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Recent sightings

10 February 2012

Three is a magic number

Hi,

At least it has been at Saltholme this week with sightings of three bitterns and three water rails. The bitterns are best looked for at the Haverton viewpoint and it was this Thursday that our hide guides reported three water rail at the wildlife watchpoint. It looks like now is a better time than any if you want to catch up with one of these normally elusive species.

The two photographs above were taken by George on a visit to Saltholme this week.

Cheers,

Adam

Posted by Adam Jones
8 February 2012

Cracking crocuses

In the garden it looks like spring has almost sprung.

Posted by Rhian Davies
5 February 2012

It's snowing

Hi,

Just when it was feeling like spring the snow has come, but the signs of spring are evident in our wildlife garden as these photos, taken on Saturday afternoon show. The snowdrops and iris (I. reticulata) are very cheerful but also feed early flying insects in mild spells. They will give more of a show over the next few weeks. Plant the iris in late summer but snowdrops are best divided just as the flowers fade.

But it is not just the flowers. Our resident robin follows me round when I work in the garden, and David posted a wonderful photo of the robin on the blog recently - thanks. It also made it on to the BBC Look North weather forcast! Robins are not the only red breasted birds as we saw when we were digging on the reserve, not far from the car park, last Thursday. A lot of soil was turned over (by a digger, thankfully), and all the time a pair of stonechats were busy looking for food unconcerned by the noise, the male with his black head, white collar and orange chest. Keith, the digger driver, stopped digging to ask about them. They like wide open spaces rather than the confines of a garden but at Saltholme currently they are seen around the car park.

It is not too late to put up nest boxes - for robins and other garden birds - and we have a good variety in our shop. And there is still lots of time left to plant trees and shrubs when there is no frost, perhaps something with berries to feed the birds?

And finaly it is still winter as this photo shows. Taken from the garden gate it gives little indication of the gems that are flowering under the trees and in the gravel of the rock garden.

Bye,

Peter

Posted by Peter Langham
4 February 2012

A smashing idea

The theme of nature detectives was continued with the discovery of this scene. A hard stone and lots of broken snail shells . . .

. . . there's only one thing it can be: a thrush's anvil.

Snails are at the top of the menu for song thrushes, but to get to the juicy part they must smash open the shells. So they hunt out a nice hard surface, and holding the snail tightly in their beaks, they smack it against the anvil until it opens. Thrushes often find a particularly good anvil and repeatedly come back to it, so you can end up with a pile of smashed snail shells somewhere in your garden.

There's a lot of variety in the diets of birds. As part of Grub's up season you can find out more about what makes a meal for different birds, with a trip out to the wild feeding area or even a go at worm charming.

Bye for now,

Rhian

Posted by Rhian Davies
3 February 2012

February forecast
Hi,

Unfortunately the American duck double act didn’t turn up at Saltholme as predicted in January, however the water rails and bitterns didn’t let me down, with frequent sightings of these two reedbed specialists throughout the month.

So, how about February? My three predictions are ...
- Avocets. If the generally warm trend to this winter continues, an early return of Avocets to the area could occur.
- Glaucous or Iceland gulls. It’s worth checking any bathing gull flocks for these two species which breed in higher latitude countries like Greenland.
- Pink-footed geese. February can see northern movements of these geese, most likely heading to Scottish staging grounds where they will stop and refuel before making the final flight to their breeding grounds in Greenland, Iceland or Spitsbergen. Look out for skeins of them flying over or even stopping for a rest at Saltholme if we’re lucky.
What wildlife are you hoping to see at Saltholme this February?

Mark took this photograph of an Avocet at Saltholme last year.

Cheers,

Adam
Posted by Adam Jones
1 February 2012

More from a hide guide

From Friday 27 January

Another 9am start – we all met up in the wildlife watchpoint to list the birds there and sort who does what. We had a new ‘trainee’ hide guide starting that day so we had to sort out a mentor for him. To be a hide guide, all you need is some knowledge of birds and wildlife and to be able to get on with any member of the public. We also share stories about the site, its history, the local geology, plants and anything else you can think of with interested visitors.

I stayed in the wildlife watchpoint until lunch time. We were treated to excellent views of the juvenile water rail which eventually came out into the clear and foraged in the bottom of the grass and soft rush for grubs and anything else it could find. After a spot of lunch in the cafe, where we were treated to a flypast bye a short-eared owl (SEO or shortie for those who like nicknames), I went down to the view point we had set up to show visitors a lone roosting long eared owl (LEO, see what we did there?) in the scrub on the west of the reserve. The weather was closing in so there weren't many visitors around. I did not stay at the viewpoint for too long as so few visitors, which was just as well as having got back to Paddy’s hide the heavens opened and it rained cats and dogs!

After the rain had subsided the birds became quite fidgety and even the curlews took off. The reason was soon apparent – a peregrine cruised passed the front of the hide.

We locked the hides, wrapped up warm and returned to the visitor centre – the end of another days hide guiding.

Mark

Posted by klipdok2
29 January 2012

Further posts from a Hide Guide

From 20 January

I arrived a 9.00am to sign in at the workshop and meet up with the other hide guides who were on duty that day. We met up in the wildlife watchpoint to make sure the windows were clean, put out some seed for the birds, especially the water rail and to do a bird list for that hide for the day. Being early birds, we were fortunate to see the marsh harrier do a fly past and watched it disappear towards the fire station. A little later a hungry sparrowhawk made an appearance and put the small birds to flight.

I made my way back to the Phil Stead hide. The pool itself was very quiet, with a few teals and mallards round the edges of the pool and a pair black tailed godwits. I spent the last part of the morning in the visitor centre showing visitors who were new to birdwatching the small finches on the feeders and the waterfowl in front of the windows. It is amazing when you can show teal, for example, through the spotting scope so that the visitor can see them ‘close up’. It's easy not to realise how colourful these birds actually are.

After lunch I made my way down to the Saltholme pools hide. In the field opposite I counted 48 barnacle geese in amongst the Canada geese. A lone fieldfare was feeding on the remnants of the hawthorn berries and although the light was very poor, I managed to get a couple of close up photos of it. Here's one of the best ones ...

You can see more pictures on http://www.flickr.com/photos/50783922@N06. We did not have many visitors that afternoon as the weather was so poor. What visitors there were could be found walking down to Haverton Hole where they had distant views of the one long eared owl that had been located earlier in the day.

I hope next week will bring a bit more variety in the birds and better weather.

Cheers,

Mark.

Posted by klipdok2
29 January 2012

What long ears you have!

Over the past couple of weeks the lovely long-eared owl has been making an appearance on the reserve.

Because these owls are so well camouflaged and roost during the day, they can be hard to spot and easy to disturb. We've set up a Viewpoint in the scrub allowing you to see them whilst letting them snooze.

This photo by Darren Clark shows just how intricate the patterns on their feathers are, which explains why they are so hard to spot. They also have huge bright orange eyes and those long "ears" aren't ears at all, but are in fact tufts of feathers.

This long-eared owl may have migrated from the continent to spend winter in our warmer climate. Or it may be a British bird spending winter at the coast, where it's normally milder than further inland. They often roost in large groups, known as owl parliaments.

If you're planning to come down specifically to see them please give reception a call on 01642 546625 after 10:30 and they'll let you know if they're around. Alternatively, check out the facebook page.

Happy owl spotting!

Rhian

Posted by Rhian Davies
24 January 2012

Pintails on film

Hi everyone,

Couldn't resist blogging Helen's brilliant video of a pair of pintails at Saltholme that she shared with us on the facebook page. They're the most elegant duck that we get at Saltholme, well I think they are anyway. Have you seen one?

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Bye for now,

Ben.

Posted by Ben Calvert