Teesmouth Bird Club

The Canal & Rivers Trust will be starting their annual seal monitoring around Tees Barrage again in June. The monitoring involves volunteers counting the number of seals and the number of fish that are predated by the seals, over a period of around one hour.  Volunteers work on a rota as and when they are available. If you are interested in volunteering this year or for more information please contact:
caitlin.hayman2@canalrivertrust.org.uk or ring 07775543990

I'm really glad you did post it, otherwise I'd always have that radio report at the back on my mind.

I seem to get most of my mammal, reptile and amphibian information from bird club members. 

It was a seal.  You can see the claw marks in one of the photos and others show the typical "sculling" pattern

They do look remarkably like seal prints.

Thanks for posting these;  I heard it on the radio this morning and it sounded like an April fool, so good to get to the bottom of it.  Shame it wasn't a turtle though; that would have been amazing.

Incidentally if Turtle Exploration did have UK staff, then that is probably the least busy profession in Britain

  You can see the dark spot under the jaw on the last photo when it is running away, which is supposed to be definitive.  Combined with the other features it is definitely weasel.  As far as I can tell this is a new tetrad record for weasel (which of course isn't the same as saying that no-one else has seen one there)

I've been alerted to Alan Crossley's tweet about the seal pup at Seaton Snook.  Unfortunately I don't know how to reply to tweets so I hope its alright to post some information here based on our experience at INCA and what we recommend to our volunteer seal monitors.

If you do find what appears to be a distressed seal (or cetacean) then its recommended to phone the British Divers Marine Life Rescue helpline on 01825 765546 (office work hours).   Their out of hours contact number (evenings and weekends is 07787 433412).  They have a network of fairly locally based volunteers who usually come out and make an assessment of whether the animal needs to be rescued.

Often a seal will just be hauling out.  At this time of year the Harbour Seal pups are recently weaned so are likely to lose some condition and may haul out in some atypical locations while they learn what it is to be a seal.  (That said, the one that Alan photographed did seem fairly emaciated so probably would be worth getting BDMLR to check it out and definitely if it remains hauled out.) We recommend to the seal volunteers to contact BDMLR in the following circumstances:
•   The seal is obviously injured, emaciated or ill (eg coughing or nose and eyes streaming).
•   It is behaving oddly.  This one is difficult to judge, but a couple of key examples to bear in mind are:
-   if a seal is allowing people or dogs to get too close to it without trying to defend itself.
-   if it stays out of the water for 'too long', not making any attempt to go back into the water as the tide rises (in this case it might be ill).

Its best if the finder could contact BDMLR directly about distressed seals, as you have the relevant information and time may be of the essence, especially with tides.  However if you are aware of any rescues we would be keen to know at INCA so that we can include it in our annual seal reports.  Similarly if you have  other records of seals around Teesside ie dead seals, seals with tags, or counts of seals in particular locations, we would be interested to know so that we can form a fuller picture of the local seal population.  Please e-mail any such information to plover@inca.uk.com

Really enjoyed reading this.  You almost started me off listing (and I started birdwatching around the same time as you and I think I've only gone more than 1/4 of a mile out of my way for a rare-ish bird on four occasions since then).  You must have a book in you on Cleveland birders (though not sure if I would dare read it as I would probably end up hooked )

The second one is Field Vole, more of a sandy-grey than Bank Vole and with barely perceptible ears.  You've done well to catch one of those out in the open.

As some of you may know, INCA co-ordinates a seal monitoring programme each summer on Seal Sands and Greatham Creek, running over each daylight low tide from mid June to mid Sept.  (The report of the 2016 monitoring has just gone on our website at http://www.inca.uk.com/2016/10/summary-of-seal-season-2016/  Headline figure is that there are now at least 200 seals in the estuary at times)   However outside of that there is very little data on what seal numbers are like for the rest of the year or at other states of the tide.  A few TBC members have kindly passed on seal counts that they have undertaken at other times and these have been summarised in this year?s report.  I would like to try and add to the amount of data that we have on this for the 2016/17 season.  If any of you are birding at either Greatham Creek or from the Power Station Field (looking at the peninsula on the other side of Seaton Channel, beneath the green hut, where the Grey Seals haul out) and can count the seals while you are there I would be very grateful for your records (zero counts are equally valuable).   If you can separate them into Greys and Harbours so much the better but otherwise just the total no of seals is still fine, plus the date and the time.   If you are able to do a count could you e-mail it to me ian.bond@inca.uk.com please and I will include it in next year?s report with an acknowledgement.

The Canal & Rivers Trust is looking for volunteers to help with the seal monitoring at Tees Barrage over the summer.  The monitoring is for 1 hour a day at high tide and its on a rota basis so would just be occasional.  There is some training organised for next Tuesday afternoon although its not essential to attend the training as the monitoring is fairly straightforward.  If you might be interested in helping with this please contact Phillippa Baron on Phillippa.Baron@canalrivertrust.org.uk

Further to Chris Small's tweet of a tagged seal I got the following information back from the Sea Mammal Research Unit (I don't have a twitter account so apologies Chris that I wasn't able to reply directly)

Thank you very much for your tag report. This is very useful information.
Judging from the picture, the number was 75118. It also should have a second tag - 75119.
The was last year's pup tagged on the Isle of May. It is male which weighed 42.4 kg when it was tagged on the 2/12/15.

I would be very interested to hear if anyone else manages to record any other tagged seal numbers on Teesside as would be useful to be able to include that information in the annual seals report that INCA produces.  If so my e-mail is ian.bond@inca.uk.com

Thanks
Ian

As I?m sure you will be aware, INCA has been overseeing the Tees Seals monitoring programme for many years.  The programme itself involves a monitoring protocol over low tide from mid June to mid Sept and gives a detailed picture of seal haul-out numbers at those times.  As I?m sure you?re also aware, some seals are also hauling out during the remainder of the year and at other states of tide and we would like to get an idea of how many.

If anyone is able to make a count of the seals while you are out birding please could you e-mail me the details at ian.bond@inca.uk.com  and I will compile the data with a view to including it in the annual seals report.   While these counts wont be as structured as those of the seal monitoring project, if several counts can be achieved each month then some patterns may emerge and we will at least be able to get maximum counts for each month.

As well as the total number of seals counted could you include date and time (so that the tidal state can be worked out) and location.  Locations would be one of the following three areas: Greatham Creek, the whole area upstream from the road bridge; Seal Sands as a whole, which can be best seen from the sea wall hide at Greenabella; The spit of land on the south side of Seaton Channel, opposite Seaton Snook Island (NB this shouldn?t be counted as part of Seal Sands).

Thank you for any help that you are able to give with this.  If you would like to see the 2015 Tees Seals Report, it can be downloaded from the INCA website at http://www.inca.uk.com/reports/
Ian Bond

I'm putting together a short paper for Northumbria Naturalist on parakeets in the North East.  I've got together info from TBC Atlas, Cleveland annual bird reports, Birds of Durham etc plus some of my own notes but there still appears to be very large gaps in the information.

I was wondering if anyone might be able to supply some information to fill in some of the blanks:
 
They are clearly breeding but does anyone have any records of where?  I have one record from Tunstall.

Have any of them been ringed?  There are small flocks in Newcastle and Ponteland (possibly the same birds) and it would be interesting to know if they came from Hartlepool or had another origin.

How far away from Ward Jackson Park are they occurring.  They seem to be popping up with some regularity at Dalton Piercy and Elwick but that's as far as I've come across them.

Any info would be very much appreciated and any that I use in the article will of course be credited
Thanks
Ian

Thanks Ian
Good to know they are still using the park

A few years back and on the advice of TBC, Hartlepool designated Rossmere Park as a Local Wildlife Site on the basis that the entire Teesmouth population of wintering Little Egrets were regularly roosting there.

Does anyone know if that is still the case?

Ian