Not a particularly good day

Went up to Teesside on Sunday with Andy for the White Rumped Sandpiper that had been found on Saltholme West Pool a couple of days earlier, there was no sign of it though nor much of anything else for that matter, we headed off to Hartlepool Headland for a seawatch but there was only a trickle of stuff moving although I thought eight Velvet Scoters were noteworthy for this time of year. We returned to the Saltholme area early afternoon but there had been no further news on the Sandpiper and the only thing of note was a rather tame Fox near the Bottom Tank hide. We decided to head round to South Gare hoping for more Skua's but again it was rather quiet, a Grayling was a nice bonus though. We took a steady drive back over the Moors and called off at West Lilling to listen for Quail, there were at least two calling and one sounded quite close, it flew up about nine feet back from where we thought it had been and gave good flight views as it moved to another field.

impressive sea off South Gare

Grayling