RSPB Saltholme Reserve
On the 21st January 2009 the long awaited new RSPB reserve on Teesside was opened. This is set to be a great asset to the Tees valley.
During the last few years Teesside birders waited for the major bird reserve that has been spoken about for the last few decades. Until now most of the plans were just that. However, during the summer of 2002 work started on a massive project to turn an area of the north Tees marshes into a large RSPB managed reserve.
Aerial picture of the reserve area
The birdwatchers of Teesside have always known of the potential of the land north of the river Tees. Over the last 30 or more years a very wide variety of birds have used this area on their migration route. What is proposed by the RSBP is to create a reserve which will enable birds to breed in the area and to create more wetland habitat for waders and water birds.
One bold claim is to have breeding Avocets in Teesside in five years time. as it happens the Avocets beat the RSPB to is and have nested during 2008. The creation of the reserve will give a boost to the area and put Teesmouth back on the map for good wildlife interest in an industrial setting..
More information can be found on the RSPB web site.
These
photographs were taken on 30th August 2002
The area the diggers and bulldozers are working on is the land around Haverton
Hole. There has been a major change to the layout and look of this area. The
picture on the right shows the digger clearing a drainage channel near one of
the ponds. The Transporter bridge can be seen in the background.
This picture shows how the land around the pond shown in the picture above. The left hand side has been cleared of scrub and various bits of rubbish. The land in the foreground has also been levelled and some of the contaminated land has been removed.
The two pictures on the left look like the start of the development of a pool with some of the top soil being removed.