Hello all from Emily
Apologies that this latest installment is a couple of weeks overdue. Toby and I have been at RSPB headquarters for training days that all new members of staff attend. It was fantastic to learn more about the charity and in particular to hear about the work that we do internationally. If you have a few spare minutes, I recommend watching the video on the RSPB website about the conservation work going on in the Sumatran Rainforest. It is truly inspiring!
As we get increasingly close to our opening date of January 21st life at Saltholme has definitely shifted up a pace! With this in mind we have now started recruiting volunteers and are hoping that lots
of you will want to come and join our fantastic team! If you have green fingers, the skills to inspire young minds or the ability to talk the hind legs off a donkey then Saltholme needs you! There are various ways you can get stuck in and help us. From membership recruiters to leaders of guided walks, from helping in the visitor centre to lending the education team a hand, and so much more. You don’t necessarily need a huge knowledge about birds or wildlife (mine isn’t exactly great!), all we want are people that are passionate about Saltholme and the work that goes on here. It’s also a great opportunity to make a difference to your local community. Convinced yet?! For more details of the many different volunteering opportunities on offer at Saltholme, visit www.rspb.org.uk/volunteering, or call Centre Manager Lisa Daley on 01740 665099.
Thank you to all that came to Peter Barratt’s Garden Centre for our Feed the Birds Day Event, it was great to see how excited and proud everyone is about Saltholme even before we are open. We are next out and about on the 6th and 7th of December at the Christmas Market held in Durham (unfortunately we are unable to attend on the 5th) – we`ll be delighted to see you there if you can make it!
Finally . . . another plea for help! If you have a pair of working binoculars that you no longer want or need it would be fantastic if you would be willing to donate them to Saltholme so that we can lend them out to visitors who fancy a closer look at our wildlife. Please contact Lisa Daley on 01740 665099 if you are able to help us.
Bird Bits from Toby
Hello all! As I’m sure everyone has noticed the weather is becoming increasingly colder; nowhere is this more apparent than on the reserve, and this will certainly be being felt by our birds! The RSPB had their feed the birds weekend on the 25th and 26th of October and as the weather conditions become unfavourable garden birds can do with a little help, so please keep an `eye` out for them by keeping your feeders topped up.
The two main highlights of the past few weeks were Cleveland’s third lesser yellowlegs on the 13th and 14th of October and on the 15th of November what is believed to be the areas second cattle 
egret! Unfortunately neither bird stayed around for long. The yellowlegs, an American wader slightly smaller in size and structure to the redshank, and generally more elegant, as well as having yellow legs, was flushed by a sparrowhawk on the morning of the 14th and was not be relocated. The cattle egret put in an even briefer appearance, leaving on the same day it was found. I hope this will be just a temporary absence as the wet grassland looks to be an ideal habitat for it so I’ll be giving all the little egrets on site a good grilling, trying to pick out that yellow bill which is a key difference between the two.
A drake blue-winged teal was also present at the same time as the cattle egret, though this was its second day on Back Saltholme. This is the second record for the species in as many years on the reserve as an eclipse drake spent the whole of September at Haverton Hole in 2007.
Finally, a pair of short-eared owls have been patrolling the long grass opposite the hide on Back 
Saltholme. These are best viewed in the late afternoon as they hunt low to the ground and we hope they will stay with us over the winter, providing good views for our first visitors at end of January!