Hartlepool tall ships race

what could have been a showcase event in the north east, seemed to me to be a badly planned, organised, and excecuted event that in all honesty, a small child could have rganised better!!!

i spent the 4 days manning the RSPB's stall, trying my hardest to spread the word of the rspb (www.rspb.org.uk) and rspb saltholme. it wasnt easy though!!!! our pitch was right next to the bar! or should i say the bars generator, so i spent the whole 4 days having to shout at people! not the best for my poor voice, or ears for that matter, as the generator in question was kicking out 115 decibels!!! well over the safe level of 85!!!! a complaint is inorder i think.

and combine this with the fact that the main stage was directly oposite us, we had a difficult 4 days.

A new tern!

well i went to do the open up at saltholme in wednesday as usual, it started pretty normally, doing the usual checks in the hides, wildlife watchpoint, then paddys pool, and then round to saltholme pools Hide. stopping off briefly to say hello to the sheepys :) on my way down the hide i noticed a few people on the roadside looking onto saltholme west. but this is pretty normal for half 8 in the morning. So i did what i had to do in the hide, and i gave it a bit of a sweep out, then decided to have a few minutes looking at the birdies!

i had a quick scan and a few things caught my eye. firstly a couple beautiful wood sandpipers were just outside the hide! nice start! then a little stint which was a pretty addition on one of the bunds, as well as a few juinile common terns!

and then i noticed them! the birding hardcore of teesside on the side of the road! staring at the same bund i was! to be honest at first glance i didnt notice anything out of the ordinary, but i wasnt looking very hard! ao i had a quick look on http://tbc.123guestbook.com the teessmouth bird club sighting board! and there it was! Juvinile Whiskered Tern! that would explain all the birders that had gathered! so i sat down and concentrated on looking for it!

eventually, there it was! sat right next to the litle stint and juv common terns i had been looking at! how did i miss it! who knows, but the important thing is, i saw it eventually, and what made it even more enjoyable for me was that i was sat in a hide, all by myself, watching it whilst 30+ others were stood on the busy a179 as lorrys rushed passed them! :)