Late Autumn at St Paul's and the River Don, Jarrow

 

For some reason, I seem to have stopped posting as many of our days out and nature walks here, only sharing a portion of the photos on my Project 365 blog. That means that this post here is a little out of season but I thought it was still worth sharing.

The first group of photos were taken at St Paul's Monastery, Jarrow from a little dog outing with Baker on October 30th 2023. St Paul's is around a 1.5-mile walk either way for us and this walk in particular showed us that 3 miles is a bit too far for the old man to trek these days.

The second group of photos are just a few from a little date day where we went bird spotting along the river Don and stopped off at St Paul's adjacent, The Hive Coffee Co, on November 8th 2023. They cater very much so for vegans and we had a lovely cake each accompanied by coffee and hot chocolate. 

I hope you enjoy the photos.

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A Heartbreaking Walk at Primrose Nature Reserve

Ah, this post isn't the most fun to write but I still want to share these photos.

In January we popped along to a so-called 'Nature reserve' just about a mile from our house that we hadn't visited for three years. And to be honest, I wish we hadn't gone.

You won't see it in these photos, but I have never seen such complete and utter disregard for a 'nature reserve' in my life. The state of this place is a heartbreaking disgrace. There is so much rubbish piled up and strewn around all over the place, especially in the water. 

Animals live here. This is an area off of the River Don with many species of bird who call it home.

It is always unnecessary to litter, but it is atrocious to allow a place that should be protected to get to this point.

It has definitely had an effect too because, between our previous visit and now, the amount of wildlife spotted has decreased significantly. I struggled to find many things to photograph. Usually, a post like this would be split between two as I'd have so many photos but other than one Chaffinch and two Moor Hens, there were only a few Mallards. 

As if that wasn't bad enough, toward the end of our walk we were passed by a man with four dogs. 

A few minutes later we heard a noise a turned to see that he had sent them all into the fenced-off area where all the water birds were relaxing. I left the walk sobbing and distraught at the thought of what happened.

So yeah, an awful walk. A terrible time. I am sharing these photos and this story to show that these beautiful natural places need extra protection and the general public need to be held accountable for the way they are abusing, neglecting and downright killing our precious nature and wildlife.

The photos above are a mixture of strategically taken angles and photoshop to remove the rubbish.
This place is a magical, beautiful wildlife haven - or it could and should be.

I actually managed to find one photo that I had taken to report this disgrace to someone which I will post below. This doesn't even capture a small fraction of the problem.
Do better humans!

A Walk Along the River Don

 

Following on from my Exploring St Paul's Monastery and St Paul's Church post on Friday, I thought I'd take the opportunity to get this post up sharpish too. These photos were taken on the same day as our first visit to St Paul's, the 29th of June, where we took a little wander along the very dry-looking River Don after exploring the ruins. 

It was lightly raining and we ended up with soaking trousers to our knees and wet feet due to wearing canvas shoes...I didn't expect to be walking along overgrown grass paths but that is where the birds took me! 

The bridge featured in these photos is apt, though unimaginatively, named Jarrow Bridge. You can walk onto the bridge and enjoy the view from it, but now there is no through-way. It is thought to date back to the early 18th century and it originally provided access to St Paul's Monastery. 
There was a lovely array of flora and fauna, not all photographed and the birds we were lucky to observe were: Black-headed Gull, Mallard, Curlew, Moorhen, Rock Dove (Pigeon), Juvenile Goldfinch, Oystercatcher, among others. 

I look forward to visiting again in the Autumn/Winter months and hope to see a higher water level!
Until next time...