Aren’t they the same?

It’s been a great Easter here at Saltholme , with literally thousands of visitors over the last week visiting and enjoying everything we have to offer.

The wildlife certainly hasn’t disappointed either.

We’ve had several sightings of white wagtails as they pass through on their way to breed in Northern Europe and Scandinavia, although they are known to breed in Shetland too.…

There are only 6 days left of the Easter holidays and our lambing live days.

Colin, photographed by Annie

Come and see the baby lambs, watch new lambs being born (maybe, possibly, if your lucky) and see the mess being cleared up afterwards. If that doesn’t put you off your chocolate ......................... nothing will.

There are gator (a small tractor sort of thing) rides for the kids and you get…

You could be forgiven for thinking we've gone lamb mad this Easter, but we certainly haven't forgotten all of the other amazing wildlife we have here at Saltholme.

Many of our visitors have been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Bobby our resident water vole. You'll be pleased to hear that we have numerous water voles one site. Water voles are Britain's largest species of vole and are sometimes mistaken for…

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…