Friday Facts

Having just started as reserve warden I was asked to put together a fact file for our educational outreach info. From a newbies point of view it was a great opportunity to delve a little deeper into the NNR and how it came about. So here goes are you ready for some Friday facts?

                                          When looking at the information leaflets about the reserve I kept noticing that it covers of 3,500 hectares. Hectares may not mean much but with a quick web search I found that this relates to well over 3,500 Wembly football pitches. Stretching from Cheswick Black Rocks in the North to Budle Bay in the South it's not surprising when you also hear that Lindisfarne is one the largest Reserves in the North East covering a mosaic of internationally important coastal habitat.

The Reserve is half a century old and has seen some changes in those fifty years. The causeway was completed two years after designation as a National Nature Reserve. It was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1989 and a Ramsar site for it's important wetland habitats in 1976. For more information on Ramsar sites including Lindisfarne have a look here.

JJD (c)

What about the star species for the reserve and what makes them special?

• The Reserve has its own endemic wild flower the Lindisfarne Helleborine which is only found on Holy Island. 
•  All 4 species of UK terns have bred on Lindisfarne in the past.   All species of tern migrate large distances to breed on the NNR. Arctic terns in particular can travel up to 70,000km every.   The total distance flown in an Arctic Terns life time may exceed 2.4 million km.
• One of the Reserves star species is the Light- bellied Brent geese and Lindisfarne NNR is their only regular wintering site in Britain

      There are plenty more facts and information about the Reserve on our leaflet which you can download from this blog and on our information panels around the reserve.