Seven of the flights were diverted, and 17 were held in the skies, after the incident is at 11.21pm on Friday, August 21, when the airfield had to be closed for 15 minutes while police arrested the man.

Greater Manchester Police said: “We responded to reports of male who had been located air-side at Manchester Airport.

“This appears to be mental-health related and the man has been taken to hospital for assessment.”

Part of an airfield fence, which was damaged, is understood to have been fixed.

Online platform Flightradar 24 showed several flights had to be rerouted while the issue was dealt with, including some flights bound for Manchester being diverted to airports like Birmingham and East Midlands.

Liam Potts had not returned home after a night out with friends, sparking a desperate search which entered its fourth day.

The 22-year-old was last seen at about 12.20am on Saturday, August 15, heading into Wylam from Wylam Bridge.

Specialist officers from Northumbria Police’s Marine Unit made the discovery in the river close to Wylam Bridge on August 18.

His family have since paid tribute, they said: “To our Liam. You may no longer be here beside us, but your presence will never be forgotten. Your family, friends and colleagues have all said the same thing, ‘once you met Pottsy, you could never forget him.’

“You really were the heart and soul of any room.

“We are going to miss your smile, your laugh, and the little things that made you who you are. Though time may pass, the love we have for you will never fade. 

“You will always be remembered, and forever loved. Rest peacefully, knowing that your memory lives on in all those whose lives you touched.”

They added: “Now to everyone who reached out with kind messages, calls, visits, flowers and thoughtful gestures; please know how deeply grateful we are.

“Your love and support brings us comfort when we need it most; it really has been extremely overwhelming the amount of support we have been receiving, it’s clear to see how loved Liam was.

“Thank you to everyone who tirelessly supported in the search for Liam including all the members of the public.  As you will have hopefully already seen, a GoFund Me page has been created to donate to all the amazing volunteers of the Mountain Rescue Teams.

“However, beyond this, we would like to extend our appreciation to Northumbria Police, particularly the diving team that were able to successfully bring our boy home.”

Today (August 22), it was announced that two men have been re-arrested on suspicion of manslaughter following Liam’s death.

The two men, aged 22 and 23, remain in police custody.

A disturbance had been reported the same night Liam went missing at The Boathouse, followed by a collision on Wylam Bridge involving a vehicle and pedestrians.

A man and woman, both in their 20s, sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries in the collision.

Northumbria Police have confirmed they are now investigating whether the two incidents are linked.

According to a witness, when the owner, a woman, was challenged about what her dog had done, she claimed it hadn’t bitten the man.

The woman and her pet were in Weddall Close, Dringhouses, when the incident happened on Monday, at about 3.10pm.

She was an older white woman, with brown hair in a bob cut, wearing black glasses, a leopard skin print coat, blue shirt and cream trousers.

“The owner is described as being dismissive of what happened and disputed that the male had even been bitten,” the police statement said.

“We have some very good still images of the owner, and we may release them to the public, but we would like the owner to come forward, in the first instance,” the police statement says.

If you know who the woman is or can help police with their investigation email mark.burrows@northyorkshire.police.uk, or can call North Yorkshire Police on 101, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or via their website.

Please quote reference 12260160322 when passing on information.

The death of Jason Arday, following weeks of news coverage of his life and career, has prompted calls for a new inquiry into press standards. The University of Cambridge academic faced an overwhelming volume of comment from international news organisations, broadcasters, digital-native publications and the public on social media. His family said it all had a catastrophic impact on his life. I should underline from the start that I have enormous sympathy for what Arday went through, and my thoughts are with his family and friends.

Given the demands from some politicians and pressure groups for a public inquiry into the press’s actions in reporting on Arday, it is worth looking at how newspapers covered the emergence of the plagiarism allegations against him, the claims he made about his life and career, his resignation from Cambridge, his death and the reaction to it.

There is a lot of potential material to consider, and a variety of approaches could be employed. Here, I have looked at substantive articles published in the print editions of national newspapers. I haven’t included articles published solely on newspaper websites, nor newspapers’ social media or multimedia output. Nor have I analysed broadcaster or social media output. There is a vast amount of other content that could, and no doubt will in due course, be considered.

However, given that there is pressure for an inquiry into the press, it is sensible to begin with the print editions, which remain a core driver of newspapers’ news-gathering and commissioning processes.

I have looked at the number and type of articles published, and the key themes that they engaged with. I haven’t conducted a close textual reading, rather categorising the overarching themes of an article. I have only considered substantive articles produced by a search using data analysis by the company LexisNexis from July 25, the day the plagiarism allegations were first reported, until August 20. Where a story was repeated in different editions of the newspapers, I disregarded duplicates, and I discounted letters to the editor, promotions or indexes, as well as passing references in articles that were primarily about something else.

I wanted to focus on articles that were chiefly about Arday, his work or the fallout from the events of the past month. That said, I don’t disregard the impact that all of these additional pieces of output may have had on Arday – they contributed to the intense volume of content that has been created during these weeks.

The LexisNexis results produced a result of 553 articles from 14 publications. Cleaning the data produced a final corpus of 242 articles for consideration. The Times produced the most articles – 53 in the daily edition and a further eight in the Sunday Times.

The data about the articles, the date of publication, the type of article, and its themes were coded by hand; the figures in this article were created using AI to visualise the data. There were two peaks in coverage: after Arday resigned from Cambridge University on August 5 and following his death on August 14.

The start of the coverage

The plagiarism allegations were first reported by the Daily Telegraph, The Times and the Daily Mail on July 25. The Times and the Daily Telegraph continue to report the story regularly from the last days of July, with other newspapers starting to publish around the time of Arday’s resignation. In the days that followed, a significant number of articles were published.

Most of the articles are news stories about the developing situation. But there are also several opinion-led pieces too. The Times publishes 30 news stories and 13 opinion pieces, as well as news analysis, leaders, a review of Arday’s memoir, and the only interview with the academic.

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The coverage begins with questions about plagiarism in his academic work, but quickly moves to consider Arday’s wider claims about his life, pegged to the imminent publication of his memoir. From the very beginning, some newspapers frame questions about Arday’s work in the context of Cambridge’s efforts to diversify its academic workforce. The Daily Telegraph’s first story is headlined “Cambridge’s diversity pin-up in plagiarism row”. This sets the tone for much of the subsequent reporting.

From relatively early on, concerns are raised about the amount of reporting and comment the story is generating through both the press and social media. The Times journalist Giles Coren writes about Arday twice in his columns on August 1 and 11. On both occasions, he raises questions about the volume and impact of the coverage. Coren has subsequently been criticised for his choice of language – he referred to everyone “slaughtering” Arday – but he is clearly critical of the way the story is being covered.

Finally, there is the question of the proportionality of the coverage. To what extent were newspapers dealing with questions of legitimate public interest, rather than pursuing a story that had captured a degree of public enthusiasm, with consequent financial benefits to their publications?

While it is true that allegations of run-of-the-mill academic misconduct seem unlikely to interest journalists, it is also true that Arday was an emerging public intellectual. His media appearances – including on BBC Question Time and guest editing Radio 4’s Today – plus the publication of a mainstream commercial memoir featuring a range of extraordinary claims, meant he inevitably had a higher profile than his peers.

Many of the news stories in the sample do attempt to answer questions that are legitimate to ask. On the other hand, some people have expressed the view that the coverage was motivated by racism from the start – Arday’s former mentor at Cambridge Lord Simon Woolley referred to his friend being “hounded to death”.

Framing associated with race is present throughout the sample, and some articles explicitly accuse Cambridge of only appointing Arday as a professor because of the colour of his skin. For example columnist Julia Hartley-Brewer’s article in The Sun on August 7 was headlined “Prof hasn’t been hounded from job because he is black…it looks like he only got the job because he is black”.

There is no question that some journalists, opinion columnists in particular, viewed this story through the lens of wider battles over culture. Was it proportionate? I hope editors will reflect on that at some length. But as I pointed out at the beginning, the newspaper coverage is only a part of the volume of content created. All of those who’ve contributed to the firehose of comment need to reflect on their part in it.

The victim in all of this is unquestionably Arday. There may have been questions that he needed to answer about his life and work. But the penalty he paid for being caught at the heart of this firestorm was out of all proportion to any offence he may have committed.

Prince Harry has contacted the Home Secretary and appealed for an answer on whether he is getting security for his family which could cost the taxpayer at least £5million a year.

The Duke of Sussex, who in a shock move is coming back to the UK with his family within weeks, has reportedly ‘privately pleaded’ with Shabana Mahmood for a decision on whether his security will be provided and funded.

A review of his security which he controversially insists must be funded by the taxpayer even though he is a non-working Royal, was apparently carried out on the orders of the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (Ravec) at the end of July by its risk management board (RMB).

However, the board was apparently not informed that Harry was planning a permanent move back to the UK when it considered its decision.

Original estimates of £5million plus for armed police protection for the family when they were in the UK could therefore skyrocket if the Home Office agrees to fund his security and he remains in the UK with his family permanently.

The review followed a lengthy tussle over whether he was eligible as a non-working member of the Royal Family for taxpayer funded support following his failed legal battle against the government last year.

At the time, the Court of Appeal declared that a grievance did not equate to a valid legal argument.

After he lost the case, he blamed an ‘establishment stitch up’, but continued to battle for a fresh RMB, even writing to the Home Secretary.

Harry, who is said to feel ‘numbed’ by his struggle to have the security provided for his family, has been told the review is now completed but he has not been given the result despite pushing for it, according to today’s Telegraph.

Harry has reportedly appealed to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood (pictured) for an answer on whether he is getting security for his family in the UK 

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He has now gone direct to the Home Secretary again, this time to ‘plead for answers’, they report.

The matter has become more urgent as Harry has now announced his family’s sudden return to the UK despite previously having declared the UK was not a place he would currently bring them to because it was not safe for him to do so.

The possibility of the Duchess of Sussex landing a plum acting job in Netflix’s The Gentleman is thought to be a key motivator for the surprising volte face.

Harry has repeatedly argued that the taxpayer should fund the cost for his family’s security as they are potentially high profile targets and he is said to believe it is just a drop in the ocean of Ravec’s overall budget for royalty protection.

Meanwhile fellow non-working royals, such as his cousins, Peter Phillips, Zara Tindall and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie do not receive police protection.

Ravec, which makes the decisions on royal security, includes representatives from the Royal Household, the Metropolitan Police, the Home Office, the Cabinet Office and the Foreign Office.

It previously decided what, if any, protection the Duke should have on each visit to the UK.

Relations between Harry and some members of the committee including Sir Clive Alderton, the King’s private secretary, who Harry apparently nicknamed ‘the Wasp’, have previously been strained.

When Harry’s last full risk assessment was conducted in April 2019, he was deemed to be such a target that he was put in the highest category – level seven out of seven.

He won his right to a full risk assessment late last year which was scheduled for March but was delayed until the summer after all RMBs were ‘paused’.

When it was finally convened, it apparently considered a 40-page risk assessment compiled by the Duke’s private security company at the request of the Home Office among the documents it looked at.

The report warned that terrorists could create a ‘mass casualty event’ if they targeted the Duke in a ‘violent attack’ at a public event.

Prince Harry has previously faced a number of serious threats against him with several people jailed for either plotting to kill him or encouraging attacks on him.

Among the highlights from the last month, To Kill a Mockingbird at Wyndham’s Theatre (ends 12 September) gets my strong recommendation. The Oresteia (ends 19 September), backed by its 5-star reviews? I wouldn’t go so far myself. I did enjoy seeing some more impressive staging from Simon Stone, following his stunning previous production at the Bridge Theatre, The Lady from the Sea, last year. However, the volume levels of the dialogue were exhausting from the start, never mind after three and a half hours. Sitting behind me, I didn’t see whether Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver (*clunking celeb spot*) stuck it out till the end of the night.

Heart FM DJ Toby Anstis has recalled his most iconic and bizarre celebrity encounters during his 25 years on air. 

The Broom Cupboard host, 55, landed a radio show in 2001, and in a chat with the Daily Mail, he recalled: ‘My agent had been asking them for a while, but they kept pushing back saying ‘Toby’s too much of a TV person!’

‘It was always my dream to be a DJ on the radio, not to be on TV, and 25 years on, I still love it more than ever! 

‘I still have the same passion and still pinch myself that I get to do this for a living. From being a London and Birmingham only station, to the UK’s biggest radio brand with 12.8 million listeners, it’s a thrill to be part of Heart.

‘After 17 years on mid mornings, and we got it up to a record 4.3 million listeners, I was asked if I wanted to launch Heart Dance in 2019. I’m a total dance head, so it was a no brainer. 

‘To launch a new national radio station and do the Breakfast Show was and still is a privilege. 

‘That and Club Classics on a Friday night on Heart, getting out DJ’ing all over the UK and in Ibiza this summer at the world famous Cafe Mambo, these are the things you dream about doing and I’m eternally grateful.’

During his quarter of a century on the airwaves, Toby has also had the chance to interview some of the world’s biggest stars. Now he tells the Daily Mail his top 10.  

‘Emma Bunton is my favourite Spice Girl. In all the years I’ve known her and worked with her, she’s never changed. Still the loveliest and kindest and coolest music star!’

Emma Bunton 

‘I’d say my favourite Spice Girl. In all the years I’ve known her and worked with her, she’s never changed. Still the loveliest and kindest and coolest music star! 

‘Soon after I’d started working at Heart they offered me a Saturday morning show, and asked Emma if she’d like to co-host with me for a few weeks. 

‘I can think of worse ways to spend a Saturday morning!

‘My mum had always said, ‘You need find someone like Emma Bunton, she comes across as such a lovely person.’ Thanks mum, no pressure, set the standards high! 

‘She is that girl next door, never a hint of diva! And a big shout to her hubbie Jade, they’re a gorgeous couple!’

Robbie Williams    

‘I’ve Known Robbie Williams for a long time. Not like close pals, we’ve never gone down All Bar One for a pint but we’ve bumped into each other a lot over the years’ 

‘I’ve known Robbie for a long time. Not like close pals, we’ve never gone down All Bar One for a pint but we’ve bumped into each other a lot over the years, starting with Take That’s first TV interview on the O Zone back in the day. 

‘He was always the cheeky classmate, effortlessly funny and charming at the same time. 

‘Then one morning when I was hosting mid mornings on Heart he was in the building at Global, it wasn’t planned that he’d be on the show, but as he walked past the studio window, he saw me, waved and just wandered in as I was doing a live link to the nation!

”Ok, let’s stop that record, Robbie Williams has just rocked up!’ Totally unannounced, came in, sat down and started chatting. We got chatting about relationships! 

‘He was so happy to have met and married Ayda, and I was single at that time. And he was like ‘Tobe, meeting someone special is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Now we need to find you someone.’ 

‘I was then saying, ‘ Rob it’s not about me it’s about you! He said, ‘No Tobe let’s chat about this…!’ After a full on Robbie relationship therapy session, on air, we did finally get to some Robbie music stuff!’ 

Bruno Mars  

‘We did a run of Up Close and Personal live shows with Heart, and Bruno Mars was one of our special guests. ‘He absolutely smashed the gig! I got to chat to him ahead of his performance’

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‘We did a run of Up Close and Personal live shows with Heart, and Bruno Mars was one of our special guests. 

‘He absolutely smashed the gig! I got to chat to him ahead of his performance. Him and his Hooligans had just finished a huge tour the night before but still wanted to do our show. And yes Wet Wipes are on his rider! 

‘I know I’m pretty full of energy but Bruno is a whole other level! Still down to earth, and just loves performing. 

‘Remember that arm wrestling sketch that went viral with Bruno ripping someone’s arm off! Obviously I had to challenge him to a wrestle. I won’t again!’

Lady Gaga 

‘Lady Gaga was wearing a veil over her face so you couldn’t see her very well. Plus she decided to spin round on the studio chair for the entire seven minutes of the interview!’ 

‘This was an interesting one. Gaga came into Global with a huge entourage and not a lot of time to spare. 

‘You often only get six or seven minutes for the whole interview. And believe me they shut the interview down if you go a second over! 

‘So we had that pressure. And also she was wearing a veil over her face so you couldn’t see her very well. Plus she decided to spin round on the studio chair for the entire seven minutes! 

‘So I only really saw her for half the time! But it was a fun three and a half minutes, and she was super cool and friendly. She just wanted to spin that day!’ 

Lionel Richie  

‘How many people does he meet and do selfies with every day of his life? Yet Lionel Ritchie still remembered my name from another interview we’d done for telly a couple of years before’

‘So here’s a guy that’s been there, done it, got the Legends T-shirt at Glastonbury! 

‘How many people does he meet and do selfies with every day of his life? Yet he still remembered my name from another interview we’d done for telly a couple of years before. 

‘He came into the Heart studio with the biggest smile and said: ”Toby! Great to see you!” That felt good! 

‘I’ve always found the real stars who’ve grafted for years and consistently come up with the goods musically, have all the chart and streaming stats to prove it are the nicest ones in the business. 

‘Quite often the ”celebs” who’ve been around for two minutes can be precocious entitled nightmares! 

‘Not Lionel Richie. Charmed us with his stories, and managed to say ”Hello” in 5 different languages! (is it me you’re looking for….)’

Craig David  

‘Craig David came across as very spiritual and present, and in control. Those songs, 7 Days, Fill Me In and Re-Rewind will live on forever!”

‘Rewind to 2015, Craig had been away in Miami for years. There was definitely unfinished business for him in the UK, after the huge success of, Born To Do It.

‘The fanbase had never gone away. He’d kind of left the party in the UK on a high, a bit like Take That had when they spilt and we all saw the appetite their fans had when they made that comeback. 

‘Same for Craig, the affection for him and his songs was clear. But the humility and surprise and excitement in his face was amazing! As humble as they get. 

‘He talked about all that Bo Selecta nonsense, which had hurt him. But not affected the love the UK has for him. 

‘He came across as very spiritual and present, and in control. Those songs, 7 Days, Fill Me In and Re-Rewind will live on forever!’

Carl Cox 

‘I mean as DJ’s go, Carl Cox is right up there! A legend. I’d seen him play at Space in Ibiza where he had the island’s biggest night for over a decade! He is ‘house music’s final boss”

‘I mean as DJ’s go, he’s right up there! A legend. I’d seen him play at Space in Ibiza where he had the island’s biggest night for over a decade! He is ‘house music’s final boss’. 

‘To get to chat to him recently was a joy. He’d grown up in Carshalton (Surrey) and played records for his mum and dad’s parties when he was nine! Now he plays at Ibiza’s biggest club UNIVRS every Sunday night, and is killing it all over again! 

‘He’s just turned 64 but has the youthfulness of a 21 year old. (i think we’re all a bit like that!) He simply loves playing records and making people dance. 

‘He’s got all the swagger, his entrance to a gig in France this summer at Chateau Chantilly went viral. His right shoulder is now more famous than him! 

‘A bit like the original supermodels, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, the likes of Carl, David Guetta and Fatboy Slim are still blazing a trail for everyone else to follow! 

‘Still the main players, the original superstar DJ’s hogging the giant billboards all over Ibiza!’

Fatboy Slim 

‘What a top bloke Fatboy Slim is! Another groundbreaking style-making superstar DJ!’

‘What a top bloke! Another groundbreaking style-making superstar DJ! 

‘We got chatting about his book, It Ain’t Over Til The Fatboy Sings!, Genius! And a brilliant read plus a load of era defining photos and clubbing reference points. 

‘Can’t remember exactly how his former wife Zoe came up, but he mentioned her very fondly. Anyway, I then said I worked with her on Children’s BBC and the O Zone, and that she was half an hour late on her first day when we were live on BBC1. 

‘Fatboy then jumped in and said ‘Oops that would possibly have been my fault. We’d probably been up all night!’ The crazy Nineties!’ 

Take That  

‘I go back a long way with Take That. Smash Hits Parties, Fast Forward covers, almost sinking in a boat off the Isle of Wight, switching on the Oxford Street Christmas lights, we’ve done a lot’

‘We go back a long way! Smash Hits Poll Winners Parties, Fast Forward covers, almost sinking in a boat off the Isle of Wight, switching on the Oxford Street Christmas lights, we’ve done a lot together. 

‘We all got started in the Nineties. Nicky Chapman brought a cassette of It only takes a minute into the Ozone office at the BBC to see if we could give it a slot on the TV show. If it didn’t go Top 20 they were going to be dropped from their label. 

‘We did a short interview, and played a bit of that video in a boxing ring and gym, and it went to number eight I think, definitely top 20, and they stayed at RCA.

‘I last interviewed them for Heart earlier this year. We always hug it out like old friends whenever we see each other. 

‘Gary always says very humbly in his laid back Manchester lilt, ‘Hey Tobe, look at us, we’re still going!’ 

‘Gaz, you’re more than going!! That’s how they’ve always been. Down to earth lads from Manchester, living the dream, still selling out stadiums, and trying to not fall off unicycles! ( if you know you know!)’ 

Kylie Minogue  

‘When I interviewed Kylie  Minogue she answered the door, and said ‘come in!’ First thing she said was, ‘Dannii says hi!’ That put me at ease’

‘I was actually quite nervous about meeting Kylie. I hosted a TV show on BBC1 with her sister Dannii back in the day, Fan TC, and she’s lovely.  Then I’d briefly met Kylie when she came to the set for one of the episodes. 

‘When I interviewed her for Heart at a very cool bougie hotel in Kensington, I was just told to go up to her suite. 

‘She answered the door, and said ‘come in!’ First thing she said was, ‘Dannii says hi!’ That put me at ease. 

‘But she was so genuine and lovely and somehow vulnerable? Just in how she spoke about everything. Without doubt a very savvy business woman, but also incredibly ‘normal.” 

Toby Anstis hosts Heart Dance Breakfast on weekdays from 7AM to 10AM and presents Heart’s Club Classics on Friday from 7PM to 11PM across the Heart network

The Rangers legend has warned that it is cause for concern

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Ally McCoist has admitted that Celtic’s blistering opening to the Premiership campaign ought to concern their rivals.

The Hoops have secured victories in both their league fixtures and progressed comfortably to the Premier Sports Cup quarter-finals, netting ten goals along the way.

They’ve subsequently added another three in their Champions League qualifier playoff against LASK, virtually guaranteeing their spot in the group stage.

Meanwhile, Rangers remain without a league win under Derek McInnes and struggled in their Conference League playoff first leg against Jablonec, though they did sweep aside St Mirren in the League Cup at Ibrox.

The title holders have been splashing the cash following several disappointing transfer windows that left supporters calling for substantial investment, with additional signings expected, reports the Daily Record.

Martin O’Neill has returned to the touchline after receiving hospital treatment for a minor procedure, and McCoist believes his side’s displays will have aided his recovery.

“Celtic have had a great start,” he told talkSPORT Bet slots site.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt the way Celtic have started has helped his recovery, because I thought they were comfortable in the opener. Kasper Hogh looked the real deal against Kilmarnock.

“I watched him down there, a proper centre forward’s goal. Then the signing of Hassan, I don’t mind telling you I was impressed with him in the World Cup, arguably in one of the runs of the tournament which ended up with a disallowed goal if you remember.

“So yes, worrying signs for the rest of the league, no getting away from it.”

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“

Adam was our mutual friend. It’s just not the whole truth.

Courtesy of Nicole Garelick

The study, conducted at RSPB Saltholme on Teesside, was carried out by the Mammal Society as part of its ‘Searching for Shrews’ project, now in its third year.

Ian Bond, a Northumbria Mammal Group volunteer, said: “So far, the Great White-toothed Shrew has not arrived at Saltholme, but what we have learned about other small mammals in the area is perhaps even more interesting.

Owl pellet analysis (Image: Derek Crawley)

“At Saltholme, Barn Owls have been preying on every other species of small mammal that is found in Northeast England, ten different species in total.

“Due to the near demise of Water Voles elsewhere and the patchy distribution of some of the other small mammal species, this is almost certainly the only place in the region where Barn Owls can choose from such a wide menu”.

The reserve is just 12km from the nearest known record of the greater white-toothed shrew, first recorded in the Sunderland area in 2022.

Pygmy shrew (Image: The Mammal Society)

RSPB staff have been collecting pellets every three months since October 2025, and the presence or absence of the invasive shrew is considered important due to its potential impact on native shrew populations.

Barn owls are a valuable tool for this kind of research, as they swallow their prey whole and later regurgitate pellets made of indigestible bones and fur.

These pellets provide a non-invasive way to monitor small mammal populations and identify species living in the area.

Chris Francis (Image: Claire Freeburn)

Chris Francis, senior reserve manager at RSPB Saltholme, said: “These findings demonstrate the habitats we’ve created and continue to manage at RSPB Saltholme are providing homes for a great variety of small mammals, such as Water Voles, Harvest Mice and Water Shrews.

“There’s a good deal more to learn and when it comes to surveying them, nothing beats an Owl to tell us about what’s here. Of all the birds that are seen at Saltholme, nothing excites visitors more than seeing a Barn Owl hunting over the meadows. Beautiful to look at and so well adapted as a hunter.”

Water shrew remains were found in high numbers, with Saltholme accounting for more than a third of all water shrew remains in the North East survey, despite contributing just over a tenth of the total pellets examined.

This highlights the value of the reserve’s managed mix of wetland and grassland habitats.

Barn Owl (Image: Supplied)

The only small mammal species native to the North East not found in the pellets was the greater white-toothed shrew.

Other species more widely found in England but absent from Saltholme include the hazel dormouse, fat dormouse, and yellow-necked mouse.

Saltholme currently supports four pairs of barn owls, with one pair successfully fledging seven chicks this year.

Dissecting owl pellets (Image: Kate Larson)

Mr Bond said: “The Barn Owl is one of Britain’s most recognisable birds, famed for its ghostly silent flight and heart-shaped face. At Saltholme, the pellets they leave behind give us a fascinating picture of the small mammals living on the reserve, while helping us monitor for the arrival of the Greater White-toothed Shrew.”

The Mammal Society’s North East group has examined owl pellets from more than 50 locations across the region as part of the wider project.

The continued absence of the greater white-toothed shrew at Saltholme is seen as significant, given the reserve’s proximity to known populations and its suitability as a monitoring site for the species’ potential spread.