by Martin Blick
This is a strange place, not at all like the conventional migrant hotspots around the UK. It is a maze of “olde worlde” streets and alleys, clustered around St. Hilda’s Church and interspersed with small gardens and green spaces, with names like “the Croft”, “the Town Moor”, “the Memorial Garden”, “the Bowling Green”, “the Putting Green”, “the Doctor’s Garden” and “St. Mary’s”.
Make no mistake, it can and does turn up real rarities from time to time and many of Cleveland’s birders make for the headland in spring and autumn, when the weather looks favourable for incoming migrants.
Between mid-April and mid-June, and again between early August and late November, large numbers of migrants can be seen, given the correct conditions. Most of the “regular” rarities are annual or nearly so, birds like Barred and Yellow-browed Warblers, Bluethroat, Wryneck, Firecrest, Red-backed Shrike etc.
However, the list of “real” rarities makes for mouth-watering reading, with birds like Dusky and Black-throated Thrushes, Great Snipe, Paddyfield, Western Orphean and Western Bonelli’s Warblers, White-throated Robin, Red-flanked Bluetail, Pallid, Alpine and Little Swifts, Red-footed Falcon etc.
Also, by virtue of being on the North Sea coastline, sea-watching can be very productive. It has deteriorated since the 1990’s, but good numbers of ducks, auks, gulls, terns, skuas, and shearwaters can still be recorded on occasion. Prime time is mid-July to early December and generally requires a strong to gale-force wind with an element of North in it. Counting seabirds when the snow is going past horizontally is not for the faint-hearted!
The rocks in the harbour between the breakwaters can be good for roosting waders, gulls, and Eider, and most years see a Grey Phalarope or two sheltering somewhere around the headland in bad weather.
Access from the North is via A19 and turning East onto A179 past Hart Village and almost straight to the headland. Access from the South is via A19, then East onto A689 which runs straight through central Hartlepool, past the Historic Quay, and again almost straight to the headland.
Parking in the middle of the headland (looking for migrants) is at NZ528337 and parking by the lighthouse (sea-watching) is at NZ532338.
July 2019