of the Snow Bunting if they were still present.It was really rewarding finding them but wasn't straight forward and took me a while but I did find them on a grassy bank with a low weak sun on their backs and managed a few shots.

 I stepped aside after a while as others arrived with scopes and cameras watching them feed in the short grass bank only  moving when the odd dog got a bit too close ,still quite tolerant of people that made for a real nice New Years morning.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE 

Seeing Red.

A trip on a rather nice morning up to the Durham border in the hope of finding red squirrels which we had been told were relatively tame and didn't mind the odd camera or two.Following the directions given we arrived at the place marked on the map to find two people laying down and cameras pointed at a moss covered log. I have put food on the log said one of them wait a while and they will come ( so we waited ) and they didn't come,I could see three reds playing about on some fallen trees in an area which was far too dark for the odd shot .We will give it an hour says I as the wind was picking up and bringing the cold with it ,then came a shout there's one behind you!!.

"Where have I heard that before"

It made good use of the tree stumps as vantage points and didn't stay very long before scampering off to play with his mates but we managed a few shots before the wind and cold got the better of us and back to the car, I think we will be making a return visit.

Thanks for looking 

Happy New Year.