Tees and Hartlepool Foreshore and Wetlands SSSI

Tees and Hartlepool Foreshore and Wetlands SSSI is a 255.62-hectare (631.7-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in County Durham, England notified in 1997.

[2] It consists of two disjunct areas - foreshore (grid reference NZ516348) and wetlands (grid reference NZ505224), and forms a complex of wetland SSSIs along with Cowpen Marsh, Seal Sands and South Gare and Coatham Sands.

[4] Tees and Hartlepool Foreshore and Wetlands SSSI is an important wintering site for waders and wildfowl and supports nationally important populations of purple sandpiper, sanderling and Northern shoveler.

Surveys have demonstrated that numbersof other birds, making up significant portions of the Tees estuary's populations, frequently use parts of the SSI for foraging and roosting.

These include sanderling, red knot, purple sandpiper and ruddy turnstone on the north Hartlepool shore and Hartlepool Headland; while common redshank, Eurasian curlew, Eurasian teal and common shelduck use Greenabella Marsh; northern shoveler, Eurasian teal, Eurasian wigeon, gadwall, Northern lapwing and European golden plover use both Saltholme Pool and Dormans Pools; and common redshank and common shelduck on the North Tees mudflats.