At RSPB Saltholme near Middlesborough

Spent the final day of the holiday at the RSPB reserve at Saltholme in the shadow of the Middlesborough Transporter Bridge and surrounded by industrial site and buildings. However, industry didn't intrude, it just formed a backdrop to this very good site.

A lovely new building, serving very good scones provided an excellent start to some interesting bird watching. Saw the usual suspects = these Goldfinches and Greenfinches, Terns, Gulls, Ducks of all sorts, a Heron amongst others. Right at the end of the day, as we were about to leave a charm of Goldfinches descended on the feeder at the Visitors Centre =  there must have been 15 or more of them. Then we saw three Tree Sparrows - now they're unusual and quite rare according to Susan.

Back for the evening meal a salad with cold meats and accompanyments followed by that Yorkshire tradition of fruit cake with cheese, time for the group photo and a discussion about plans for this time next year.