I was a young boy watching Stingray on the television, getting very excited when Commander Shore would announce “anything can happen in the next half hour”.   And it feels like that now at Saltholme. Yesterday, 2 Spoonbills dropped in to join the throng of avocets and ruff on the wet grassland, while 2 marsh harriers put the jitters into our remaining wigeon.   This morning, we have our first grasshopper warbler…

To post a list of all bird sightings each week would be a monumental task.

So in order to give you a taster of what you can possibly expect to see on the coming weekend, each week I'm going to try and give you a handfull of some of our more notable sightings from the last 7 days:

We've had as Cetti's warbler singing around the Haverton Viewpoint area.

Sandmartins are growing in number each day and are clearly…

The problem with innovation is that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. At the visitor centre feeding station, Canada geese have recently learned to come in and grab the sunflower hearts from the tree stumps. As they are a non-native species that are on the increase, and do have a negative impact on wetland ecosystems, I’ve thought about how I could sensitively discourage them.

And then one morning…

You may have noticed work going on at the Watchpoint Hide recently, which has left various windows still without any glass. It hasn’t taken nature very long to take advantage of this, but I’m quite surprised by the nature involved. I would have expected mice, rats or even stock doves to move in if the building had been left unattended for a while, but it hasn’t.  What we do have is a female sparrowhawk…

Bumble bee queens are out, hedgehogs are out and cherry trees are flowering, so spring is in the air. And here at Saltholme the first of our spring migrants are arriving. This week, we have wheatear, chiffchaff and sand martin on the reserve. Whooper swans are moving north to their breeding grounds, and avocets are back in small numbers.

I always wonder how birds which feed on insects cope with early springs ? Especially…

Exciting work is going on to make our viewing hides even  better.  Better for viewing wildlife and a better experience altopgether.  First off is the wildlife watchpoint with its new wooden cladding inside and out which should be warmer and quieter in the rain.    At the moment there is that lovely wood smell to enjoy too.

The entrance porch is new and includes an electric door which will open for you (when you press the button…

Our volunteers have been very busy during the last two weeks, after four more days of work there is finally enough new cockle shell on Paddy’s Pool Island for the upcoming breeding bird season. However there is no time to rest, this week we cleared material from one of the islands in the Main Lake with an appreciative audience watching from the warmth of the visitor centre cafe. A new cover of tarrem and cockle shell…

There's something in the air on Valentine's Day in Saltholme Field:

They say the chase is better than the catch.  I suspect this Brown Hare thinks not.

Amorous Brown Hares photographed by Brian Clasper

Happy Valentines Day.

Although we have birds such as Long-tailed Duck, Cetti’s Warbler, Short-eared Owl and White-fronted Geese around just now, it seems that Bobby the Water Vole who resides at the back of the Visitor Centre, has become our star attraction, particularly among photographers. Brian Clasper managed this nice portrait on Monday.

But is it as cute as Cate's photograph which shows his weeny little fingers ?

Our…

Visitors trying to spot wildlife from Paddy’s hide yesterday were probably a bit surprised when they saw people instead of birds on the tern island. It was the first time this year that we worked there, which means it was the first time for me to get onto it. We started to remove the old material, full of bird droppings and weed seeds, and put new cockle shell on. Since none of us can fly, we had to get across in a boat…

I love little Water Voles. I loved feeding them at the Watchpoint Hide but was devastated every time one of them was predated. Lots of things eat Water Voles, even Herons, and it got to the stage where I had to stop the feeding.

So now, I am delighted to find that once again there is a Water Vole that everyone can see. Just follow the path from the Visitor Centre to the Mad Hatters Tea Party, and look along the banks…

Hello!

My name is Anni (well, actually it’s Annemarie but everyone agreed that it’s too long) and I’m one of the new residential volunteers at Saltholme.  I’ve travelled about 600 miles from eastern Germany to get here and do some practical conservation work.  After studying three years in a city quite close to the Baltic Sea, I thought it might be time for something new - that’s why I decided to…

Visitors to the Phil Stead Hide may have seen our latest arrivals recently, and I don’t mean the pair of Pintail or Dame Edna, the Black Swan. As the vegetation of these recently created habitats is now at a stage where it needs to be managed to keep it open for wetland birds, we are introducing grazing management in the form of Heilan Coos, or Highland Cows to us locals.

Our latest conservation management…

And the first Frog of the year award goes to Annie, one of our residential volunteers, who saw a Frog hopping along the path by the Watchpoint gates yesterday. I always feel sad for the overly keen Frogs during the winter. And by overly keen, I mean desperate to mate.

I found this rather cheeky Frog while looking for Newts.

Male Frogs adopt one of two strategies in order to beat the competition and get a female…

It's getting a tad blustery but we've still got exciting things to see with 5 Eurasian White-fronted Geese landing on the Meadow this morning and a lovely Pintail duck in front of the Phil Stead Hide.

 Brown Hare by the Meadow by Mark Stokeld

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas.  Thanks for your support through 2016 and we hope to see you all here in the new year.

Cheers.

We undertook a couple of bird counts this week, which are essential as they inform us whether our conservation management is effective or not.  All these bird numbers are then entered onto databases and the figures scrutinised to see if they can tell us anything.  All of which is very important. Which is good, because I’m normally averse to any form of mathematics.

This is why I was shocked to watch a television…

Most birds move to find food in winter. Upland birds move to lower ground and northern birds fly south. It is a particular problem for birds that eat insects, and many insect eating birds change their diet to include berries while insects are either dead, dormant or eggs.

One of our thrushes has an unusual strategy: Mistle Thrushes find a good berry source, often a single large Hawthorn bush, and defend it against…

To get you in the mood for booking on one of our Soup and Starling events, I thought I’d give you all just a hint of how interesting Starlings are:

In the breeding season Starlings eat leatherjackets (cranefly or daddy long legs larvae). They have modified skull muscles, which allows them to push their bills into the soil and then open it to create a hole, grabbing lunch in the process.  This is the opposite of…

Feeding the birds is not without its problems, and here at Saltholme we are very much aware that bird food attracts other life apart from song birds. Rats like bird food, and Sparrowhawks like birds.

When I started here 3 years ago, I erected a screen at the Wildlife Watchpoint Hide so that I could go out to the feeding station in the morning and feed the birds without scaring wildfowl in front of the hide. Almost…

Well - when I say pull, I should explain!

We have had our resident elves (John and Mike) working on building a special Saltholme Sleigh for Santa, and this is the centerpiece for our "Flying home for Christmas" event on December 3rd and 4th and yes its pulled by geese (not exactly the feathered variety). Wrap up warm, grab your wellies and join us for a fantastic weekend of festive fun to help celebrate this wonderful…

Waxwings are surprising in that their plumage makes them look much larger than they actually are. They are in fact slightly smaller than a Starling.

They get their name from the red waxy tips to the secondary wing feathers which resemble the wax used to seal letters long ago before someone invented a glue you can lick. Why would someone do that ?

The number of waxy tips increases with age, and females have fewer than…

As winter approaches in the Tees Valley, dark clouds begin to form overhead – but these are clouds to be marvelled at, as thousands of starlings flock together to put on a spectacular display – and we're inviting you to experience it first-hand.

Join us for our annual ‘Soup and Starlings’ evenings throughout November and December to witness this fantastic wildlife show.

Our friendly…

Long-eared Owls are back for the winter, and spend the day sitting in scrub at Haverton.  They are very difficult to see and have a remarkable ability to blend into their surroundings.  The best way to see them is to ask at reception if we have a Saltholme Guide manning the viewpoint.  We try to have a guide on duty there whenever we can.

     Long-eared Owl enjoying a snooze by Mark Stokeld

Long-eared Owls are prone to…

Nearly 3,000 Wigeon spend the winter here at Saltholme, and for me, their evocative whistling is a constant source of amusement throughout the colder months. This is because I have had the pleasure of seeing, quite close, a male Wigeon whistle. It’s something that most people take for granted, that Wigeon make whistling noises, but not many people have actually watched one do it.

The sequence of events is fascinating…

What do you do when you encounter a tiny Hedgehog with 3 legs feeding on bird seed at the Wildlife Watchpoint in the middle of October ?

He certainly wouldn’t survive hibernation as his tiny size means he doesn’t have the fat reserves. That alone means if he is to survive, he has to be brought in to captivity for the winter. This is controversial, as there are those who think that as a wild animal, they should be left…