Red necked grebe

  A day out birding with Raymond who did the driving. Hartlepool Headland was our first stop.

It was high tide and plenty of birds on the rocks. Redshank, turnstone and purple sandpipers

We walked to the Pilot Pier and then round to the fish dock

eider ducks and cormorants but no glaucous gull. Raymond then drove us to Jacksons Landing where we saw a red necked grebe, my 115 th bird this year.

Newburn Bridge car park was our next stop

Plenty of waders on the rocks; turnstone, sanderling,ringed plover, oystercatcher and starling.

Greatham Creek was the next place we visited. Curlew, redshank, wigeon, teal and little grebes

We then walked down to Seal Sands hide from where we saw lots of curlews, shelducks and these red breasted mergansers.

we were told by a birder that the merganser with the black eye patches was a young male.

RSPB Saltholme was our next stop. We walked to the Wildlife watchpoint where a guide told us that a water rail had been seen recently,but not during our visit.

Cowpen Bewley was our last stop where we visited the bird feeders and saw blue, grey and coal tits, chaffich, robin, bullfinch and blackbirds.

A very pleasant day, thanks to Raymond for driving.