Adam Jones predicted the arrival of spoonbill in his recent May's Headliners blog post, and despite the continuation of the cool and changeable weather conditions, Saltholme saw the return of the spoonbill on Monday this week, so nice going Adam!
The bird was thought to have come down from Seaton Carew, and it spent the day at Saltholme Pools sweeping its distinctive spatulate bill through the water. The views of the bird on this occasion were quite distant (the above photo is of a spoonbill seen at Saltholme Pools in June 2011, taken by Ian Forrest), but who knows, perhaps a warmer end to May might encourage a few more of these brilliant birds to drop in for a visit.
For those of you who might not recognise my name on this blog, I'm Stephen Vincent. I'm working at Saltholme for the next 18 months as a Visitor Services Trainee, and I'm enjoying every minute of it!
Thanks,
Stephen