A TRIBUTE has been unveiled in memory of a birdwatching pioneer.

Phil Stead, the first chairman of Teesmouth Bird Club, also served on the bird record committees for Durham, Yorkshire and Northumberland.

He died in 2005 aged 74.

Members of his family opened a £24,000 bird hide in his memory at the weekend.

Though Mr Stead’s work as a structural engineer took him to St Albans, Hertfordshire, in the Seventies, he regularly returned to his home town of Middlesbrough to watch birds on the Tees estuary.

Some of his ashes were interred at Great Ayton, North Yorkshire, and some scattered around the estuary.

Judith Bless, the eldest of Mr Stead’s three daughters, said: “All my dad’s most interesting and enjoyable birdwatching was done on the Teesmouth estuary and the surrounding area.”

She and four of Mr Stead’s grandchildren opened the hide, near Seal Sands, Billingham.

By Chris Brayshay newsdesk@nne.co.uk Her mother, Anne, agreed to perform the opening ceremony earlier this year, but died shortly before the event.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds allowed the hide – commissioned by the Teesmouth Bird Club – to be installed on its reserve at Saltholme, which attracts 100,000 visitors a year.

Mr Stead used to travel the world looking for birds, writing books about ornithology and contributing to others.

He was disciplined by the Army in the Fifties for abruptly stopping a convoy of guns in its tracks after seeing a lesser spotted woodpecker.

A friend of his who was severely wounded in the Battle of Monte Cassino, in 1944, described the invasion of Italy as a piece of cake compared with Mr Stead’s driving when dashing by car to see a rare bird in some corner of the UK.

Ted Parker, a former chairman of the Teesmouth Bird Club, said: “It has been a long haul to get the hide installed, with quite a few hurdles to get over, including both planning and funding issues. We promised Anne’s family Phil would be remembered.”

Most of the funding came from the Impetus Environmental Trust, with contributions from the bird club and friends of Mr Stead.