birding...

Ask birders nation-wide to draw up a league table of English coastal counties and almost certainly Durham would end up at the bottom. It's either the place you pass through quickly on the way to more magnetic Northumberland - or fail to reach because Yorkshire's attractions are so much greater. Nor is the county's status helped by its most ornithologically productive corner - the west side of the Tees Estuary - being traditionally claimed as part of a separate bird recording area known as Teesmouth.

However, even without the Durham side of what until 1996 was the county of Cleveland, this is still a fascinating place for those who take the trouble to check out its qualities. In a relatively small area, with the greatest east-west width just 45 miles, while only 36 miles separate the north and south boundaries, there is a wide range of habitats. An hour's drive from the heavily populated river-mouth areas lies the upland wilderness of the Pennines, rising to 2,591ft at Mickle Fell. These moors are a final stronghold for England’s Black Grouse population, hold nationally important breeding populations of Wigeon and Merlin, and also offer raptor prospects ranging from winter-visiting Hen Harrier and Rough-legged Buzzard, to very occasionally something extra-special like Golden Eagle or Gyr Falcon.

Dales, with stands of ancient oak and beech providing spring haunts for Common Redstart, Wood Warbler and Pied Flycatcher, sweep down to the starkly different coast. There may be no prominent headland poking out invitingly to migrants winging over the North Sea but somehow the whole strip between the estuaries of Tyne and Tees has pulling power. Over the years, delights have ranged from Ivory and Ross's Gulls to Black Kite and Red-footed Falcon, from Baillon's Crake and White-tailed Plover to Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler and Red-eyed Vireo - mostly in very urban locations. Truly incredible birds like Britain’s first Eastern Crowned Warbler, the first-ever east coast Common Nighthawk and a back-garden Siberian Rubythroat seem to have a habit of turning up in County Durham.

There are notable seabird colonies, most famously at Marsden, South Tyneside, where cliffs and stacks hold well-established colonies of Fulmars, Cormorants, Herring Gulls and Kittiwakes, with the most recent addition, Razorbills, gradually increasing each summer. The adjacent pristine sandy beach at Sandhaven, South Shields, is a regular late summer roosting point for Roseate Terns. Just to the south is Whitburn Observatory which, given a northerly wind between July and December, can provide grandstand views of seabird passage - its most memorable occasions have involved hundreds of Pomarine and Long-tailed Skuas, thousands of Little Auks and huge movements of wildfowl, divers, gulls and terns, as well as the true rarities such as Fea’s Petrel, Little Shearwater and White-billed Diver.

So next time you're speeding through Durham, think about what it is that causes some locals to want to go nowhere else - and maybe you'll hit upon its hidden talents.