cliftonbirding: Sunday 28th: Teesside again

Monday, 29 February 2016

Sunday 28th: Teesside again

With the reappearance of the Penduline Tits yesterday it was up to Teesside today, called off at Haverton first and found one of the roosting Long Eared Owls but it was still fairly obscured so still no clear shot. At Saltholme news came over that the Penduline Tits were still present as I was checking in so it was a quick dash out to the Wildlife Watchpoint hide but upon arrival it seemed nobody there knew anything nor indeed did anybody else around the reserve, everyone was a bit baffled by the report but certainly after staking out the area with many other birders most of the morning it unfortunately became a no show day, a lot of the Ducks looked good in the morning sunshine though and the female Smew was back on the main lake this week. After lunch I drove up to Blackhall Rocks north of Hartlepool where a couple of Richard’s Pipits had been found a few days ago, they were in an area of very long grass so it was just flight views although the one I saw was calling a lot as well, bumped into Darren, Mike, Richard and John from Leeds here and spent the rest of the afternoon with them. Driving back through Hartlepool we had decided with it being a nice sunny afternoon to have another session with the Shore Larks, just two now but they posed well, no Snow Buntings today though, we then carried on to Dorman's Pool although I stopped off at Newburn Bridge on the way where one Med Gull sat on a lamppost but there was little else. At Dorman’s Pool, Darren and co were already heading back from the hide with news there had been no sign of any Water Pipits for more than an hour and had decided to try an area around the back of Saltholme East Pool, no joy with the Pipits but we got superb views of a hunting Short Eared Owl, we returned to Dorman's and eventually a flock of Pipits flew in, mainly Meadows but in the end we got some decent views of two or three Water Pipits on the telegraph wires.