In May 2024, the Biodiversity Boost Project was awarded almost £750,000 by the Species Survival Fund, to increase biodiversity and enhance habitats across the Druridge Bay area at three of the Trust’s most popular reserves: Hauxley, East Chevington and West Chevington.
Druridge Bay nature project comes to an end
Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Biodiversity Project has ended after a successful eighteen months.
The Hauxley area of the project focused on improving the visitor experience with amazing results.
A new, accessible hide was installed allowing a wider range of people to view the birds visiting the feeding station.
Elsewhere, on the reserve, at the Wildlife Discovery Centre and Lookout Café, newly installed wildlife cameras now stream live footage on two screens allowing people a glimpse of what goes on in the bird boxes, pond and across the reserve when nobody is watching. Camera highlights have included an epic battle between a blue tit and a tree sparrow and a raid on the stock dove’s nest by a stoat.
Nature lovers have also had the opportunity to participate in the creation of a new wildflower meadow, plant with 390 plug plants such as meadow cranesbill, tufted vetch, and yellow rattle. Families also spent a morning creating seed bombs before launching them with a giant catapult across the meadow.
A path mown through the meadow will be open during spring and summer time allowing visitors to watch the meadow grow over the next few years.
At East Chevington, the habitat improvement works focused heavily on habitats in and around water.
Opencast mining in the area reduced the Chevington Burn to a featureless channel that provided a fantastic opportunity for improvement.
Working with Dynamic Rivers (Surveys and Design) Ltd and TM Lindsay Ltd to restructure the watercourse with heavy machinery, over the course of a week in challenging weather conditions.
The resulting waterway now gently meanders through a series of ponds, pools, and wet woodland. It now responds to the rapidly changing water levels during rain, slowing the flow of water, trapping sediment, and creating a variety of habitats both in the water and on the banks.
The changes to the area were instantly visible, and for the first time the water could be heard flowing.
Downstream from the work on the Chevington Burn, the south pool at the reserve also underwent a transformation.
Well known for its birdlife including marsh harrier, reed warbler, and water rail, the reedbed had undergone little management since it was established after the opencast restoration around 25 years ago.
The Sustainable Water Company took on the challenge of reprofiling the reedbed.
Using an amphibious Truxor reed-cutting machine affectionately called Gertrude they cut a series of channels in the reeds, excavated the rhizomes, and relocated the material to create new areas of reedbed elsewhere.
It is hoped that the increased area of reed margin will create additional opportunities wildlife, especially for visiting bittern.
Woodland was the key habitat covered by the project at West Chevington.
The closely planted conifer plantations were thinned by up to thirty percent, allowing more light to shine through to naturally regenerate the native trees within the woodland.
Elsewhere an amazing 10,000 native trees such as hazel, rowan and black poplar were planted to create a 1km hedgerow and seven new copses creating a woodland corridor across the site from the well-established woodland in the west, to the less diverse plantations in the east.
Access for visitors along footpaths and bridleways was also improved, with new signage and way markers installed across the site.
Watch a film highlighting the work of the project below.
Biodiversity Boost - Evaluation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPf-VZ0Eb1k)
Biodiversity Boost - Evaluation
Helen Walsh, Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Duridge Bay Estates and Engagement Officer says:
"The Species Survival Fund was a great project as it gave us the opportunity to enhance a variety of habitats across Druridge Bay and make things better for wildlife watching. It's amazing to see how the sites have changed as a result and we look forward to seeing the positive impacts of the work over the years to come."