Teesdale to Teesside

Out with Mark and Andy today and we decided on Teesdale for the Black Grouse calling off at Nosterfield en route on the off chance the long staying Common Crane might be showing, it wasn’t and it would seem it hasn’t been seen for a couple of weeks now, there were several pairs of Ringed Plovers but little else of note so we soon carried on. In Teesdale we thought we’d try last years site near Balderhead Reservoir first, there were plenty of Red Grouse here but no Black and surprisingly even though it was a nice morning there were no Raptors up neither, we had a good search around but ended up going to the traditional site at Langdon Beck and even here we had to do a lot of scanning before we eventually picked up a couple of birds on the other side of the valley. We then headed over to Teesside and first port of call was Haverton Pools, we got to the viewpoint to be told the Glossy Ibis had just dropped into a ditch and been lost to view, it was to be 20-30 mins before it showed itself again, we saw it well enough but it was fairly distant, next up was Dorman’s Pool as Andy still needed Green Winged Teal for the year however there was no sign of it this afternoon although a Short Eared Owl showed well plus a Marsh Harrier put in a brief appearance. We ended the day at North Gare where another Shortie was out hunting but there was no hoped for Wheatear.

Balderhead Reservoir

Selsett Reservoir

Golden Plover back on territory

Red Grouse showing well shame the Black weren't

some Butterflies about, a Tortoiseshell

a good number of Curlew on Seaton Common

Shortie hunting over the Golf Course at North Gare

Skyscape