How much do you know about the countryside? PETER BARRON puts your rural knowledge to the test with a special emphasis on the year gone by

1. Which bird, with dark facial markings, resembling a moustache, made a remarkable recovery in 2016 following a population crash brought on by harsh winters?

2. Who was appointed Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in July 2016?

3. Which rock star posed outside of Westminster with giant badgers and called on Parliament to abandon its cull of the animals?

The Northern Echo: Robert Fuller’s painting of a badger which can be seen at his new exhibition focusing on badgers.

4. Who was named Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year in 2016?

5. A rare Isabelline Shrike was spotted by National Trust assistant ranger Dougie Holder near Souter Lighthouse, off the North-East coast, in November. Where is the bird normally seen?

6. In September, the National Trust launched a £7.1m appeal to buy historic artefacts from the Chartwell country estate in Kent. Who lived there to make them so valuable?

7. Which Durham schoolboy grew up to present the BBC’s Countryfile since 2009?

8. Cumbria farmer Pip Simpson attracted international headlines in 2016 with his drastic action to stop people stealing his sheep. What did he do?

9. Which famous mountain was found to be one metre taller – standing at 1,345m – since it was last measured 65 years ago?

10. A sycamore gap tree, which stands in a dramatic dip in Hadrian’s Wall, in Northumberland, was crowned the 2016 Tree of the Year in the Woodland Trust Awards. Which early 1990s film gave the tree celebrity status?

11. Which wild animal was found guilty of stealing 150 Christmas lights in one day from a garden in Seattle?

12. Pioneering technology revealed more than 500 graves of Cistercian monks and lay brothers at which National Trust attraction in the north of England?

13. Which animal with a multi-coloured head, named in honour of David Bowie, was one of 163 new species discovered in the Mekong?

The Northern Echo: David Bowie

14. What is to be mined by Sirius Minerals on the North York Moors?

15. What happened to this seagull in Wales?

The Northern Echo:

And now name these countryside locations in the north of England:

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And now name these birds:

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Answers 1. Bearded Tit; 2. Andrea Leadsom; 3. Brian May; 4. Richard Allen; 5. Mongolia; 6. Sir Winston Churchill. 7. Matt Baker; 8. Spray-painted them luminous orange; 9 Ben Nevis; 10. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves; 11. A squirrel; 12. Fountains Abbey; 13. The Ziggy Stardust Snake; 14. Potash; 15. It fell into a vat of chicken curry; 16. Roseberry Topping; 17. High Force; 18. Middleham; 19. Robin Hood’s Bay; 20. Farne Islands; 21. Chaffinch; 22. Greater Spotted Woodpecker; 23. Siskin; 24. Reed Bunting; 25. Yellow Hammer.