Ready to rumble at the Farne Islands
From internationally important bird colonies to the launch of electric vehicle chargers in The Dales - here's your weekly fix of eco news from the north
I’m Sarah Hartley and this is The Northern Eco weekly update. As you’ve received this newsletter then either you subscribed or someone forwarded it to you. If the latter, then you can click on this handy little button below.
Day in the life: National Trust Ranger
Imagine living on a tiny island in a cottage with no running water and more than 50,000 rare seabirds for company. That’s the day-to-day life of Rosie Parsons who tells me about her work as a ranger at the Farne Islands National Nature Reserve off the Northumberland coast. The National Nature Reserve is home to an internationally important breeding colony of thousands of seabirds and grey seals.
How do you start your day?
“There’s no need for an alarm clock - at about 7am there’s a loud rumbling sound that comes from the cliff where the guillemots and razorbills are gathered.
“Our base is a very old building with very thick walls. In the morning, it can be cold so, to get up and get warm, you have to go outside. I just have a bit of a wander around the islands with my binoculars and keep a bird sightings sheet - it’s a nice time to do it first thing in the morning.”
After a breakfast of porridge or maybe an occasional treat of sausages and bacon, Rosie gets to work proper at about 9am preparing for the visitors with routine tasks like fixing up boardwalks or making sure the toilets are clean. During the visitor season, the team will then have boats out between 10am and 4pm to ferry visitors across to see the wildlife at the islands.
“We play a big part in looking after our important breeding seabirds on the islands. It's really satisfying knowing that the data we're collecting is going towards a really important database. It's a very important indicator as to how healthy our oceans are because all the birds on the islands are very much reliant on things like the sand eels.
“Living on the island and then being able to share with visitors what we get up to as well. I think that's really important in helping people understand and care about what state our wildlife is in at the moment and what we're doing to help and what they can do to help as well.
“There's not many places in the UK that you can walk around an island and see 23 different species of birds and have someone there to point them all out in a very small space.”
The team of rangers stay on the islands for five days before returning to the mainland to take advantage of the luxury of running water to have showers and wash clothes before returning again for the next week’s visitors.
Although avian flu, stormy weather and climate change factors means that the seabird populations have been declining, Rosie points to recent legislative changes - including the banning of sand eel fishing - as hopeful signs that the tide is turning on the understanding of this important natural ecosystem.
“It’s important to raise awareness that these beaches aren't just for our use, but they're also for for nature as well. The more people we can make aware of that, the better.”
To plan a trip to the Farne Islands, check the website for available opening times: or enjoy the virtual tour below.
In the news
🪶Regular readers here at The Northern Eco will have heard about the work of Jean Thorpe of Ryedale Wildlife Rehabilitation who saves raptors and other wild animals with expert care.
Now she is due to be given a boost thanks to the multi-talented Mark Pearson who describes himself as a “Yorkshire coast-based birder, ecologist, wildlife guide, speaker, educator, comms for conservation orgs, musician / songwriter (Morning Bride), School of Birding co-founder”.
Mark set out to raise £1,000 to support Jean’s work and has already smashed through that total. He says:
“Here in Yorkshire, Jean Thorpe is a hero to many (including me) and a saviour of our wild birds in desperate need of rehabilitation. She voluntarily gives everything to nurse an ever-increasing cast of injured raptors and other wildlife, often victims of persecution and cruelty, back to the wild. I'm running my first (and probably last!) Half Marathon at the end of April to help make a small contribution to her Herculean efforts. Any contribution will help save our beleaguered birds of prey - thank you for anything!”
You can support his campaign here.
🚂 A former Northumberland rail line is to reopen to walkers. A section of a railway which closed 71 years ago should soon be reopened for public use. Volunteers hope walkers will be using the first section of the Alnwick to Cornhill line in Northumberland by the summer. Joanna Lonsdale at BBC Newcastle has more.
🔌Yorkshire’s National Parks launch new electric charging points. 18 new EV charging points have been installed across the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors to support emission free journeys for visitors, reports YorkshireBylines.
☀️ Solar energy farm approved by councillors. The facility could generate up to 49.9 megawatts of renewable electricity a year and help power the Tees Green Hydrogen project being planned on the site of the former Basic Oxygen Steelmaking plant at Lackenby. Stuart Arnold at the D&S has a full report of the meeting here.
🌍 Last week we asked whether you would like to see a People, Planet, Pint event in Richmondshire and it turns out you do! We’re also talking with Richmondshire Climate Action who got in touch so we hope to collaborate on this. I’ll bring you more news as it develops.
⛏️ Northern Lithium has secured new longer term mineral rights from the Church Commissioners for England. The company says it gives them a far wider geographical area to explore for and extract lithium and other minerals from saline brines within the granite of the Northern Pennine Orefield, County Durham. Mike Hughes at The Northern Echo reports here.
☕️ If you enjoy these stories but don’t feel ready to pay a subscription, you can always buy me a coffee via the button below! Big thanks to those of you who already bought me a virtual beverage, it helps me more than you realise. ☕️
Events
What future for waste? is being held tomorrow, Wednesday, 21 February, 19:30 – 21:00 at Clarke Foley Community Centre, Cunliffe Road, Ilkley.
Stronger shores: Become a climate scientist is on Thursday, 22 February, 10:30 – 15:30 at Rainton Meadows Nature Reserve, Durham Wildlife Trust, Mallard Way, Chilton Moor, Houghton le Spring.
Kimberley from Pickled Radish Feasts is hosting a workshop on Wednesday, 28 February conjuring up Healthy Weeks and Weekend Feasts, from 6.30-9.30pm at the Yorkshire Food Studio.
There’s a Sustainable Social Media Workshop on Thursday, 29 Feb, 18:00 –20:00 at The Dolphin Centre, Horse Market, Darlington.
If you’ve an event coming up that you’s like to share here, please drop me an email - sarah@thenortherneco.com.
The three most clicked links from last week:
Last week’s poll on whether we should host a People, Planet, Pint event
The Northern Eco six month reader survey
Radios and a camcorder to North Yorkshire from Protect the Wild
Thanks for reading! I’ll be back next week with results from the six month survey and, as it's the last Tuesday of the month, Claire and Alan will be here with February's reading recommendations.