Three more NMT birds on a cycle ride to Seaton Common and North Gare

This will probably be a shorter than usual blog-post today as I saw many of the same birds as last week, in the same places (Saltholme area, Greatham Creek and Seal Sands). However,  I went a bit further this time and did a loop down the Zinc Works Road, along the beach to the North Gare pier and back through the middle of the lovely, desolate area of wetland and grassland that is Seaton Common, on the road from North Gare car park. 

As I cycled along, despite the overcast and fairly cold weather, I heard lots of birds singing - Robins, Dunnocks, Wrens, Greenfinches, Chaffinches and, as I got closer to Seaton Common, several Skylarks. I was looking out for large birds of prey, particularly as I rode past Saltholme and Cowpen Marsh, as I still haven't seen Marsh Harrier or Common Buzzard this year, and both of these are being reported regularly in this area at the moment. However, I managed to miss them both again today and the only birds of prey I saw were two Kestrels and a disappearing shape that was probably a Sparrowhawk.

I stopped briefly next to the Fire Station just past Saltholme because I had heard the sharp 'chack' call of a Great Spotted Woodpecker. I found the bird easily two-thirds of the way up one of the few trees, but it flew off after a few seconds and I carried on.

Arriving at the bottom of the Zinc Works Road (just next to Hartlepool Power Station) I soon spotted two photographers with massive lenses, who I rightly guessed were looking at one of my target species for the trip. Keeping my distance from the photographers and the hoards of dog walkers, I was able to get some of my best ever (and certainly easiest) views of Twite (NMT #96). A flock of up to 50 of these small finches (very like the much commoner Linnet) was feeding on a small path (I think the photographers must have been putting down seed for them to eat, so as to make it easier to get photographs). Consequently I was able to get a few reasonably good pictures (see the bottom of this post). 

Moving on - there was very little in the way of avian life on the beach and on the sea (lots of human life though). Seaton Common however was full of birds, although mostly of a small number of species - 100s of Eurasian Wigeon (there were probably a couple of thousand in the whole area I passed through today), a few hundred Curlew in several flocks and Lapwings almost everywhere.

On the way home I saw two more new species for the NMT list - #97 Lesser Black-backed Gull, and #98 Green Sandpiper. Lesser Black-backed Gull is a very common gull in the UK but is actually quite a scarce bird in Teesside in the winter so it was good to see a few fairly distant ones on Dorman's Pool, just east of Saltholme. Green Sandpiper is a pretty little wader - nearly black above, with a contrasting white rump which shows up clearly when the bird flies. I saw one on the low-tide mud at the edge of Billingham Beck just before it flows into the River Tees.

I had been hoping to reach the magic 100 today but sadly it was not to be. However, I was really glad to catch up with Twite before they disappear off to breed, mostly to the north of here (although some do breed in the Pennines and in North Wales.

Some of about 35 Twite that I counted (although up to 50 have been seen here
in the last few days). The bird at the top  is a male Reed Bunting that I decided
not to crop out of the picture

Twite look quite similar to their close relative, the Common Linnet. That species, 
however, never have the pinky buff face of a Twite, or the yellow bill (although 
Twites only have this in autumn and winter - it's dark grey in the breeding season).

This one appears to have a pinkish rump (the area just above the
tail), meaning that it should be a male (at least according to the books).

The colour-rings on this bird (which I didn't notice until I started writing this
post), were put there by ringers to make it possible to identify individual birds
without them having to be caught.