Nature

Wildlife on The River Coquet Whilst walking with some friends along the River Coquet we saw a Barn Owl in broad daylight. A beautiful creature that swooped and flew right over us. Despite the present it left Hannah with it was a great thing to see - and anyway it is said to bring good luck! Well done Hannah for being so stoic! ...

This morning we saw two deer gently grazing away at about 6.30am from our kitchen window. Despite the rain they seem to be very happy. ...

We are very proud to be licensed as a Grown In Britain Woodland Owner. The Coquet Plantation is approximately 40 acres of mature and new trees, and we have an on going Woodland Management Plan in place. We use our wood in a sustainable way to run our bio-mass boilers on the farm, and we sell logs for wood burners and fires locally. "Grown in Britain is for anyone who values ...

The Coquet Valley is renowned for its Dark Skies and a great deal of Northumberland has Dark Sky Status. On a clear dark night we have some amazing views of the stars and sky, and the moon often looks amazing too . Cragend Farm is on the border of the Dark Sky and National Park area. We are 20 miles from Keilder Water where there is an observatory for the earnest astronomer ...

Planting time We have planted the 'hydrangea petiolaris' today, on a north facing wall at the rear of the barns that will climb and give some beautiful flowers in due course. This area will eventually be a west terrace for evening sunshine up until approximately 9pm during the height of summer, and this north wall just falls short of any full sunshine so is ideal for this cli ...

After some days of heavy rain and seeing a great many newts and frogs around the pond, we now have a vast amount of frog spawn. As long as it stays reasonably wet and the water levels do not drop too much we will have a good many tadpoles wiggling around in a few weeks time. The frog spawn makes good eating for the visiting ducks and geese but hopefully there is enough there ...

It has been really exciting to see the wildlife return to area of the farm that were unusable. With the help of a Natural England grant we have made a woodland area. Hares have been sighted there as now is the mating season for them. We are thrilled. Brown Hares graze on vegetation and nibble bark from young trees and bushes. Hares shelter in a 'form', which is simply a shallo ...

I was walking the dogs through our newly planted woodland to the east of the farm, and despite having them with me, I spotted a deer who did not seem at all afraid of us. In recent weeks we have also spotted a stag and several does going from our woodland down to the river. ...

There are Deer in the Coquet Valley and we are lucky enough to have sightings of them quite regularly at Cragend Farm. There are wildlife cameras in the woods for squirrel sighting purposes and sometimes they capture the deer too. If you are staying here and like getting up early for a walk you may be luckily and see the deer grazing on the Enclosure Field above the farm, l ...

Red Squirrels at Cragend. The Coquetdale Squirrel Group works relentlessly to try to safeguard the red squirrels in our region from the oncoming plague of grey squirrels coming up from the South of England. Here is a testimonial from the groups spokesperson, Janet Fenwick-Clennell: "For the past 5 years the Coquetdale Squirrel Group has been working with Shaun and Lou at C ...