The popular reserve is now home to a herd of thirteen English goats and English goat crosses from Flexigraze CIC, in partnership with Wilde Farm in Ponteland.

 Throughout the winter, the goats will move around the site, grazing wildflower meadows and other areas that require targeted habitat management.

Goats are incredibly useful for conservation grazing because they are browsers rather than grazers. Unlike sheep or cattle, which mainly eat grass, goats prefer scrub, brambles, thistles, gorse, nettles, hawthorn and other woody or thorny plants. They offer a more effective and environmentally friendly alternative to machinery, particularly in areas that are difficult to access, such as steep slopes and dense vegetation.

Visitors in the Hauxley Wildlife Discovery Centre's Lookout Café may even be able to spot the goats grazing in the long grass outside the café windows.

Bringing a touch of modern technology to the reserve, the goats have been fitted with GPS-enabled NoFence collars. These allow reserve staff to create virtual boundaries around specific grazing areas, helping prevent overgrazing and protecting sensitive habitats, including ground-nesting bird sites.

The collars also enable staff and volunteers to monitor the goats' movements remotely and with minimal disturbance, particularly outside reserve opening hours.

Alex Lister, Druridge Bay Landscapes Manager at Northumberland Wildlife Trust, said:

"Following the success of the goats grazing on the reserve last year, we've brought them back once again, complete with their GPS collars. They're easy to move around the site and have become a real hit with visitors, many of whom have been trying to catch a glimpse of them while enjoying the reserve.

"Goats are nature's gardeners and their appetite for scrub and thorny vegetation helps us manage the varied habitats that wildflowers, insects and birds need to thrive."