Murmurings; Otter mini-Safari 29/10/20
by martin on 30/10/20 12:10, under Uncategorized
Other than a few nights at the Battlesteads Observatory, I’ve had a month at home with my feet up recovering from an operation in late September to fix an old foot injury. Even the drizzly, murky weather didn’t curb my enthusiasm for getting back out with clients so I met Maria ahead of a few hours searching for Otters…
Teal, Gadwall, Shelduck, Mallard, Wigeon, Tufted Duck and Red-breasted Merganser were all constantly stirred by Marsh Harriers drifting over the pool, Lapwing and Curlew flew by and then the Starlings started arriving. Here’s Maria’s video π
NEWT’s North Sea Pelagic 22/09/2020
by martin on 09/10/20 11:26, under Uncategorized
Our pelagic season ended with a 10hr Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic, and the sea demonstrated what a fickle mistress she is. The previous afternoon we’d had White-beaked Dolphins and good conditions offshore…and now the sea was ominous and brooding as a stiff southwesterly started to pick up and we were treated to a sea that was majestic and choppy…





NEWT’s North Sea Pelagics 21/09/2020
by martin on 09/10/20 11:20, under North Sea
Our final 4hr daytime pelagics for 2020 were very contrasting. Our morning sailing was a great few hours offshore but didn’t produce any cetacean sightings so in the hour between sailings, I suggested to Allan that we should just head straight out in the afternoon…and just at the point where we were about to turn and head back to shore, there were the White-beaked Dolphins π





Joyriders; NEWT’s North Sea Pelagic 02/09/2020
by martin on 04/09/20 10:11, under North Sea, White-beaked Dolphin
Wednesday’s 10hr Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic sailed with the intention of heading out to the furthest reaches of the Farne Deeps but just over 2hrs in, Mark and Martin looked at the weather and decided that it wouldn’t be safe to head as far offshore as planned. Checking the forecast for the rest of the day, and the bathymetric chart, a new course was set…and there were the White-beaked dolphins π 52 minutes of mayhem later they departed as suddenly and mysteriously as they’d arrived, leaving behind a boat filled with grinning clients and memory cards filled with images and video π















Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic 15/08/2020
by martin on 20/08/20 14:57, under MInke Whale, North Sea, White-beaked Dolphin
Saturday was our first 10hr pelagic, after August 5th had weather that wasn’t great. White-beaked Dolphin put in an appearance early in the day, a Minke Whale was well to the ENE of Alnmouth and Harbour Porpoise were regular throughout the day. Amongst mist and rain we had some sublime conditions, extraordinary light and incredibly smooth water…







NEWT’s 4hr North Sea pelagics July/August 2020
by martin on 13/08/20 10:28, under Bottlenose Dolphin, North Sea, White-beaked Dolphin
After a break of a few months we got back up and running in July, starting with our 4hr evening pelagics (and some 4hr daytime pelagics organised due to high demand!)
Here’s a gallery of images covering a few of the trips where we found dolphins. 10 trips in total – 5 found White-beaked Dolphin, 4 found Bottlenose Dolphin π









NEWT Reopening and COVID19 01/07/20
by martin on 01/07/20 14:11, under admin
March 17th, when we suspended all of our tours, seems like such a long time ago! We’ve been overwhelmed with messages of support that have kept us going through those last few difficult months and so many of you have rescheduled tours with us for later this year and some for next year already too, and we’re incredibly grateful for that!
We now hold the ‘We’re Good to Go’ Industry Standard, showing that we are following government and industry COVID19 guidelines. Social distancing in the countryside isn’t an overly challenging task but we’ll also be carrying hand sanitiser for guests to use and all of the binoculars that we have for guests to borrow will be thoroughly cleaned after each tour.
After a careful and thorough assessment of all of our tours, for our first, easily manageable, steps back to running NEWT we’re planning to initially start with pelagic trips (with reduced passenger numbers), mini-Safaris (walking from a pre-arranged meeting point) and one-to-one photography workshops (with a pre-arranged meeting point). Other than pelagic trips all tours will initially be on an exclusive basis.
We’re busy today contacting all of our clients who have trips that had to be postponed or who are booked with us over the next month and then we’ll be taking new bookings before the end of the week π
