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Visited Saltholme Today

THOMO
24/08/2019 22:20

Had a good day at Saltholme today by myself by public bus service from Gateshead. It’s very easy to get to Saltholme by bus Monday-Saturday, but not on Sundays or bank holidays. Plenty of birds to be seen. Nothing out of the ordinary, as Avocets and Common Terns have migrated. Highlight of the day was a Water Rail. Scorching hot day, and T-Shirt weather even for North East England which doesn't happen in North East England very often, as it did today.

  • 25/08/2019 18:08
    I’ve one negative point I’m afraid to make about my visit to Saltholme yestertay and at least one member from my RSPB Local Group agrees with me. I haven’t been to Saltholme for quite awhile for various reasons and yesterday was my first visit to the new double decker hide since it was open to the public and my impressions of the new hide are not at all good and actually very negative. And that was my thought before my visit to Saltholme with lots of negative reviews that I’ve read and sadly I have to agree with all the negative reviews. It was very busy in that hide yesterday, but not one serious birdwatcher was upstairs in the new double decker hide of even the less serous birdwatcher as well. The reason is that there is nowhere to sit in the upstairs of the hide and no good for anyone with a scope and possibly a camera. After spending only a few minutes having a look around upstairs in that hide, I spent the next 2 hours along with everyone else coming in and out of that hide downstairs. In my opinion it’s been a waste a money spent on that double decker hide, as no yesterday was using the upstairs of the hide. It seems as though it has been a wasted opportunity by the RSPB. Apart from my rant, I do love everything else about Saltholme. I just wish that members of the RSPB and members of the public living in the Newcastle area going into Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and County Durham had an RSPB reserve of the same quality and caliber of which the general public could visit and I’ve been hoping for that since approx 1972 when I first joined the RSPB and I’m still hoping there will be an RSPB reserve that I can visit closer to where I live in Gateshead, close to Newcastle but as I get older I fear that will never happen in my lifetime. I do know the RSPB have Coquet Island, but no one can land on that Island and I am a member of the Northumberland Wildlife Trust and I do visit some of there reserves from time to time. But I keep hoping that one day there will be a good quality reserve near to Newcastle as I am into my late 60’s. Again as I can say, I can only live in hope.