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Sorry we havent been our usual communicative selves on the blog, its been horribly busy of late.   I was on site yesterday and its looking fantastic.  Now that the scaffolding is down from the building its elegant shape is becoming apparent - ugly duckling to beautiful swan! 

The large sweeping wing-like roofs give the building a very distinctive outline.  Internally, our huge rammed earth wall is now in place and looks extraordinary.  Literally earth rammed tight until it acts like concrete, this old technology will transform the energy efficiency of our building by acting as a giant storage heater.  Upstairs the floor screed is completed and cables are sprouting from every wall. 

The whole place is a hive of activity.  Totally uninterested in the human swirl around them, our bluetit family nesting high in one of the hollow girders fledged successfully but our two swallow nestlings, perfectly safe in the upstairs plant room look like they will be with us for another week or so.
 
Outside is equally active.  The bases of cycleways and footpaths now snake out across the reserve.  The 'family' hide, a big people friendly viewing facility with floor to ceiling panoramic window, looking out over the northern reedbeds and pools, is progressing  well, as is the new scrape, bringing the wetland right up to it.  The road widening scheme at our entrance is completed, so we can now access the site safely from the busy adjacent trunk road.  Our new entrance wetlands are developing, most of the reed has taken well, but it will be some time before the isolated clumps begin to dominate.  At the moment the ubiquitous water crowfoot, is flowering and creating a delicate white lacework across the pools.  The grasslands are alive with meadow brown butterflies and common blue damselflies. It all feels incredibly exciting again.
 
On the rare bird front, early July brought with it a first for the reserve - a Terek sandpiper.  This sprightly little wader, fresh in from its Siberian tundra breeding grounds seemed quite at home on the Calorgas Pool, accompanied by redshanks and a wood sandpiper.  I couldn't help a little inward smile as I watched it on the Sunday afternoon and thought 'We created that pool'.

Other interesting birds during the month have been a pair of Roseate Terns that appeared just for one day and, as with previous years, Little Egrets have returned after an absence during the breeding season.   Despite the generally wet month the 300 pair strong Common Tern colony has begun to fledge lots of youngsters and adults continue to ferry supplies of sprats back from the estuary mouth to feed their growing chicks.
 
As we continue to fight our way over the hurdles this project throws up, the end is in sight.  Despite battling against a slipping programme, we are still aiming for a public opening in November.  Not long to wait now.
 
Posted by Kevin Bayes and David Braithwaite
 
Stop Press.  Many thanks to Stockton Borough Council who have just told us they have an extra £80,000 funding for us.  That makes our budget look much healthier!

At the end of April migrants began to flood in to the Tees Valley after quite a slow and cold start to the spring. Highlights in the Saltholme area recently have been two curlew sandpipers amongst a small flock of dunlin, two immature little gulls hawking for insects over Saltholme pools, an influx of swifts (with maximum numbers of up to one hundred), ruff and black-tailed Godwits resplendent in full breeding plumage.

Up to seven white wagtails and up to twenty yellow wagtails have appeared in the past few days. Sand martins are back in very good numbers but as yet are showing little interest in our designer built nesting bank…there is plenty of time.

Volunteers and staff have worked feverishly to repair the islands specially created to encourage terns to nest on. Last year 420 pairs of common terns nested here, making Saltholme the third largest colony in the country. We finished the work on the islands just in the nick of time as the first terns returned just days afterwards.  There are now around 100 pairs starting to settle for the breeding season and numbers are growing by the day.

Yesterday there was a black tern at Saltholme Pools and a report of a red kite not far away flying over Dalton Piercy village at 5pm

Construction work continues on the Discovery Centre, the hides and all the rest of the future visitor facilities.  We have been receiving e-mails asking about the opening date for Saltholme and many thanks to everyone for getting in touch. It's clear there's lots of interest and enthusiasm for Saltholme, which is great news. 

However, we are still some months off being able to welcome visitors as there's still a huge job for the contractors to do on site, but we are getting there gradually. At the moment it's hard to predict when the builders will be handing over the buildings etc to us but very unlikely that it will be before late summer/autumn this year. As soon as we have definite news we'll post it here first. 

In the meantime thanks for all the messages of interest and support and we're looking forward to welcoming you to Saltholme just as soon as we can.

It was a mighty cold day at Saltholme yesterday, with a cold and lazy wind driving some grizzly weather across our fledgling reserve.  A stroll round the site to look at the latest progress turned into a much brisker walk than we'd planned. Surrounded by all the hardy builders and carpenters I felt a proper softy wrapped up in layers and (shock, horror) even wearing fleecy gloves!  But then I spotted that the builders had woolly hats tucked under their safety helmets & felt bold enough to follow their lead. Safe head, warm ears.  Result!

I'd not been to Saltholme since building work started and RSPB project manager, Kevin Bayes, showed me round with his usual visionary enthusiasm.  It was very exciting to see the framework of the Saltholme Discovery Centre taking shape.  The building is inevitably clad in a jumble of scaffolding (and will be for some time yet, I think) that obscures the exciting design of the Centre.  We had to weave cautiously through the maze of poles that currently fill the internal space.  It's a tribute to Kevin's inspiring commentary that even on an unseasonably chilly April day I could visualise the Centre bustling; the classrooms full of activity, the lift busy transporting people to the cafe floor, visitors sitting on the cafe's balcony taking-in a unique landscape - and enjoying better weather.  Out on the reserve itself I could imagine the visiting birdwatchers finding new birds and enjoying great views of wildlife, while families (who had probably never been to a 'reserve' before) soon discover that Saltholme's trails, hides and play area make an ideal place for a day out.

Kevin has lived with the paper plans for this site for a long time now, so not surprisingly he is excited about every new concrete base for a hide or steel superstructure for a workshop that appears on the ground.  Of course, like any project manager he wishes that work on site was moving faster, but at least something fresh seems to have sprouted at Saltholme almost every time he makes a site visit. 

We all know that there's still a huge task ahead before the vision that Kevin conjured in my mind's eye can become a reality, but I came away knowing that it will be worth the wait.

Oh and by the way, we saw a few spring migrants to brighten up a wet afternoon.  Seeing a yellow wagtail was a real treat and sand martins, house martins and a swallow were flitting over the pools.  As I never get tired of saying, seeing birds like these in the midst of what is still basically a building site is such a wonderful herald of the treats that Saltholme has in store in future.

David Hirst

 

At last, a real sense of Spring.  I’m just back from the Saltholme site where skylarks are singing and lapwings are tumbling and calling over their chosen territories in the flooded fields. 

Inevitably, the project hasn’t always gone quite as smoothly as we hoped and at times this winter is has felt more of an up-hill struggle than I would have wished.  The rain and gales haven’t helped and we’ve also faced some technical difficulties, particularly involving the steelwork, all of which have slowed things down. Today, though there is a real sense of energy on site.  The buzz (not just of the bees) was palpable. 

Teams of scaffolders, brickies, welders, chippies and a host of other skilled workers are swarming industriously over the site.  Saltholme's Discovery Centre is growing again.  From high on the scaffolding, the network of steel, which will become the sweeping roofs, is reminiscent of the veins in an insect’s wing, giving a real sense of the natural inspiration that the architects have drawn upon for their design. 

Elsewhere, the road widening required to allow access to the site as a whole, is well under way.  By way of coincidence, news of another large section of the project also came through today.  Work will begin on the cycleways to link the site to Middlesbrough and Stockton, at the end of this month. That work is being supervised by Stockton Borough Council, but costing over half a million pounds, it has required considerable input from RSPB legal and financial teams.

With the emphasis on infrastructure for people on the site, it is easy to forget that habitat creation also continues apace, with the excavation and reed transfer for a new reedbed on the south side of the site now completed.  There was a timely reminder of the potential when a marsh harrier passed through the site over the weekend.  We hope that one day they will stay and breed in the new reed habitats we are preparing.

Two avocets also popped in for a quick look.  That is another species we want to do more for.  They ought to breed on Teesside.

And finally, a strange trail of scattered cockle shells has appeared on site.  If followed they lead to two large mounds of shells, not the ancient middens of shore dwellers of the past, but the result of a visit from two very modern lorries last week.  These shells will form the tern-friendly topping of yet more islands being formed within the pools on site, set to augment the third largest common tern breeding colony in England.  Continuing work by the site team and volunteers will ensure these new tern des-res’ will be ready for when the birds arrive in the next few weeks.

Kevin Bayes, RSPB Project Manager

The persistent northerly winds and associated cold and snowy weather over the last week has held up the spring migration again this March. A number of passage birds have dropped in though; a tired party of Whooper swans, for example, took a welcome respite from heading north towards Iceland for a few days. A solitary drake garganey (an exquisite little duck that winters in Africa) had also made it here, somewhat against the odds. Water pipits and white wagtails, birds that are actually heading south towards the Alps for their breeding season, were also here earlier in the month.

We are eagerly awaiting the first hint of spring in the Tees Valley and the first signs of the traditional early spring migrants such as sand martins and wheatears.  When they arrive, can spring be far behind?  Let's hope so.  Dave Braithwaite

Early March showed signs that spring ought to be just around the corner as birds began to move through Saltholme. The numbers of redshanks were consistently in the teens most days and a number of ruffs also put in an appearance. Numbers of golden plovers and lapwings were down from their winter peak of a combined flock of 4500 birds.  The lower numbers suggest that many birds headed back for the hills to start prospecting for breeding sites. Given the freezing weather at Easter, they may have regretted departing so soon.

Small numbers of pink-footed geese joined the large resident flocks of greylags as they headed northward on their return journey to their breeding grounds in Iceland. A drake green-winged teal, the North American counterpart of our teal, was present on a shallow pool and may stick around for a while.

We are eagerly awaiting the return of the first sand martins, which usually show up in March. This year we have a surprise waiting for them. Whilst they have been on their winter `holidays` in sub-Saharan Africa we have been building them a designer home! Using specially engineered concrete facing stones with nest holes cast into them we have constructed an entire bank with 100 nesting places in it. So should our sand martins like the look of the impressive new build a whole colony could establish themselves here.

If you live or work in Middlesbrough or are visting the Tees Valley this week, you are invited to pop into the BBC Tees Open Centre to find out more about the plans for Saltholme.

There will be information and site plans on display during the week and a chance to meet some of the project team on Friday 1 February between 2pm and 5pm.

We are also inviting local people to share their stories about Saltholme with us at the special event on Friday.  We'd love to hear from you if you have any stories or memories of the Saltholme area that you would like to share with us.  Just call in for a chat anytime between 2-5pm on Friday.

The BBC Open Centre is on the ground floor of Broadcasting House on Newport Road, Middlesbrough and is just opposite Middlesbrough Bus Station.  Find out more at www.bbc.co.uk/tees

We hope to meet some of our blog readers on the 1st, but if you can't come along and would like to share a Saltholme Story with us then please do get in touch at northernengland@rspb.org.uk

Hello - and a belated Happy New Year to all readers of the Saltholme blog.

We are expecting a very hectic year ahead of us here in the Tees Valley, as all those long-held plans for this exciting project continue to come together. 

We were delighted to welcome two new faces to the Saltholme team at the start of the New Year.  Lisa Daley joins us from her current role managing the visitor centre at Albert Park in Middlesbrough.  Lisa will be running the new Saltholme Visitor Centre - once it's built - and is busy planning the visitor side of things. Emma Birnie is the new Saltholme reserve warden and joins us from the RSPB's Leighton Moss reserve.  Lisa and Emma are currently based in a portacabin at the offices of our neighbours Sabic UK while our new buildings on the main Saltholme site are under construction.

There were new arrivals on the wildlife front too this month.  The start of the year brought some good birds to Saltholme.  In early January there was a male scaup on the pools. The scaup is a rare duck on inland lakes spending most of the winter months in coastal waters. They are a northern breeder, with most birds breeding in the Arctic Circle, Iceland and Norway. The largest UK concentrations are found in winter off the west coast so the bird at Saltholme was particularly noteworthy.

Members of the Teesmouth Bird Club came on a special `behind the scenes' visit to see progress at Saltholme on Sunday 20th January. Conditions were wet and muddy but that did not dampen their enthusiasm for the project. They looked at Saltholme's Discovery Centre which is now taking shape with all of the steel work skeleton in place.  They then went on to see the Saltholme Pools Hide, which is now almost fully completed.  They also took a look at the locations of the Paddy`s Pool Hide and the Family Hide which are awaiting their steel work before construction gets underway.

The group was treated to plenty of birds during the trip, including little egret, peregrine falcon, 2000 golden plovers, 2500 lapwings and large flocks of wildfowl.  Some of the ducks clearly think that Spring is just around the corner and were already displaying. Two drake goldeneyes put on a particularly entertaining show as they displayed with their classic `head throwing` at a female...who remained totally disinterested by their advances!

The Saltholme Team

 

Saltholme's very own Santa has come early this year and has brought us a whole host of exciting pre-Christmas goodies.

So far in our Saltholme Christmas stocking we have found: a concrete floor slab for our Discovery Centre, a smashing sedum roof for the Saltholme Pools hide, lots of lovely water on the new scrape (it's looking fantastic), some terrific tarmac on the access road, and the firmest of foundations for the family hide.

OK, so maybe not the kind of Christmas gift that everyone else is asking Santa for this Christmas, but we're delighted.

It's been a great year at Saltholme with some fantastic birds and other wildlife already using the reserve and good progress made on the building work.  The day we spent with Kate Humble when we all watched work finally start to build the hides and Discovery Centre will linger with us for a long time.

It will be a very busy 2008 and we'll keep you up to date with all the news on the blog.

We'd like to say a huge festive 'thank you' to all of our funders, supporters, volunteers and all the other gorgeous people who have helped make Salthome such a success so far.  Your terrific support for Saltholme is very much appreciated.

Here's wishing all our Saltholme blog readers a very Happy Christmas and all the best for 2008.

Dave & Kevin

There are three major hides currently under construction at Saltholme. Each is a bespoke construction designed specifically for their locations and functions here in the Tees Valley.

The 'Saltholme Pools Hide' is horseshoe shaped from where visitors will be able to enjoy 300 degree viewing of the main Saltholme pools and the new scrape. From here the island in Back Saltholme pool can be viewed where some 100 pairs of common terns breed.

This hide sits well in the landscape, the bottom third being within an earth mound. The roof is covered with Sedum turfs which will allow the structure to further blend into the landscape. The hide will be able to comfortably accommodate 60 people sitting and, should it be necessary, at least that many standing. Throughout the hide's construction up to four little egrets have been feeding right in front and redshanks, lapwings and dunlins are already making good use of the new scrape.

The 'Family Hide' now has its foundations in place. This will be a big rectangular hide with a large glazed viewing area in the centre of the front section. The hide looks across the new northern reedbed and pools which have been developing nicely these past two years. A further scrape area right in front of the viewing gallery will be excavated when the hide is completed.

Good number of birds use this reedbed and pool area. Little grebes breed here as do redshanks, lapwings and shelducks. Reed warblers sang from the new reeds for the first time this summer. Spotted redshanks, black-tailed godwits, ringed plovers, Temminck's stint and garganey turn up on spring and autumn passage. And over the last three winters numbers of wildfowl have steadily built up.

The `Paddy's Pool Hide` has now been marked out. As the name suggests this hide looks out directly over Paddy's Pool (named after the guy that excavated it) and island. The island was home this summer to 320 pairs of common terns, a number of black-headed gulls and tufted ducks. During the breeding season the sight and sound of this vibrant colony will be a real spectacle.  Dave Braithwaite

After some delays, due to fabrication complexities, the steelwork for the Saltholme Discovery Centre is finally rising from the ground. Suddenly, the ‘two-dimensional’ foundations have sprouted into three dimensions like a giant Meccano set (that’s showing my age). 

Watching this stage of the work is extraordinarily exciting. Here's an artist's impression of what the building should eventually look like.

In a project of this scale, delays are inevitable, but to date the problems have been tackled by the design team with their usual efficiency. Long may it continue... along with the comparatively good weather!  Although as I type this, the skies are leaden in North East England and it's pouring with rain. Let's hope there is a return to better weather soon.

The Saltholme Hide now has blockwork walls and a roof. Already, standing inside this shell I get a great sense of the amazing wildlife watching facility it will become. Its proximity to the Saltholme pools and the new ‘scrape’ (a shallow pool for wildlife) adjacent to it will bring birds virtually within touching distance.

It's been necessary to build-up some earth banks to screen future visitors from sensitive sites to prevent disturbance to wildlife. Whilst these look a little raw just now, they will soften and blend into the landscape over the next twelve months or so, as vegetation re-covers the bare soil.

Kevin Bayes

On Thursday afternoon there were five whooper swans resting on Saltholme pools and a large flock of pink-footed geese flying overhead. No doubt on their journey from Iceland to East Anglia. 

Never mind 'late summer', this week there has been a real feel of autumn arriving in the Tees Valley. It's probably fortunate then that the roof is going on the new hide at the moment and the block work starts next week.

Kevin is off to the Scillies for a few days next week, so no posts until he returns - wonder how much progress there will have been on site by the time he gets back?  Lots we hope. 

Dave & Kevin

Last week a small flock of whooper swans touched down at Saltholme and rested for a day, as did an 80 strong flock of pink-footed geese.  There was a Ross`s goose among them, perhaps the same bird that has been seen up the Northumberland coast?  Migrant waders were still moving through as well,  with spotted redshank, greenshank, two little stints and black-tailed godwits amongst the species around the site.

The number of birds arriving ready to spend the winter at Saltholme is increasing, with 1000 strong flocks of lapwings and golden plovers most days, and wigeon numbers increasing to 500. A few pintails can be seen amongst the growing flocks of wildfowl

As Kevin mentioned in his last blog entry, work has now started on on construction of a new hide that will provide superb viewing across Saltholme Pools.  In the last few days there has been a little stint, several pintail, and a single pink-footed goose on the Pools despite all the construction activity.

Elsewhere on Saltholme there are a few little egrets, their brilliant white plumage brings an exotic touch to Teesside on these sunny autumn days.  I'm thrilled that a kingfisher has taken up residence on the north reedbed, as have two ruff and a handful of redshanks. The little egrets certainly bring a touch of the south to Saltholme, but from the north the first of the winter thrushes have now arrived.  There are small flocks of redwing and fieldfare across the site - it's always worth checking for the occasional ring ouzel from the continent among these Scandinavian thrushes.

So, plenty of seasonal bird activity here as birds from all directions touch down at Airport Saltholme!  Plenty of habitat creation in progress as well, as the site team make concrete while the sun shines and the fine weather  holds.  Earth moving machinery is excavating a large scrape to the north of the hide which will provide some close encounters with waders and wildfowl. As ever, the latest sightings from Saltholme highlight the fantastic potential for brilliant birdwatching here throughout the year, but much to do over the coming months.  David Braithwaite. 

I was on site today to see how our builders are progressing. It was another lovely autumn day with the sun shining and the wetlands were looking really good.

It was great to see that the steel frame for the new hide overlooking Saltholme pools is now taking shape. There have been a lot of foundations put in on the site, but at last something that is higher than ankle level. The hide is a new style design for the RSPB and it's very exciting to see it taking shape after working on the plans for such a long time.

The contractors have also put in the foundations for the bridge that will connect the Discovery Centre with the service access. It was incredible to see the depth of the foundations that they are putting in. All over the site there are big holes and lots of foundations.

Building techniques on this scale are new for me, so it's fascinating to see how things are coming together. Let's hope the weather holds and doesn't get too cold so that all that concrete will set quickly. Chatting to the team who are working on the site I was left with the impression that, despite a few niggly delays in the supply chain, things are progressing really well.

We are all keeping our fingers crossed that the weather holds and the contractors can really crack on over the next few days. Dave B reports some good birds around the site as well - more about that on the blog soon. Kevin Bayes

It was supposed to be a day in the office, but I couldn't resist having a quick look round the site yesterday morning.  I'm glad i did!  There was a superb great white egret at Saltholme and there were also seven little egrets here as well. I also saw a merlin, adult little gull, curlew sandpiper and little stint. 

There have been great white egrets at both the RSPB Marshside and Leighton Moss reserves in North West England this suumer. I wonder if it was one of the birds from there passing through? With the incredible northward spread of little egrets in recent years, I'm sure these elegant birds will be a popular attraction at Saltholme when we open to the public.

It's a nice thought that one of the birds that led to the founding of the RSPB in 1889 is likely to be a star attraction at one of our new generation of nature reserves.  So no regrets about neglecting the paper work...and plenty of egrets to see.  Dave Braithwaite