The sun sparkles off the lake as I make my way to the new “office”- Saltholme RSPB Nature reserve. Its mid-May. Spring has awoken all over the reserve, Hawthorns fizz with champagne white blossom and tingle with life as birds and insects alike thrive within its undergrowth. By the ponds, flashes of brilliant blues and reds can be seen as damselflies emerge from aquatic hiding. The occasional electric buzz rings through…

Hello,

It has been quite some time since I last wrote a blog, this is because I have been busy helping with surveys around the site.

This week has been a bumper week in terms of monitoring with lots of exciting animals being seen around the reserve, especially chicks!

On Saturday the Tees Ringing Group were in checking nest boxes around the reserve. They found tiny tree sparrow chicks and well grown blue tit chicks…

Hello,

It’s been a while since I have written a sightings post for RSPB Saltholme. The run up to the breeding season has proven to be very busy as we prepare the reserve for all things great and small. This week has been a special one for sightings despite the weather!

On Saturday 7^th April 6 cranes were spotted flying north over the reserve, to add to the excitement a Spoonbill was spotted the following morning…

Why?

Our everyday lives involve so much plastic that it is hard to imagine life without it. Just think about how much plastic you have handled in the last week and you will get some idea of the scale of the problem. Where does all that plastic go? Can it be recycled? Most of the time plastic ends up polluting different habitats around the world. The marine environment suffers greatly from the plastic problem. It has…

Hello,

Inspired by our colleagues at Frampton Marsh we have decided to try out a new way of communicating current wildlife sightings on the reserve. Today I got the ball rolling with our first video blog featuring wildlife watching highlights from the past week, enjoy!

Our video blog can be viewed on the Saltholme YouTube channel or click the play button on the image below.

www.youtube.com/watch

Hopefully see you soon…

A new darkness has fallen. A new army of clone ducks is ruled by Donald Duck, who controls the ducks with …….. tweets. He is helped by Darth Huey, Darth Dewey, Darth Louie and Vladimir Puffin, even though he lives far, far away on a different land mass, although it is not blatantly obvious that this is true. Barrack Obarnowl has been frozen in a large block of stuff by Vladimir Puffin, but Princess Kylie dresses up in…

Cue the music

It is time of great unrest on the main lake of Saltholme. Birds live in fear of the Emperor Hissy and his evil hench swan, Darth Scratchy and the clone ducks. A small band or rebels are led by George Icewalker, the black swan who came here from Australia with his sister Kylie. But no-one has seen Princess Kylie for some time now and George fears the worst, that she has been imprisoned and will be forced…

On the 11th December, I wrote about how hedgehogs wake periodically through the winter, and it is important to try and provide food for them when they do. From experience, it seems that a warm spell following a frozen spell is when they are likely to wake. And sure enough, yesterday afternoon, Michael the 3 legged hedgehog who lives in my garden, emerged from his box and started rooting around in the leaves. Luckily,…

What a week at Saltholme.  It’s been wet and windy with a touch of snow thanks to storm Fionn.  With the amount of water increasing so has the abundance of mole hills.  Now on a walk down to the Saltholme Pools hide, you will notice the shear quantity of mole mounds. Moles are very elusive spending most of their time deep underground in their tunnels, but if you stare at a mole mound for long enough you may see it moving…

Due to the icy weather we've taken the difficulty decision to close the the reserve for today. The paths are incredibly icy and whilst our team are out gritting it's just not safe for our visitors to be out on the reserve.

The Visitor Centre, cafe, shop and Phil Stead Hide are open as usual but there is currently no access to the rest of the reserve.

We'll keep you updated with what happening and we expect to…

Hello and happy new year!

There has been some weird and unusual sightings this week at Saltholme. Yesterday I had a little walk around and noticed a variety of animals and creatures great and small located around the lake side path. Two green woodpeckers and one kingfisher were found in the walled garden.  Puffins and giraffes have been spotted from visitor centre windows (Look for the ark). Avocet and flamingos have been…

Like many terrestrial birds that come here for the winter, numbers of brambling vary each year according to the availability of their food. They breed in sub-arctic areas and breeding success has been linked to the abundance of Geometrid moths (the ones that eat tree leaves) in Norway and Sweden. Following good moth years, we can expect more of them to arrive here for the winter, when their diet changes to seeds, mainly…

Yes it 's time for another weekly update on the wildlife spotted at Saltholme. Having finally reached the winter solstice we can now look forward to longer days and begin to have thoughts on the upcoming spring. It has been a milder week than of late which means the water body’s have thawed allowing the wetland birds to spread out across the reserve.

Great spotted woodpecker by Peter Garbutt

Red-breasted…

An area of farmland lies north west of Saltholme, between the reserve and Cowpen Bewley, which you can see as you drive along the A1185. Although It is always a good idea to look out of the front window on that road as some of those tankers are a tad large. This farm habitat comprised pasture grassland with gappy hedgerows and was heavily overgrazed. However, RSPB have now managed the reserve for a couple of years and…

Yes it’s that time of the week again - the weekly sightings update and once again I'll start with the weather.

Since it snowed on Sunday (10^th December), the temperature has remained mostly below zero.  On Monday the water bodies around the reserve had frozen completely. This was an interesting start to the week, presenting one of the spectacles of winter … tracks in the snow. The trails around the reserve showed…

I’m not sure I know what a brass monkey is, and I’m quite sure I’ve never seen one, but if there is one at Saltholme today, as several people have suggested, it will be wearing extra underwear, a thick coat, hat, gloves and scarf. Which may make it difficult to spot, so I suggest check all the visitors for a furry tail.

Snow is interesting in that we can see the tracks of the various mammals and where…

Hello

Another cold week here at Saltholme, you definitely need your hat and gloves in this weather! Despite the weather there has been some interesting sightings this week. The cold snap has seen thrushes passing through the reserve including, mistle thrush, redwing, blackbird, song thrush and fieldfare. These birds are on the move to find suitable habitat with plentiful berries. With the cold weather set to stay a while…

In October I wrote about organic week at Saltholme, when we experimented with different ways of putting organic matter into the substrate in front of various hides. Organic matter is necessary not as bird food itself, but as the food of invertebrates such as midge larvae, which the birds feed on. We tried adding turf, cowpats and rotting vegetation.

Looking back, I think placing turf upside down onto the clay in front…

Hello

Another week has flown by here at Saltholme, as we reach the final month of the year. The weather has been bitterly cold with wind blowing from the north. To the surprise of many we had a good covering of snow and ice yesterday. However, the green sandpiper and water pipit can be seen at Phil Stead Hide. Up to 3 marsh harriers have been seen regularly this week from all over the reserve. At Watchpoint Hide a sparrowhawk…

You’ll get wet. But if you go down tomorrow, you’ll still get wet. But Thursday is looking better.

But if you do go down there, you’ll be able to follow our lovely new sort of path to a sort of viewing platform where you stand a very good chance of seeing our roosting long-eared owl.

      our roosting long-eared owl by Peter Garbutt

It’s a sort of path because it has been made quickly, and is made…

Greetings

Well that’s another week over and done with, and what a week !  It has been cold, sunny wet, windy, wild.  All the seasons in one week. 

We have now made a waymarked trail to the roosting long eared owl.  Ask at reception for directions to see this spectacular bird.  However, the ground is sloppy in places, so wellies are advised.

With the wind, other birds have been hunkered down or have been catapulted to…

Hissy and Scratchy the swans have made feeding the birds at the visitor centre feeding station an interesting experience in the mornings. Although it’s not a friendly one. When they see me arrive at the feeders, they swim to the bank, get up out of the water and waddle up to me hissing in an aggressive “feed me now, but keep your distance” sort of way.   I’ve noticed that if I squat down to put food on…

Greetings

Well another week has flown by here at Saltholme and it has been a busy one at that. With the Wetland Bird Count (WeBS) on Sunday and Winter Bird Count on Wednesday, showing the abundance of bird life around the reserve in particular the Canada geese.  A very common species that can be seen anywhere around the UK. The number of geese present at Saltholme is incredible with well over 500 individuals. Alongside…

There are a lot of little grebes at Saltholme now. I really like little grebes so I’m sort of happy ….. ish.  Because there is something about their appearance in winter. Something that makes me uneasy. The bulbous back end looks like it could house an engine. They dive, as you’d expect, but when they come back up, they stare at you with a strange mechanical look, and this got me thinking.

Just supposing…

Hello

This week has seen a coating of frost on our car window screens and trails around the reserve. Lapwing and golden plover now number into the thousands, the best area to see them is on the path down to the Saltholme Pools Hide where they are frequently scattered by birds of prey like marsh harrier. Wildfowl can also be seen in high numbers with wigeon, shovelers, teal, gadwalls now seen regularly around the site. 

There…