Fraggle Report~ Herrington Country Park~ March 2018~ part 1

Posted in Adventures, B&W, birds, Fuji, FujiX-T2, landscape, nature, photography, swans, uncategorised, wildlifeTagged , , , , , , , , , ,

 

Last weekend, Sophie and I got together and this time went off to Herrington Country Park. It sounded promising on the website- an adventure play area, skate boarding, Nordic walking, model boat sailing in the lake and a variety of sculptures that celebrate the heritage of the area.  Wasn’t sure if Nordic Walking involved Viking re-enactment groups having a stroll, but according to Wiki it’s walking with poles, a bit like ski-ing without snow. Anyhow it all sounded very interesting so off we went.

The History Bit

Back in the days when England had industries the North East was a mine of ..well..mines really. And shipbuilding, but heaps of mines. The park was made on the grave of the Herrington Colliery, which closed in 1985, and had a waste heap of 11,000,000 cu. M. of shale, which must have looked like a mountain to the surrounding villagers.

Herrington slag heap-from Sunderland message board, photographer unknown.

For the transformation of the park, only the coal was removed, the minerals left behind went into making the park, sandstone for the sculptures, red ash for the walkways and clays to line the lakes.  Over a hundred different species of birds have been sighted since it’s inception, and many events are held there.

The weather wasn’t too bad, at least it was dry, but the promised-by-the-weather-forecasters sunny day never happened. No matter, there was a big lake and loads of birds on it.  We couldn’t believe how close the swans allowed us to get to them, no hissing or chasing us off, and I assume that is because of all the people who go there and feed them.

Good Morning. Feed me now!

 

drippy

 

Tufty Duck

 

Black headed gull (1st winter plumage)
I see no ships!

As well as birds, a couple of chaps were sailing remote controlled boats

Seawind
24 (maybe a Jack Bauer fan!)

 

Swanning off

After a while at the lakeside we went for a walk around the park, and we’ll set off in the next episode to have a look at the sculptures, so stay tooned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

52 thoughts on “Fraggle Report~ Herrington Country Park~ March 2018~ part 1”

  2. LOL, too cute that you “swanned away” at the end. Swans are so graceful… I’m more like the bird sitting on the whatsit looking for a ship. 😉
    Sorry there weren’t any Vikings, but I enjoyed the stroll. Happy St. Patrick’s Day Hugs! :mrgreen:

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  12. Lovely! I wish I’d known you in the 5th grade when I had to freehand draw and color 50 different species of birds. Taking photographs of them would have been much easier! The swans are gorgeous!

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  19. Pingback: Herrington Country Park ~ March 2018 ~ Part 2 | fraggle
  21. Pingback: Herrington Country Park ~ March 2018~ Part 3 | fraggle
  24. Pingback: Herrington Country Park~ March 2018~part 4 | fraggle

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