Shore Birds

With sightings of Glossy Ibis, Shore Lark and Lapland Bunting in the week I headed off to Teesside this morning accompanied by Mark, Pete Watson and Paz Fletcher, there had been no reports of any of them by the time we arrived so we tried our luck at Seaton Snook, we found a small flock of Twite there but nothing with them. We met up with Darren and his mates who had been looking around North Gare to no avail so we then all decided to go and check the area north of the Jewish Cemetery on Hartlepool Headland, it was quite windy and we got a bit sand blasted but Mark noticed a load of small birds in the dunes, upon investigation it was found most were Meadow Pipits but there was also a Lapland Bunting with them, it was a bit flighty but we eventually got some reasonable views of it, four Snow Buntings also dropped in but unfortunately there was no sign of any Shore Larks today. We had lunch overlooking Parton Rocks where the rising tide had pushed a few Waders on to roost and a female Common Scoter was also close in, we then headed into Hartlepool although the Glossy Ibis hadn’t been seen for a couple of days, we treated Paz to the Ring Necked Parakeets at Ward Jackson Park that he didn’t know about instead, a quick stop at Newburn Bridge for the Med Gull then back towards Teesside but the road had been closed by the Police so as we had to head back out towards the A19 we decided to end the day at South Gare, fairly quiet there but the very high tide had pushed a lot of stuff quite close, a couple of Grey Partridge flushed on the river side were a bit of a surprise.

Twite at Sneaton Snook

Lapland Bunting near Jewish Cemetery

Waders at Parton Rocks

and Newburn Bridge

plus the Med Gull