Birdwatching locations around Teesside

Teesside has some interesting places to birdwatch, you can find a selection of some of the more important ones from the links below. The area of coverage is mainly based around the lower Tees valley. I have taken the old border of Cleveland (the former administrative county) as the main part of my "patch". This former county has quite a variety of habitats within a 20 mile radius of the centre of the Teesside conurbation.

To the south of the area rises the escarpment of the North York Moors, a good area to see upland species. The north of the Tees is mainly farmland which gently rises to the magnesium limestone ridge which outcrops at the sea at Hartlepool. The headland at Hartlepool, is well known as a sea watching and migration "fall" site. I have witnessed many of these "falls"of migrants. Birdwatching in the right place at the right time can be an exciting experience as almost anything can turn up. I have split the area into sections which I hope will give you a flavour of the birds that can be seen here. I have also included some of the other aspects of natural history that can be found around Teesside.

If you have any comments about these pages please let me know, especially if there are any factual errors. Most of the images on the site are my own but the bird in the hand shots are provided by Chris Brown and other bird shots are from Wayne Richardson, Iain Leach and Jimmy Pattinson. Some of these images have also appeared in the Teesmouth Bird Club report.

Wren

 

RSPB Saltholme

January 2009 sees the opening of the long awaited reserve on the North Tees marshes. The reserve (Saltholme) will have the most up to date and best facilities in the north of England. You can find out more from the Saltholme section of the RSPB web site. You can see the new visitor centre below.

Saltholme reserve centre

 

Citrine Wagtail

Citrine Wagtail seen in front of the visitor centre 23rd August 2009