16th June: Lindisfarne NNR at the Glendale Show's Children's Countryside Day

Last Thursday we were asked to attend the local Children's Countryside Day, organised by the Glendale Show. It was the 10th anniversary of the Children’s Countryside Day and we were thrilled to be involved for the first time. The day is dedicated to giving children between 5 and 9 hands on experience of the countryside. We were teamed up with some of our colleagues in Catchment Sensitive Farming and the Northumberland Rivers Trust who had lots of interesting water creatures for the children to examine.

Setting up before the children arrive 

After being kindly let into the main tent due to the threat of rain we talked to the children about the work we do and also got them looking at litter and how long it takes to rot away once it’s dumped on our shores. I think a few of them were shocked to find out it takes around 450 years for a nappy to decompose and over 1,000,000 years for glass! Following that, they created a couple of craft creatures including making a little tern. This gave us an opportunity to talk to them about our current partnership project the Northumberland Little Tern Project.

Natural England's litter guessing game

Despite the threat of rain the show stayed dry and 1500 children enjoyed the exhibits which ranged from sheep shearing through to wood turners. We talked to children from schools based locally at Belford and Berwick but also from further afield such as Jesmond in Newcastle. It was a great day! The feedback from the children was positive and everyone was really enthusiastic. Many of them took away a leaflet about Lindisfarne NNR and some said they would be dragging their parents out to enjoy the reserve in the holidays!