Saltholme

Spring is well and truly underway, and what a difference to last year.  It’s much more pleasant to be undertaking surveys, and all manner of other jobs, in weather like we’ve been having rather than the colder, wetter conditions of last year. 

It’s always an exciting time of year as our Spring migrants arrive and we hear and see the sounds and sights that have been missing over the Autumn and Winter.  Not…

Well, it has felt like we haven’t stopped here at Saltholme over recent weeks, with lots being achieved by the team.  Last time I talked about the hedge that has been planted down one side of our Wild Saltholme area, well unfortunately the same area seems to suffer with large volumes of litter ending up on our land.  Much must get blown in, but a fair amount is thrown in and some is blatantly dumped.  Our volunteers…

Several years ago, a butterfly transect was set up at Saltholme and we entered the records into the national recording scheme, the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme.  Whilst it is a nice exercise to do on site, it is not a top priority for us, more important invertebrate monitoring is of species like Grayling, Dingy Skipper, Brown Argus and White-letter Hairstreak.  Unfortunately, the survey has fallen slightly by the wayside…

The year started off wet and continued wetter than normal through to about October.  This didn’t help with the light trapping efforts and certainly the temperatures in Spring won’t have helped either.  The trap went out 25 times catching 1525 moths, including 20 new species to the reserve, three new to the county and an additional 85 records of 834 individuals of all life stages, observed in the field.

The …

For the first blog of the year I wanted to talk about some new management we are having to undertake.  The observant visitor will have noticed some quite different management on site to what has gone before, particularly if they’ve had a peek out of Paddy’s hide in recent weeks.  We have had a contractor on site rotovating large areas of the Central Wet Grassland viewable from the hide.  More usually at this time…

It’s less than a week until Christmas (sorry), which also means it’s nearly the end of 2024. Like all years, it’s had its ups and downs for Saltholme. Like all years, it seems to have flown over far more quickly than anyone expected. Like all years, it’s worth taking a moment to look back at some of the main events. Read on for your 2024 Saltholme overview!

Brian:

In February, we lost an amazing…

With this blog I am currently playing a little bit of catch up with communicating some of the work and other bits that occur on site, and today I am looking back to some (not all) of the work party tasks over the last six or seven weeks.  I am sure we will very soon settle into a rhythm of one a month, or thereabouts.

First up then, looking all the way back to mid-October and the estate volunteers helped to clear the view…

Image Credit: Ben Andrew, RSPB Images. 

Mid-November has brought spectacular sunrises, sunsets, Starling murmurations and species sightings to Saltholme. It’s been a week that, for all it hasn’t been warm by any stretch of the imagination, has been a fantastic reminder of just how incredible UK landscapes and wildlife are. If you need more of a reminder, you’re in the right place! Read on for the latest conservation work…

Image Credit: Ben Andrew, RSPB Images. 

Even though the sun disappeared with the end of October half-term, the birds most certainly have not. That’s right, it’s been another brilliant birdwatching week at Saltholme and we intend to tell you all about it in this blog. We’ll throw in some other stuff about our conservation work and events so you get an even clearer image of reserve life. We’ll even do our best to keep the…

At Saltholme we have many services over and under our various landholdings and regular access and maintenance is required to these by the different utilities companies.  One pipeline owned by National Gas runs under Saltholme East and Dorman’s Pool.

We worked with National Gas advising on how they can, as comfortably as possible, walk a route over their pipeline, some of which is under a reedbed, complete with a…

Image Credit: Ben Andrew, RSPB Images

Hello and welcome to November. Yes, the 11^th month is upon us and we’re starting to wonder how that happened. What we’re not wondering about is how we ended up being the best RSPB reserve in North East England- we can prove that with our conservation work, events programme and species sightings! Read on for more…

News from the Estate:

Reedbeds are an incredibly…

Image Credit: Ian Francis, RSPB Images

Autumn is well and truly here; Saltholme has been a kaleidoscope of colours, species and sunshine this week. With so much to take in, you could be forgiven for feeling that it’s impossible to see everything in one visit. What a good thing we’re going to summarise everything for you in this blog! Read on for more…

News from the Estate:

You never know what you…

Welcome to a (hopefully) regular read about some of the goings-on at Saltholme.  It won’t be so regular that you can set your clock by it, but we will aim to post several times a year.

We have had a fairly busy period on the site just recently including landscaping works being carried out as part of a project funded by Natural England.  The ‘Terning It Up’ species recovery project, is targeting seabirds following on…

Image Credit: Ben Andrew, RSPB Images. 

Hello! And welcome back to the weekly blog that may not have quite been ‘weekly’ recently but is certainly just as awesome as it normally is (no comment on the normal level of awesomeness please). So, to top up your awesomeness for this week and read on to find out all that has been happening at Saltholme!

News from the Estate:

Our Main Lake provides spectacular skylines…

Image Credit: Ben Andrew, RSPB Images

If you feel that the end of September slapped you around the face with rain, wind and misery, you’re not the only one. BUT the start of October has brought fantastic autumnal sunshine, crisp mornings and plenty of incredible bird sightings to Saltholme. What’s even better is that we intend to tell you all about these sightings, as well as the conservation work and events programme…

Image Credit: Ben Andrew, RSPB Images. 

The blog is back! After a few weeks off, we’re back with a bang. Or, after the weather in the latter half of this week, back with a splash might be more appropriate. But we are a wetland reserve so a little water doesn’t do much to dampen our spirits…even if the Visitor Centre roof let some of the water in.

Read on for more!

News from the Estate:

It's been a…

Image Credit: Ben Andrew, RSPB Images. 

Well, that’s August nearly over. Where has the time gone?! Well, for us it has gone very productively this week- almost as productive as a cough. We’ve completed loads of conservation work, engaged with loads of visitors and have seen loads of birds! Read on for more…

News from the Estate:

We have one of the largest inland breeding colonies of Common Tern in the…

Image Credit: Ben Andrew, RSPB Images. 

Good afternoon and welcome back to the best blog on the internet. You will sense a water theme running through this week’s blog…as we are a wetland reserve, water does of course usually affect everything we do. This is particularly true of this week, where it has been involved in our conservation work, visitor operations and species sightings. Intrigued? Read on for more!…

Image Credit: RSPB

And with that, we are halfway through August. But don’t dwell on the fact that we are now closer the end of the summer holidays than we are to the start of them. Instead, think of how much fun you must be having for time to pass this quickly! We’ve certainly been keeping busy- read on for more detail!

News from the Estate:

Image Credit: Ben Hall. 

Visitors to the Paddy’s Pool hide may well…

Good afternoon and welcome back to our very serious and sensible blog.

As usual, this week has been jam-packed with conservation work, events and species sightings. In fact, it’s been so jam-packed is practically a trifle. But don’t let that make you think what we have to talk about is trifling- the work we do here is key to the conservation of wetlands and the education of the next generation of nature lovers. So read…

Image Credit: Ben Andrew, RSPB Images. 

Hello and welcome back to the blog! The summer holidays are in full swing- even the sunshine has joined the party. We’ve been making the most of the good weather, with plenty of conservation work to continue and enough family activities to keep even the most persistent toddler happy. Want to read more about it? Of course you do!

News from the Estate:

Bracken is thought to…

Image Credit: Katie Nethercoat, RSPB Images. 

Good afternoon and welcome back to the Saltholme blog! We know we’ve left you stewing in a blog-less world for a couple of weeks, so we’re back with a bang! The reason you haven’t endured terrible puns and faintly wayward grammar recently is because there has been so much going on at Saltholme. Fortunately for you (we think), we’re back with the puns and most of the grammar…

 After 12 years our beloved Alice Table is starting to decay and can no longer be repaired. The Alice Table has become a focal point of the reserve, creating a photo opportunity for visitors and a chance for imaginative play alongside long lasting memories.

Our Alice Table:

Back in 2012 there was a commission for natural play equipment, themed around the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures…

Image Credit: Ben Andrew, RSPB Images. 

And with that, Friday is here again. But we don’t mind because that means it’s (a) nearly the weekend and (b) blog post day! So, read on to unearth everything that has happened at Saltholme this week.

News from the Estate:

Foxes are one of the top predators at Saltholme. They have a very important role to play in controlling the populations of a variety of species. Image…

Image Credit: RSPB

Hello you wonderful people, and welcome back to the latest gripping instalment of life at RSPB Saltholme. We know you can’t wait to delve into what has been happening this week, so we won’t keep you waiting any longer- read on for more.

News from the Estate:

Japanese Knotweed is an invasive species- it grows very quickly, shading out smaller plants and therefore reducing the biodiversity…