WildWatch North Pennines was a three year project supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, engaging volunteers with wildlife recording in the North Pennines.

An army of volunteers…

• volunteers officially logged more than 20,000 sightings of wildlife in the North Pennines
• in 3 years more than 600 people gave up their free time to attend 127 workshops to train in wildlife identification
• over 10,000 bird sightings both common and rare were shared
• 71 ring ouzel recordings will help us keep a closer eye on these moorland specialists and inform a North Pennines upland bird atlas
• WildWatch volunteers recorded the North Pennines’ earliest cuckoo call on 22 April 2012 and the last swallow was seen in our skies on 14 November 2013
• 144 reptile records will continue to contribute to the NE reptile atlas
• over 2,000 moth and butterfly records were inputted online, inspired by 25 workshops and events supported by the AONB Partnership
• following red squirrel workshops 12 WildWatch volunteers went on to monitor transects for Red Squirrels Northern England helping track the health of our local populations
• Alston Moor Red Squirrel Group has been revived by passionate WildWatch volunteers to conserve an important red squirrel stronghold in the North Pennines that has become more apparent through increased recording effort