19th November: Winter Is Here

Winter has arrived on Lindisfarne! The Reserve had its first snowfall this morning.

Today began with a search for the cattle among the dunes, in the middle of a hail storm! Thankfully this was followed by blinding sunshine - just going to show how the Reserve can experience all weathers in one day.

A heavy snow and hail shower arrives in the dunes

Lindisfarne NNR's first snowfall of this winter, with a storm cloud in the background

Reserve staff will continue to check our livestock daily, and if we experience prolonged bad weather the stock will be returned to their homes on the mainland for the winter.

16th November: Winter Birdwatch Event A Success

We had a very successful event on Saturday 16th November at the Fenham-Le-Moor hide. This was our penultimate Birdwatch event, which went very well with some fantastic bird species seen very close to the hide!

Visitors enjoying the views of our wintering birds at the Fenham-Le-Moor Event

Highlights included almost 50 Pintail, a Peregrine which caused quite a fuss among the waders, great views of Grey plover  and around 3000 Wigeon.

A stunning Drake Pintail, taken on Lindisfarne NNR

Another highlight was great views of ten light-bellied Brent geese feeding and interacting right in front of the hide - they can be very noisy!

Lindisfarne's wintering Light-bellied Brent geese in flight

We have one final Birdwatch Event planned before the end of the year, on 1st December at Budle Bay (details on the Events page). Winter seems to be flying by (no pun intended) so don't miss this event, a great chance to see the winter birds of Lindisfarne NNR at their peak.

11th November: Winter birds of Holy Island

The Lindisfarne NNR self-guided Nature Trail is fantastic at this time of year, with plenty of winter birds and other wildlife around. From the trail you can see and hear some of the best of Lindisfarne NNR's winter wildlife.

Fieldfare - you may spot these winter visitors, members of the Thrush family, as you walk along the Nature Trail. 

From the trail, in the adjacent farmland, you can see roe deer and large groups of curlew feeding among the fields.

Curlew - look out for these birds in the fields at the end of the trail. You might hear their haunting calls before you see them (Natural England/Allan Drewitt)

Two kestrels have also regularly been seen this winter, hovering among the dunes and grassland surrounding the nature trail.

Kestrel - Lindisfarne NNR has plenty of small mammals for these small raptors to hunt

The leaflets at our information points in the Chare Ends and Beal Car Parks have details of the Nature Trail and a map.

7th November: Grazing already making a big impact

Our sheep have been moved once more, and now you can really see the result of their grazing over just a couple of weeks!

 Their new pen - compare how long the vegetation is...

...with the previously grazed area - the sheep are great at grazing the grass so it is very short. They are intensively grazing a small area to target Michaelmas Daisy.

In comparison with the sheep, the cattle are grazing a larger area but less intensively

The cattle produce a really varied sward height, perfect for insects and birds come the breeding season

One of our cows doing what they do best

26th and 27th October: Graham Bell's Winter Birdwatch

At the beginning of October half-term, Graham Bell, a local bird expert, delighted visitors to the Window on Wild Lindisfarne with his extensive bird knowledge and identification skills.

Graham showing visitors some amazing views of Teal, one of our wintering ducks, through the telescope

Graham's bird 'calls' are second to none, managing to surprise visitors who actually thought there were birds in the building with us!

Graham will now be volunteering regularly as a guide in the Window on Wild Lindisfarne - if you are visiting Holy Island please do make sure you visit the building as he or another member of our team may well be there to help/answer your questions.

25th October: Update on our grazers

Our sheep have now been moved to a new patch on the Snook, to target more Michaelmas Daisy. They are doing a fantastic job so far: 

Here you can see very clearly the difference between where the sheep have grazed (on the right of the image), and the longer vegetation that was outside the pen.

A patch of Michaelmas Daisy (the bright green leafy plant) within the pen that has been throughly chewed by the sheep

Our cattle herd are also doing very well, lounging around in the dunes and grazing on rough grasses and Pirri-pirri bur. The old quarry provides them with a bit of shelter from the Holy Island gales and fresh drinking water.

Cattle herd in the old quarry

The sheep are now used to us, thanks to a bucket with a handful of feed! We are careful not to add too much feed so we are not adding more nutrients into the system, only enough to ensure the sheep will associate the bucket with feed so they will be easier to lead when the time comes to move them again (hopefully!).