For now, the wildlife charity has been able to purchase new squirrel feeders and enough bags of squirrel mix to feed the radiant redheads through to the summer, and it is all thanks to the charity lottery’s players.

It is not just the new Hauxley Wildlife Discovery Centre that draws in the visitors; the incredibly resident squirrels constantly scamper up and down the trees adjacent to the car park to the delight of the hundreds of people visiting each day. They even made an appearance for the BBC Countryfile film crew last May.

News has clearly spread about the tasty nibbles on offer, as earlier this week a cheeky stoat, nicknamed Houdini, was spotted scaling one of the trees and squeezing in and out of the feeder - a first for the reserve.

Alex Lister, Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Druridge Bay Estates Officer said: “Funding from players of People’s Postcode Lottery gets spent on projects of all sizes at the Trust and very often it is the small projects which can bring the most enjoyment - the squirrels, and now our very agile stoat, visiting the feeders on the reserve are certainly bringing some wintery joy to visitors to the Hauxley reserve.”