birding...

Shelduck Anas clypeata © Ashley Beolens

For a very small county (which in fact no longer officially exists) Cleveland has an impressive bird list, both quantitatively (348) and qualitatively. Hartlepool Headland is an outstanding sea-watch point - there can be few rivals in the country as a place to see autumn skua movements and all the other seabird groups are well represented except for the larger shearwaters which remain very scarce, much to the frustration of the many dedicated sea-watchers. Staithes in the extreme south of the county offers almost as good sea- watching and South Gare, near Redcar, though set in a deep bay, can be surprisingly good in the right winds. Sea-watching depends very much on the winds coming from the northern quarter, preferably with some east, the stronger the better.

The county has a large estuary, and the extensive marshes, water meadows and inter-tidal mudflats to the north of the river Tees (between Port Clarence and Seaton Carew) together with Coatham Marsh to the south (nr. South Gare) attract large numbers of all the common waders. Many of the scarcer waders e.g. Pectoral Sandpiper, Temminck`s Stint are pretty much annual and the list of rare waders is mouth- watering e.g. Long-toed Stint, Great Knot, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (3) amog a long list, though the failure to record two relatively common Americans, Lesser Yellowlegs and Long-billed Dowitcher, is something of a puzzle. The same general pattern of occurrence is true also for wildfowl (and only this spring Lesser Scaup was added to the county list); additional attractive sites for wildfowl are Scaling Dam and Lockwood Beck reservoirs in the south of the county and Crookfoot reservoir in the north. Constant reference to the north and south of the county hints at a serious, but friendly, rivalry between birders from either side of the river, a rivalry that also extends to an annual football match (currently honours are shaded by the north).

As at any east coast location passerine migration in spring and autumn is eagerly awaited at the coastal hotspots - Hartlepool Headland, North & South Gare, Boulby cliffs and the usual suspects are frequently recorded. Again a long list of rarities has been recorded. The county exerts a strange attraction on Paddyfield Warblers - 5 to date, as it seems to do also on Thrush Nightingales (5); Ross’s Gulls (6); Broad-billed Sandpipers (12) and White-rumped Sandpipers (14).

With extensive moorland to the south, one or two largish reed beds, and open country in the hinterland, common breeding birds are plentiful and varied though only very rarely do any very scarce breeders grace the scene. There are several nature reserves in the county run by the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust and one major reserve, Teesmouth National Nature Reserve, which lies at the core of a wildlife site designated (via EU Special Protection Area and Ramsar site classification) as being of international importance for birds, though it is hoped that the long awaited Teesmouth International Nature Reserve at Saltholm will soon join these. Much of the county is heavily urbanised and industrialised and bird watching surrounded by chemical and steel works or peering into people’s front gardens can strike the visitor as rather strange.

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