Last year, Lindisfarne NNR was entered in the Purdey Awards, which have been held annually since 1999 and seek to promote a wider appreciation of the outstanding game and habitat conservation work carried out by shoots. Members of the Lindisfarne Wildfowling Management Group, a unique partnership between wildfowlers, BASC (the British Association for Shooting and Conservation) and Natural England attended the ceremony in London and were rewarded by winning one of the conservation prizes. As part of this commitment to conservation, a 50-strong group made up of wildfowlers, BASC Young Shots and students from Newton Rigg College met at the end of February to take part in a plastic pick along the foreshore of the NNR, part of the Northumberland Coast AONB. Three hours later, with all the bags of plastic collected together, it had been a great success – the strangest item found was a children’s slide. Andrew Craggs, senior reserve manager at Lindisfarne NNR, said that marine litter is an ongoing problem and was very happy to dispose of the plastic collected. The plastic pick was followed by a visit to the Barn at Beal to sample the pheasant and venision burgers.
