Oh fffffffff.......

...fiddlesticks! Should've gone to Hartlepool straight after work on Friday. But having said that, I would've had to stop for a bite to eat on the way, and you don't know what the motorway traffic would be like. So on a Saturday morning at Hartlepool Headland all there was, was an empty bowling green.


As for the wall by the doctors garden, the ladders had been and gone:


Rumour has it that Roger Waters is to re-enact this twitching episode from earlier in the week, in future live productions of The Wall. Probably to "Comfortably Numb"!



Hartlepool is, of course, famous for the monkey that was hung by the locals, after they thought it was a French spy.


Well after this, I think there were quite a few suicidal birders who wouldn't have minded being put out of their misery. But if it's gone, there's nothing you can do about it. Actually, a bit of a seawatch during the morning was much better. There were 4 Manx Shearwaters, 1 Red-throated Diver, Common Scoters, Eiders, Little, Sandwich and Common Terns, Gannets, Kittiwakes, Guillemots. Who needs the Robin?

I gave up on it at the end of the morning. At least I know Hartlepool Headland and all the main birding sites on Teesside very well, so I headed for Greatham Creek and Seal Sands for a bit.


This is Seal Sands. Picturesque eh? With it's nuclear power station on one side, chemical works on the other.

Despite all that, what's left of the Tees estuary is great for birding. Pretty quiet on the whole this time, as you might expect for the time of year. But plenty of Common Seals, some Avocets and Common Terns. And the rest of the weekend was spent with my niece and nephew, which is never a bad thing.