Brenda Road Green Space by
Alistair McLee
It lies to the west of the rail track running through Seaton Carew and East of
said Brenda Road . The area is largely grassland on old calcareous slag heaps
from the days of blast furnace iron making. Also there is some wetland,
naturally generating scrub, heavily grazed pony pasture and planted woodland
containing every conceivable species of British tree species and some that are
not. However, anyone who birdwatches in our county, should know better than to
disregard an area, simply because it is not pretty, or because it does not
conform to some defined vegetation habitat. If this area has a fault, it is too
close to, and inland from, established good birding areas to its East.
Percentage birding encourages visits to the North Gare, the dunes, golf course
and Seaton Common itself. BRGS is too easy to ignore.
The surveying exercise of breeding birds 17 years ago, when data was being
gathered for the club’s publication “ The Breeding Birds of Cleveland”, turned
up all the usual suspects. I believe that a study of wintering birds would be
little different from what could be expected on sites east of Seaton Carew.
However species like Merlin and Short Eared Owl periodically vanish from their
local haunts and this site could well be an alternative. Fodder set out for
ponies attracts wintering finches, buntings and larks. I have reports of snipe
in the wet areas and I found Sedge Warbler whilst taking photographs and on a
better day Lesser White Throat could have been easily found by any who knows the
song.
Access is best from the south side from Seaton Lane, heading West, immediately
after the rail bridge. Follow the path through the restricting gate and before
you are a variety of paths to wander at will. Please forward your records to the
club as I suspect this site will be an option in the future for a wind turbine
and a case would have to be made for objections to any planning application.
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