Teesmouth Bird Club

Today's post, from Keith Ryan, on twitter on this topic has been forwarded to the project manager at Stockton B C and Chris Francis at Saltholme.
The immediate message was to finish the fence webbing asap . However, the now more open aspect across the 2 pools may still encourage avian, pedestrians and more thought needs to be applied if accidents to all parties are to be prevented.
Ali McLee

As regards the Swans the fence could do with a couple of 'ports' cut into it along the lower edge. The Swans wander back and forth along the fence over 100m trying to find a way through. When they can't get through they often end up wandering back across the road. I think the holes would help alleviate the number of birds on the roadside rather than increase. Seems to be mostly just the Swans that are affected. The ducks just fly over.

At least the section of fence with green netting has greatly improved it's visibility, though I think the rest of the fence needs doing as well.

Saltholme has asked if the swans had actually flown in and landed on the road. Has anyone ever seen such an event in passed years?
One would think that a swan, having gone to all the effort to become aloft, with the intent of reaching either pool, would jolly well land directly in the pool of choice. It is my opinion that the new improved visibility across the road is encouraging the pedestrian  method.
As for holes in the fence, lets just resolve this before we get started on otters and ducklings which are obliged to walk across.

Regarding the Swans at Saltholme, when I arrived on Sunday morning the two Mute Swans were on the new path by Saltholme East, walking along the fence line obviously trying to find a way through. A 3rd Swan was on the other side of the fence and they clearly wanted to be together (family party?).

Keith informed the RSPB and a guy (warden?) came along and after a few minutes went back to the reserve. As he was on his own he probably had no idea what to do with both these birds.

We (Keith Ryan, John Regan and myself) then decided to walk the Swans along the path towards the lower fence line opposite the reserve entrance. We cornered the birds and we then were able to pick them up and lower them over the fence.

They wandered off across the field and a few minutes later were seen on the water with the 3rd swan. Job done!

Prior to this the birds had wandered into the road and traffic had to stop/slow down to avoid them.

I have been birding Saltholme for 34ish years and have never seen Swans on this stretch of road before!

My guess (and pure speculation) is they flew from Saltholme West at low level to go to Saltholme East but failed to see/make it above the new fence so ditched down on the path. Maybe the 3rd bird got lucky or was flying higher. I'm only thinking they must have flown as I've never seen swans cross the road on foot before! Maybe others who spend more time here have seen otherwise?


As far as I am aware there is also a fence that borders Saltholme West but this is lower down in the ditch amongst the vegetation and below road level. The new fence on the other side of the road is at road level therefore higher than it was previously.


A McLee has mentioned "the new improved visibility across the road". I'm not sure what this refers to as nothing has changed on the west side as far as I can tell/remember?


For me if there has to be a fence along the new path (again i'm guessing that it has to be there by law?) then the top two rows of barbed Wire should be removed (should never have been considered in the first place and is easy to remove) and markers should then be put along the remining rows of wires. this may be just enough to make them more visible to birds flying across the road at low level? For me the green mesh looks bloody awful and will no doubt fall off or degrade in time anyway...

Cheers

Ian.

Must admit I've never seen the Swans fly in and land on the road or new path. They always land on the ponds and then move together - just as they've always done. Sometimes the split group lands either side of the road and then have to wander across. This has always happened it's not just since the new fence was put in place.

Prior to the new path there always was a fence along side the road on east Saltholme. Many years ago it was on dry ground but over the years, probably due to subsidence it became mostly submerged. The birds made use of the numerous gaps. I vaguely remember it being the same on the west pond but erosion of the roadside edge seems to have been much faster and most of it has gone altogether. In fact in several places the actual road itself is being undercut. There's very little left of the roadside verge on the west pond.

In essence the Swans are just doing what they've always done, only now there's a barrier in the way that they can't cross. Hence the suggestion for a couple of holes in the fence.

I'm not speaking on behalf of the RSPB or Saltholme, but my limited understanding is that the plastic covering is a temporary "fix" and the longer-term plan is to plant some trees and/or shrubs along the fence line. 

The idea seems to be that this will create a more visible obstacle for the birds and encourage them to fly higher (hopefully also reducing vehicle bird strikes with e.g. hirundines in summer), and the vegetation will also hopefully reduce future disturbance of birds caused by people using the coastal path.