Super Suprise at Saltholme

Usually every weekend we get up early to go birding, this weekend was no different but instead of birds we were looking for bikes. We got up early to go and watch the Tour de France as it was right at the bottom of my street. After it had finished we then started to head of to RSPB Saltholme.

We went there because a Black Winged Pratincole was at a reservoir fairly near Saltholme and earlier that morning it had flew of and we thought Saltholme may have been one of the best places it could turn up but throughout the day we had no luck.

When we arrived in the Saltholme car park the first thing we did was have a check in the Phil Stead Hide where we saw Little Egret, Grey Heron, Common Terns, a Reed Warbler and quite a few Mallards.

Grey Heron

 

Afterwards we then moved on towards the visitor centre, on the way we watched a Reed Warbler going back and forth to its nest. When we were in the visitor centre some of the staff told us that the Roseate Tern was still showing from the Paddys Pool Hide but before we had a check in there we first decided to go to the Saltholme Hide. On the way my Dad suddenly shouted Fox! I turned to see a cracking Fox walk straight out into the open and then it sat down on a small patch of grass around about 5 meters away. We sat watching this stunning creature for a while but then I couldn't believe what happened next, it got up and started walking towards us! It eventually came to close that my camera wouldn't focus and it was probably touching distance away! It was an absolutely amazing experience! After the Fox then moved on into the undergrowth and we moved on to the Saltholme Hide.

 

Fox

 

In the Saltholme we didn't see much apart from a group of 8 little Egrets at the back of the pools. After we then moved on to have a look in the Paddys Pool Hide for the Roseate Tern. When we arrived we asked some people if they had seen it and they said they had seen it earlier in the day but they couldn't see it at the moment. In the front of the hide the Great Crested Grebe family was still around. I started scanning the island in the middle of the lake for the Roseate Tern and within around 5 minutes I managed to re find the bird sitting on a fence in the corner of the island, last week the bird showed more distantly, this time it was a little closer. We were about to go when the Roseate Tern took of and landed on a perch right in front of the hide! I was really nice to finally get close views of this cracking bird.  

 

Great Crested Grebe

 

Roseate Tern

 

Afterwards we had a walk around the lakes what we walked around last week. We also had a check on our Oystercatcher nest which is still on 3 eggs. Several other birds were around the pools such as Dunlin, Little Ringed Plover, Lapwing and Redshank.

 

Oystercatcher