Saltholme, Greatham Creek, Bellingham Beck and a couple of surprises at home afterwards

After nearly two weeks without any birding I was able to get out for a bike ride on Saturday. I hadn't been north of the Tees yet this year so I took advantage of the clear weather (although very cold and fairly windy) that was forecast, and headed across the Newport Bridge and along Haverton Hill Road towards Saltholme RSPB Reserve.

A few gulls on the river as I went over the bridge, and a Long-tailed Tit in the bushes just after it, were the first birds of the trip, but I didn't stop until I got to the village of Port Clarence. A flock of thrushes on both sides of the road there were enough incentive to stop (plus I needed a rest) as I still hadn't seen Fieldfare yet this year. However they were all Redwings.

After turning onto the Seaton Carew Road I started seeing a lot more birds - 4 Common Snipe that flew off one of the few unfrozen puddles at the side of the road were the first of many (at least 30 I think) that I saw during the day. A few metres further on a harsh, loud, chattering call got my attention and I saw my first Fieldfare of the year, and the first new NMT bird of the day (#69). The Fieldfare is a large thrush (a bit smaller than a Mistle Thrush but larger than Redwing and Song Thrush) that breeds in northern and central Europe  and comes to these shores in the winter. I think it is the most beautiful of our thrushes - it is certainly the most colourful, with its grey head, chestnut brown back, orangey front (with black spots), white belly and black tail. Unlike many thrushes they often nest in small colonies where they can be quite feisty when threatened by a predator - I watched a nature documentary years ago (David Attenborough I think) that showed a group of them attacking a young Raven which strayed too near the colony. Instead of just shouting at it, as many birds do, they dive bombed it with their droppings until its feathers were so gummed up that it couldn't fly.

This Fieldfare was one of many that I saw later in the day - 
posing nicely for photos on the new banks at the sides of
Cowpen Marsh and Greatham Creek

 

Moving on, I got to the open water of Saltholme, on both sides of the road. Or rather, what is usually open water. After the freezing weather of the previous week it was nearly all ice, with only small patches in the middle that were unfrozen. In these patches lots of wildfowl were gathered - mostly fairly distant Canada Geese on the West Pool, but a mixed group of ducks and Coot on the East Pool. 

By the time I left this area to take a detour to Dorman's Pool I had increased my NMT list to 73 - having added (as well as the Fieldfare), Coot, Lapwing (about 140 on the field next to Saltholme East), Wigeon and Shoveler.

A view across a frozen landscape toward the new(ish) Saltholme Pools hide

Eurasian Wigeon, Tufted Ducks and Mallard - there were also several
Shoveler and Coot here, but I didn't get any pictures of them

A cropped version of the previous pic showing that some of the Mallards and
Wigeon were standing on the ice. There's only one Mallard (a male) in this
picture btw. All the other birds are Wigeon - the males with red-and-buff heads,
the females plainer brown - all with bluish beaks

Dorman's Pool was in a similar state to those at Saltholme - mostly frozen with a little bit of open water in the middle, although the birds were different. A knot of about 7 swans sitting directly on the ice (apparently) teased me by keeping their heads tucked under wings most of the time but the few that looked up were definitely Mute Swans and they all seemed the same size and shape so my hope of adding Whooper Swan to the list was thwarted. Several Snipe flew out out of the long grass next to the car park, but one heavier bird proved to be a Woodcock, my second of the year. Dorman's is the best place in the area to see the elusive Bearded Tit but they were staying out of sight in the reeds on this occasion.

Next was a quick visit to the Saltholme car park and visitor centre where I added Tree Sparrow to the list for the day and the year (NMT #74). This much scarcer relative of the House Sparrow can be distinguished from its cousin by the all-chestnut crown and the black 'comma' mark on the cheek. Unlike House Sparrows, both sexes look the same in Tree Sparrows, so if you see a plain brown, sparrow in the UK, it's a female House Sparrow.

Saltholme RSPB reserve has a good population of Tree Sparrows
which are now rare in most of the UK (the UK population decreased
by 93% between 1973 and 2008)

The last leg of my outward journey took me a mile and a half further north to Cowpen Marsh, Greatham Creek and Seal Sands, where the network of pools, channels and tidal mud held good numbers of ducks and waders, including three species that I hadn't seen yet this year - Shelduck (#75), Teal (#76) and Dunlin (#77). A Marsh Harrier had been seen just before I got there but I missed it.

Then it was the long haul home, against the wind for most of the way, with just a brief stop to look at Billingham Beck, where it passes under Haverton Hill Road. I hadn't realised what a good spot this is for birds - today there were several Teal, some gulls, a Redshank and a Snipe, but (I thought) nothing particularly special. The site definitely warranted future visits though.

Arriving home, tired and happy, I was enjoying a nice cup of tea with my wife when she spotted something at the window which turned out to be a Chiff-chaff (my first of the year - #78, and the first we've ever seen in our garden)  hovering briefly before going to sit on our washing line and then taking cover in our ornamental shrubs.

I thought the Chiff-chaff was going to be the last bit of excitement of the day - until I copied the day's photos onto the computer. After picking some nice shots of Fieldfare, Tree Sparrow and other birds to put in this blog I looked at one of the not very good pics of the Snipe I saw at Billingham Beck and noticed something I hadn't even realised was there. I wanted to be sure I wasn't making a silly mistake so I sent the photo to  a friend and also sought some opinions on Twitter. They all confirmed what I thought. The little brown bird circled in red in the photo below (the Common Snipe is circled in blue) was indeed a Jack Snipe. Jack Snipe is the smallest snipe and different enough from the others to be placed in a genus of its own. It breeds in a vast range stretching from eastern Siberia to Scandinavia but in the UK is only seen in winter, where you are most likely to see it burst from almost under your feet in marshy fields, before flying a very short distance into cover again.  I had a slight dilemma about whether to count it on my NMT list or not - I hadn't, after all, seen it in the field. In the end I decided to count it, making it #78 on the list and pushing Chiff-chaff down to #79. A very nice end to a brilliant day!