Durham Countryside Service and Volunteers

08/10/2026

🌙Wildlife watchers were out in force again for our Night at the Nature Reserve event at lovely Tanfield Lea Marsh Local Nature Reserve.⭐️

🦋We set up the moth trap and set the bat detector dials and were joined by Pipistrelles and Noctules 🦇

🍁It's a great Autumn tradition to grab a bestie, wrap up cosy and explore the great County Durham countryside together during sunset and nightfall hours and we've enjoyed taking these groups out with us to survey wildlife at these special hours. We hope everyone enjoyed the crepuscular experiences as much as we did and look forward to our next adventures.🍂

🍄Bat nights will be back in Spring and for now we have Fungi, Magical Nature and Wild Walks to continue sharing with you to make the most of this beautiful season.🐿

Hope to see you soon!

Thanks to everyone who stayed out late with us and to our absolutely brilliant Rangers for sharing their wealth of knowledge with everyone. 🫶

07/10/2026

We enjoyed visiting the New College Durham ESOL Volunteering Fair today.

Please visit durham.gov.uk/countryside to find out more about opportunities and places to visit.

If you would like us to visit your group please get in touch via facebook message or email [email protected]

01/10/2026

🍁🍄🍂 Looking for something to do on a fine October day? Why not come on one (or more) of our Guided Walks. We have nine to choose from, taking in the sights, nature and history of County Durham. See the poster below for details, further details also available here https://www.durham.gov.uk/GuidedWalks🍁🍄🍂

29/09/2026

Autumn magic is in the air. Join us on a free guided walk with the Rangers to see for yourself.

🐿Wild Walks are for everyone and are taking in Pow Hill Country Park and Waldridge Fell Country Park. As always, Home Educators are warmly welcomed. 🍂

🍁Magical Walks are nature walks with a little family friendly seasonal magic mixed into them. They are going to be at the stunning Beamish Burn Woods where this reel was captured last week and Causey Arch Picnic Area during the half term holidays.🍄

DM with any questions or book now:
https://events.durham.gov.uk/1/Home/List/?search=&area=&cat=0&date=0&venue=0&provider=&sf=&dm=&cost=free&items=10&page=1

25/09/2026

What a great turn out for the Big Autumn Clean at Shotton Colliery!

A huge amount of waste was cleared away to make sure that the railway path is ready for Autumn walks and bike rides.

And Tidy Ted was thrilled with everyone's efforts. He also enjoyed visiting little friends at Shotton Community Hub

Thank you to everyone who came from the community and staff from Barclays UK

Weird items we found this time included a shower seat, 2 trikes and some sort of contraption with dials, possibly a time machine.

23/09/2026

🦇Seen a bat? Bats play a vital role in the ecosystem and are indicators of a healthy environment. They control insect populations and support healthy habitats such as woodlands and ponds.

Biodiversity is needed for healthy life on Earth. A wide range of living things supports our ability to grow food and live well.🍽

🪰Although all UK bats are insectivores, bats around the world are diverse. There are many hundreds of plants which exclusively rely on bats to pollinate them and this affects our imported food (and drink!🌵). While they only eat insects in the UK, some of our bats also pollinate and disperse seeds, helping us to be enriched with food.

Your local countryside is looked after in ways which support bats and biodiversity and our Ranger team will be checking out which bats are about in the next few weeks. Although our upcoming night walks are fully booked, you might be able spot bats in your local countryside around sunset.🎴🦇

Take a peek at the Bat Calendar to see what they are up to this month:

The Bat Conservation Trust was formed in 1990 as an umbrella organisation for the rapidly growing network of bat groups, providing support, training and advice.

22/09/2026

🚲Here are some inspirational cyclists from Breeze network Durham to motivate us to make use of our fantastic County Durham Railway Path network on World Car Free day. 🌍

https://youtu.be/IfKdZS5poNM

For more information on the railway path network please visit:
https://www.durham.gov.uk/article/3691/Railway-paths

There's a route planner for cyclists here:
https://www.cyclinguk.org/journey-planner

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