Fleur Miles April 2025
Four of us (Fleur Miles (Leader), Carole Sobkoviak, Derek Risbey and
Mary Atkinson) set off from Abbey Road at 10:00am on Tuesday 15 April
2025 for Rainton Meadows, the Headquarters of Durham Wildlife Trust.
The weather was light overcast sky with a temperature of 12oC with no
wind. We arrived at Rainton Meadows at 10:30am when the sun was
trying to break through. It did eventually break through in the afternoon.
We, first of all, visited Joe’s Pond immediately nextdoor to Rainton
Meadows. Joe’s Pond is named after Joe Wilson who used to care for
the former Coal Board flooded claypit. It is designated as a SSSI due to
its fen. We saw a mute swan sitting on her nest re-arranging the nesting
material: the way she was moving her head and neck brought to mind
the silver swan at Bowes Museum. We also saw a Grey Heron and
several Tufted Duck. There was a rabbit hole where red coloured
material had been kicked out. I wondered if this was waste material – red
shale – from the coal industry which had been used to backfill some of
the 1960s motorway bridges on the nearby A1(M). We also noted
bracket fungus, Hearts Tongue Fern, Wild Periwinkle and Gooseberry.
Cowslips were now flowering where two weeks beforehand Coltsfoot
had been flowering. At least 13 species of birds and ducks were noted at
Joe’s Pond: 140 species of birds and ducks have been recorded at the
Pond according to the DWT website. During the recce, I had seen a reed
bunting.
We returned to the Rainton Meadows headquarters building/carpark.
Rainton Meadows Nature Reserve was created by the restoration of Rye
Hill opencast coal mine in 1996 by UK Coal in partnership with Durham
Wildlife Trust and the City of Sunderland. We had our lunch in a nearby
field where a large egg sculpture by William Pym had been
installed. During the recce, a weasel had darted out of the hedgerow, it
had run to the middle of the field, searched around for something in the
long grass then went scurrying back to the hedgerow. We also saw St
Mark’s Flies. During the outing, we saw/heard Dunnock and Oyster
Catcher and saw 3 Buzzards flying high above us in Egg Sculpture
Field. We had a look at Pond 1 in this field. During the recce, the Pond
water had been clear and we had seen both dead and live frogs. During
the outing the Pond water was muddied up so we only saw Whirligig
Beetles. A Willow Warbler was heard nearby. We walked down to the
stream at the other end of Pond 1 and had a look through the bird
screen towards West Rainton village church. Old fluffy bulrush heads
looked like feather dusters. During the recce on 31 March, we had seen
a beautiful white blossom tree near Pond 1 and Coltsfoot flowers near
the stream. Two weeks later these flowers had sadly gone over.
We turned back on ourselves to return to the main footpath. We came
across a gentleman who said Rainton Meadows was a stronghold for
Willow Tits. He showed us a photo of a nest hole bored out by a Willow
Tit in a rotting silver birch tree trunk within the Nature Reserve.
We walked to the first bird hide at Pond 2 where we could look through
the bird screens either side of the hide. We saw Canada Geese, Herring
Gull, Jackdaw, Tufted Duck, Coot and Shelduck. On the way to the other
end of Pond 2, we saw tadpoles in an ephemeral pond where the water
was only half an inch deep. Two weeks beforehand, we had seen frog
spawn. There had been lots of sunshine and wind during those two
weeks between the recce and the outing. We were in need of rain but
would not see any until the end of May/eight weeks later. At the other
end of Pond 2, we had a look through a stone wall bird screen and we
came across the Willow Tit bore hole in the silver birch tree trunk beside
the footpath. There were no birds in the nest hole.
On the way to Pond 4, we came across a larger deeper ephemeral
pond. We saw Pond Snails, Pond Skaters, and Whirligig Beetles. We
turned right to walk to Pond 4. We saw/heard Chaffinch and Robin along
the way. The Merlin app suggested Bluetit, Lapwing and Goldfinch. We
saw small silver fish in a small stream which flowed from Pond 4 through
a culvert under the path and out into the verge on the other side of the
footpath. An Orange Tip Butterfly flew alongside the path flanked by
Blackthorn shrubs festooned with white blossom.
On Pond 4, we saw a Little Egret, another nesting Mute Swan, a Little
Grebe with a silver fish in its beak, and a flock of curlew flew overhead.
We turned back on ourselves, turned left and visited Pond 3. A lot of
Coltsfoot had been in flower here during the recce and Jill had spotted
an old wren’s nest. This was a very quiet Pond and only had a Mute
Swan swimming on it.
We returned to the main path, and turned left onto the main path going
up a long gentle slope. The design of this area reminded me of West
Park near Cockerton. We walked past the woodland on Nicholson’s Hill
where Jill and I had seen a Roe Deer during the recce.
We turned left and followed the path which took us up the side of the
woodland to the top of Nicholson’s Hill where you get a good aerial view
of the whole Rainton Meadows site and the Penshaw Monument. I
managed to find the Gorse Seed Weevils which Jill had pointed out to
me during the recce.
Thank you to Carole for the tea and cream scones afterwards and to
Mary for the birds and botany lists. We observed 33 bird and duck
species, 32 flowering plants, 6 shrubs, 11 trees, two grasses and one
sedge species. And thank you to Jill Cunningham for assisting with the
recce.
