Chasing Wild Geese and other assortments

Out with Mark and Mike Williams today and as a few goodies had been seen up at Teesside this week we decided to try for them, we were off to a good start with a Woodcock flying over the A19 on the way up, the first port of call was a bit further north, Hurworth Burn Reservoir near Trimdon, some White Fronted Geese had been seen there in the week, there was no sign of them at first but as we got to the top end of the reservoir a big flock of Greylags flew in accompanied by the five White Fronts and a Pink Footed Goose. We dropped back to Teesside starting with a tour around Hartlepool Headland but it was fairly quiet, the usual Med Gull was at Newburn Bridge then it was on to Saltholme, we took a walk out to the Haverton area to look for the Long Eared Owls that had been discovered roosting there this week, we saw a small flock of Goldfinches and Twite along the Kestrel Trail but there was no sign of any Owls in the Haverton Scrub today, on the plus side we had another Pink Footed Goose plus the Green Winged Teal was showing well from the Main Hide. We had a look over Greenabella Marsh next finding a good selection of Waders including small flocks of returning Avocets and Black Tailed Godwits plus the wintering Spotted Redshank and Greenshank also a male and two female Red Breasted Mergansers were present, we ended the day at Dormans Pool but there wasn’t much happening there so we took a steady drive back via the scenic route over the Moors and down through Helmsley.

the five White Fronts with the Pinkfoot to the left

GW Teal showing well but a bit distant for the camera

do you sometimes get the feeling you're being watched

returning Avocets

Spotted Red