International Day of Forests at Watergate Forest Park

I don't like to post back-to-back photo-heavy posts and rarely do. However, it just so happens I've had a few back-to-back adventures recently and little time to write about anything else! I say adventures but of course, they are just short walks and there have only been so many because of specific days, namely The First Day of Spring at Nose's Point, Seaham and today's post from two days later on the 21st of March, World Forest Day.

Sadly there aren't any proper forests close enough for me to go to without having someone at home to look after Baker (we don't leave him alone at home for more than a few hours) and so I had to make do with the nearest 'forest' which turned out to be Watergate Forest Park. 
From Gateshead Council's website here is a little info on the park - 'Watergate Forest Park is located on the site of the former Watergate Colliery. Following reclamation work in the 1990s the site has been transformed and now provides a haven for wildlife and a great recreational site for visitors. A series of trails and paths take you through woodland, around the lake and through wildflower meadows. The site opened in 2000. With its wetlands, woodlands, wildflower meadows and recreational routes, including those for people with disabilities, this is one of Gateshead's Premier sites. The park also includes the Woodlands at Washingwell and Bucks Hill.'

It was an overcast day but a nice time with the birds as always. I've been here once before but don't know if I will go again as it is very popular with dog walkers and for some reason when some people see you with a camera, they purposely set their dogs onto the birds to scare them off. That kind of ruined my day a little as I was worried about the birds. 

It was still nice to be amongst the trees on International Day of Forests though! To read more about the special day, visit International Day of Forests | United Nations. Go hug a tree!

Exploring Watergate Forest Park

Following on from my post earlier this month, Exploring Marsden Rock, here I have another set of images from one of our 30 Days Wild out exploring. We were looking for new places to adventure to and after a quick look on a trails app that had sat dormant on my phone for months, we came across Watergate Forest Park. 

It's a bit further of a drive than our usual walks and I was shocked once there how big the place actually is considering its destination. There's even a huge car park, larger than most country parks I've ever been to so I assume it must be rather popular. Luckily the day we went was a Wednesday (as always) and around 7am, so apart from the odd dog walker it was relatively quiet, to begin with.

I really had no idea what to expect apart from the fact there was apparently a loop walk around a lake. Here is what we found there...

As we left the car park and headed onto a wide tree-lined trail, the much expected and wanted wildlife seemed scarce. A few Wood Pigeons dotted the odd tree top and as the trail split and narrowed we were joined with wildflowers, bees and butterflies and even spotted (though sadly didn't catch on camera due to a dog scaring it off) a beautiful wild rabbit. 
We are never the type to follow the most used path and so although we thought we were headed towards the lake, apparently we branched off and ended up finding a lovely pond and waterfall area. A beautiful mammy Mallard and her babies were chilling here, though we could hear a little shout of distress. Upon investigation, we noticed a baby had fallen down a huge drop and gotten split from its family! After a short conversation, we decided to try and reunite them and Mr H went to the bottom of the stream, climbed up toward the baby and tried to corner it in hopes of scooping them up to lift back to mam and siblings. What ended up happening was the baby had other ideas and was rightfully a little frightened so made a break for it downstream! As I followed its journey to the bottom I saw a surprising sight, baby had met up with another handful of siblings! We didn't want to stress them anymore so moved away but had a feeling that daddy Mallard wasn't far off...

From here we moved towards the lake, I had a paddle in another stream, and we saw a Buzzard overhead. Other birds spotted or spent time with included a Grey Wagtail, Mute Swan and Cygnets, Coot (and babies), Moor Hen (and babies), Common Tern, Robin, Bullfinch, Raven, Wood Pigeon, and a Dunnock! 
So as you can see it ended up being an amazing exploration after all! Hopefully, as Autumn approaches we will be able to return and explore some more.

Until next time...