England – County Durham

Sutton, 13 Aug 2008

We have returned to Sutton after visiting my father in Durham. While in Durham we took an early morning drive into the Durham moors between Stanhope and Middleton-in-Teesdale to look for game birds – well, I was looking for game birds, the others were more interested in the scenery with the heather in full bloom. I wasn’t disappointed, adding all three of the targeted birds, Grey Partridge, Common Pheasant and Red Grouse, as well as Meadow Pipit.

Also, while in Durham I went off for a pre-arranged morning’s birding to the Tees Marshes with a local birder from the Teesmouth Bird Club. Again, I was not disappointed, with some 57 species ticked for the morning, many of them lifers, including a Water Rail that nearly took our heads off as it shot across the path along which we were walking between ponds. It was a particularly grey, overcast day with intermittent showers (a good north of England summer’s day!) not too conducive to photography. I did manage a few shots between showers of Common Linnet, Mute Swan, Sanderling, Common Ringed Plover, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Lesser Black-backed Gull, European Herring Gull and Black-headed Gull. Other birds seen included Northern Lapwing, Common Reed Bunting, Common Pochard, Northern Shoveler, Common Redshank, Spotted Redshank, Dunlin, Ruddy Turnstone and Black-tailed Godwit.

My two previous posts neglected to mention the 2 lifers I picked up just before heading off to Scotland, in Nonsuch Park, Ewell, a little over a mile from my daughter’s flat yet over the county boundary in Surrey. Nonsuch Park is the last surviving part of a deer hunting park established by Henry VIII around 1538. The birds in question are Stock Dove and Mistle Thrush.