Cycle ride to Saltholme and Seal Sands again

Yesterday my officially permitted lockdown exercise took me north of the Tees on my bike again.

It was exactly two weeks since I last went to Saltholme and Seal Sands and it could not have been a more different day - last time it was frrrrrreezing, with snow on the ground everywhere, only small areas of open water and strong winds in my face for much of the time.

This time it was sunny and warm (except at the very start of the day), with only a light breeze, and once I left Port Clarence and started heading north along Seaton Carew Road there were birds EVERYWHERE!

I spent most of my time looking at all the different bodies of water that are visible from the road around Saltholme itself. At the first stop, in the space of a few minutes I added Pintail, Black-tailed Godwit, Goldeneye, Pink-footed Goose and Avocet to the NMT year-list. Avocets are delicate, long-legged, black-and-white waders, with amazing upturned beaks, and I was quite excited about them as I hadn't realised they returned to Saltholme this early in the year (it turns out that they regularly show up in late February). While I was watching the Avocets, on the area known as 'Port Clarence Flood', I spotted a large white bird wading in the water. I quickly realised that it was too big to be a Little Egret and not the right shape for a Great Egret (one of which had been reported from the area yesterday). When it lifted its head I was able to get a good view of the bizarre protruberance that is a Spoonbill's bill. These are not unknown in the Saltholme area but I hadn't heard of any since last autumn so I was really pleased to find it. It was very distant but the bird later moved to a different pool where I got some photos of it.

Eurasian Spoonbill - hiding its bill but showing its distinctive horizontal
resting posture which, along with its crazy 'hairstyle' distinguishes it from
a resting Great Egret. Just visible on this photo are the leg rings that this
bird was sporting - put there by scientists in either the Netherlands or
Belgium apparently

Unfortunately I cut off the bottom of the bird in this pic but did manage
to capture the amazing spoon-shaped bill

After finding my first Little Egret for the year, I moved on to Saltholme East Pool. I quickly found more Little Egrets and a Great Egret (exactly where another birder had told me it was). It was really nice to see these two right next to each other - showing very clearly how much bigger the Great Egret is, as well as the different bill colours (black in Little Egret, yellow in Great). At this point I should say something about the name of the latter. Most British birders call this species 'Great White Egret' but the internationally accepted name is Great Egret, and as nearly all egrets are white I am using this name here. 

Great Egret showing its yellow bill, and giving a good size comparison
with a Mallard (which is roughly a similar size to a Little Egret)

A cropped shot of a distant Little Egret,
showing the black bill and yellow feet

Great and Little Egrets together - the best shot I could get showing
the size difference

Saltholme East also held many ducks including more Goldeneye, lots of Tufted Ducks and at least three male Pochard. This last was another new bird for the NMT list, as was Great Crested Grebe (not a duck although superficially a bit like one).

A male Common Goldeneye. This beautiful little diving duck breeds in northern forest lakes and
rivers in a wide band across nearly the whole northern hemisphere. A small number breed in the
north of Scotland where they use specially provided nest-boxes, placed in trees to mimic the natural
cavities that they use elsewhere in their range

Now widespread in the UK, the Great Crested Grebe (in the foreground in this picture
- the bird behind is a tufted duck) nearly went extinct in Britain in the 19th century because
of a somewhat surprising fashion  -  their breast skin, complete with the soft white
feathers, were used as a fur substitute (known as 'Grebe Fur') in ladies' couture.
This was one of the things that led to the establishment of the RSPB. 

After Saltholme I carried on north to Greatham Creek and Seal Sands, stopping briefly at Cowpen Marsh on the way to look at a small group of White-fronted Geese that were feeding in a field with several Greylag Geese (descendants of escaped domestic birds). White-fronts (as we call them) are largely grey-brown but have black bars on the belly and a band of white at the base of the bill (from which they get their name). There are two sub-species that come to Britain and Ireland - one from Greenland and the other from Arctic Russia. These were Russian ones, with smallish, pink bills (Greenland White-fronts have longer, orange bills and spend the winter in western Scotland and Ireland).

The pools and mud in front of the view-screens at Greatham Creek had a good number of common gulls, ducks and waders on them (including about 30 Knots), although nothing new for my year-list. The vast mudflats of Seal Sands held, along with another 7 Avocets and some Shelducks, a few distant Bar-tailed Godwits. On the way back up to the road, before heading home, I took another look at some Redshanks in one of the pools next to the track and spotted  one that was much whiter looking, with a longer bill and behaving slightly differently - a Spotted Redshank! My thirteenth and last new species of the day and number 95 for the NMT year-list.