Durham Countryside Service and Volunteers

🍁As we head into autumn, we'd love you to join us on one of our guided walks. Check out the poster below for more information on the remaining September walks. Further details also available here https://www.durham.gov.uk/GuidedWalks 🍁

🍂🍁🍄🍄‍🟫🍄🍄‍🟫 FUNGI WALK🍄🍄‍🟫🍄🍄‍🟫🍂🍁
🍄‍🟫Wednesday 14th October 2026
🍄10.30am - 12.00pm Broompark Picnic Area
🍄‍🟫Free but booking essential. Book quickly to reserve a place.
🍄All welcome. Join our Ranger for an autumnal woodland walk to spot natural wonders and learn why they are special.
🍄‍🟫https://events.durham.gov.uk/1/Home/Details/4380?eventDate=14-10-2026%2000%3A00

“Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves. We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!” Humbert Wolfe

Our Autumn Community Programme goes live later this week. Expect a little bit of seasonal magic.🦇🍄🍂🍁

Well, what a packed summer of volunteering we’ve had! We’ve bashed invasive Himalayan Balsam and Bracken, pulled out Rosebay Willowherb, cut and raked wildflower meadows, installed new gates and fencing and much more! All of our volunteers’ hard work means our Countryside sites can thrive and remain beautiful places for people to visit and connect with nature. So, we want to say an enormous thank you to all our volunteers across the service for all the amazing work they’ve done over the last few months! Thank you so much! 🤩

Our car parks have now reopened at Pow Hill Country Park. We would like to remind visitors to stay out of cordoned off areas and abide by all on-site signage.

The hot summer weather has left the ground and vegetation across many of our countryside sites extremely dry. Please remember to always follow the countryside code, pack a picnic rather than a BBQ, do not light fires, and remove all rubbish, putting it in a bin or taking it home (reflective items like glass bottles can also start a fire).

If you see a possible fire in the countryside, get to a place of safety immediately and call 999.

Thank you.

We are aware of a fire which has broken out at Pow Hill Country Park. We can confirm that the Fire Service is in attendance and the fire is under control.

All visitor car parks are closed and will remain closed overnight. Please do not visit the site at this time. We will update visitors when access has re-opened.

Thank you again to those have alerted us to the situation.

Ferryhill Carrs Local Nature Reserve is a very special place to come and explore flora and fauna. There is a lot to discover. Thankfully we had our youngest Ranger along to help us to find and record it on a sunny day last week at Ferryhill Carrs Bioblitz . Thanks for coming!🐞🦋🐦

Today we took part in the BIG Butterfly Count 2026 Butterfly Conservation with the rangers from Durham Countryside Service and Volunteers. Not only did we spot some gorgeous butterflies but found a few other wonderful creatures.

I can’t recommend enough how fun these sessions are and highly recommend you check out their page for future events. We took part in one of their BioBlitz sessions the other week and both sessions were located it lovely nature reserves local to home.

A fantastic list of today’s butterfly sightings and the extra creatures which has been supplied from Durham Countryside Service and Volunteers
2 Holly blues
8 green veined whites
2 painted ladies
1 large white
1 shaded broadbar
1 grass veneer

As well as a female southern hawker dragonfly, a common green grasshopper, rabbits, magpies, buff tailed bumblees, red tailed bumblebees, a batman hoverfly, common carder bees, honey bees, harebells, birds foot trefoil, eyebright, common spotted orchid and broad leaved helleborine and more!

Thank you so much to rangers Katy and Lee. See you both again soon.