Author: martin

With the day starting grey and wet I decided to spend some time browsing the internet for stories with a wildlife-related theme. The story that seems to have generated the most interest and discussion in recent days is the departure of Bill Oddie from Springwatch to ‘take a breather” and “recharge my batteries” in the words of the man himself.

Love him or loathe him (and the same could probably be said for Springwatch/Autumnwatch as well) he’s done an awful lot to promote wildlife/birdwatching to a wider audience. He may be gruff and dour but he’s a vastly experienced birdwatcher and I for one will be watching with interest to see who the BBC replace him with. The success of the programme was really emphasised back in October when we were on a Seal Safari and the two 10-year olds on the trip knew the ‘names’ of all the animals featured in the last 2-3 years…and the names of the cameramen as well! Breaking the disconnect between man and nature is the way to ensure we take good care of our planet so that future generations can enjoy what we have now.

…means another excellent Safari Day with Northern Experience! Well, it certainly didn’t herald the imminent arrival of bad weather. At dawn this morning the sky was a deep orange/red but I wasn’t worried; after all, we always make the best of whatever the elements have to offer. I collected Linda and Penny from Morpeth and we started the day with a walk along the River Blyth. A pair of Goosanders allowed us a prolonged look; a real ‘oooh’ moment if you’ve never seen one before. As we scanned the trees for a Nuthatch that was calling ahead of us, Linda spotted a Red Squirrel creeping through the ivy on a nearby tree. Eventually it sprang away through the canopy and we continued our walk. Two more squirrels appeared and one was quite content to sit and eat while we watched it. Nuthatch, Treecreeper and two Great Spotted Woodpeckers were all magnificent in the dappled light under the trees.

Out to the coast and a windblown search for Mediterranean Gulls at Newbiggin. Awkward to find amongst the blowing sand on the beach, but very obvious once the gull flock was in the air above us, two or three birds could be found amongst the masses of Blak-headed Gulls. Heading north we stopped and ate lunch overlooking the North Sea, which had some frightening-looking surf. Visiting the coastal pools up through the bay, we’d just identified Wigeon, Teal, Scaup, Goldeneye and Pintail in a flock of resting ducks when everything scattered and a male Peregrine carved his way through the panicking birds. A very flighty flock of Twite were giving us the runaround when they found themselves on the receiving end of an unwelcome (not by us, of course) visit from a Merlin. A mixed flock of Mute and Whooper Swans were studied at leisure before we headed to where I thought they would come to roost at dusk. Hundreds, if not thousands, of gulls were also settling to roost for the night and several ducks allowed the testing of the ID features discussed earlier in the day. The Moon and Venus both appeared through the breaks in the darkening clouds (was this the ‘red sky…’ premonition coming to pass?) and, through a 60x eyepiece on the ‘scope, were as stunning as always. Then the atmospheric calls of the Whooper Swans cut through the gloom and they began descending onto the pools. As we scanned through them a darker bird flapped laboriously against the wind, rising above the skyline and then falling again. Binoculars raised…and there was a Bittern! That skulking, camouflaged winter visitor that can be so difficult to see was flying along in front of us. Linda and Penny both managed to train binoculars on iit before it vanished in to the night. Speechless…actually, I wasn’t. I was just about as excited as anyone can be about anything.

Our Lindisfarne Safari yesterday started with very promising weather; arriving at our Church Point rendezvous the cloud was starting to break and this was combined with spectacular waves rolling into Newbiggin Bay and crashing against the breakwaters. As we travelled up the coast things started to look bleaker – a flat, dull, overcast layer of cloud settled in and, by the time we reached the Holy Island causeway, the first drops of rain started to fall. We had found a large flock of birds along a hedgerow on the way; 50 or 60 Tree Sparrows and a good handful of Yellowhammers and Reed Buntings. If there’s anyone left who still thinks that the birds we have in Britain are dull then they should have been with us yesterday and seen a Tree Sparrow sitting alongside males of the other two species.

Scanning the mudflats at the causeway there was an obvious lack of birds. Curlew, Redshank and Bar-tailed Godwit did eventually wander by but it was clear that local knowledge was really going to come into play if we were to find the flocks of waders and wildfowl that the Lindisfarne NNR is famous for. Second location and a few more birds…then, third time lucky as 100’s and 100’s of Knot probed their way across the mud in front of us, godwits, plovers, Dunlin and hordes of Wigeon and Pale-bellied brent Goose were soon spotted and we all mused on just how hard life must be for these birds.

It was time to have a look at that crashing sea and, after adding Purple Sandpiper and Sanderling to the day list, we enjoyed excellent views of Common and Velvet Scoter, Long-tailed Duck, Eider and Slavonian Grebe.

The day had one last surprise for us as well; a Barn Owl that flew across in front of the Landrover in Lesbury village before weaving its way up somebody’s driveway and between the houses. Syd was almost speechless as he hadn’t seen one in the wild for nearly 20 years. There really couldn’t have been a better ending to the day.

It’s been a busy few days in the office for yours truly; our revamped newsletter goes out early next week, enquiries and bookings are picking up as the post-Christmas slump diminishes and I’ve been finalising the details for some exciting new products and services like our stunning North Pennines Wildlife Spectacular weekend. This is the first time we’ve announced this so I’m really excited by the prospect of taking calls about it and enthusing about the North Pennines in May. We’re very close to completing the details for an equally exciting ‘Whales, Waders and Wildfowl’ weekend based in Seahouses in September and what promises to be a breathtaking landscape and wildlife photography weekend in the North Pennines in late October.

When I have been out and about so far this week the weather has been quite gloomy. I usually carry some (way too much – Sarah) camera kit wherever I go but it’s stayed in the case this week. Then, as I was driving to Rothbury for a meeting with the northern area manager for the Northumberland National Park Authority yesterday afternoon (yes, the private and public sector can work well together), the thick fog (where did that come from?) suddenly lifted for a distance of just a few miles and the impressionistic white and pink fluffy sky was a landscape photographers dream…and the realisation that I’d left my camera gear in the house was a nightmare 🙁 Lesson learned.

We were just on our way to the coast yesterday morning when Jason Thompson from Sound Ideas ‘phoned to say that there was ‘a dolphin or porpoise’ washed up on the beach at Newbiggin. As we were just driving past Ashington, we joined Jason on the beach within 5 minutes and were able to identify the animal as a Harbour Porpoise; recently deceased, 1.5m long and with no obvious sign of a cause of death. We took the requisite measurements and photographs and, shortly after leaving, ‘phoned a couple of other people who we knew would be interested in the stranding. When they arrived soon after, the carcass had already been removed, with just a tractor trail in the sand to show where it had been. Perhaps the council were concerned about public safety with it being a nice, sunny Saturday morning? Who knows? The one thing that is certain is that it was removed a lot quicker than last year’s Minke Whale at Cresswell. Something we should all be grateful for 😉

Although this is the commonest cetacean recorded in Northumberland waters, you never really get a good look at one; when they break the surface the impression is of a tiny triangular dorsal fin mounted on a wheel that remains submerged as it rolls along. They’re not keen on boats so pelagic trips usually only manage a fleeting glance. However, I did once lead a school trip to Mull and see (and hear!) them just behind the boat we were on so there’s always an exception to the rule. You just can’t be sure where wildlife is concerned. I’ll blog about our solo Long-tailed Tit sometime soon…

Thursday’s Druridge Safari was treated to much better weather than originally forecast. It was still very cold though so, when Friday’s forecast said it would be ‘noticeably colder’, I wasn’t convinced. First collection was from Church Point, where it was fairly overcast and not that cold. Then up to Amble, still not too cold, before making our way slowly back down through Druridge Bay. First stop was to check through a herd of swans in a roadside field. Everyone could pick out both adult and juvenile Mute and Whooper Swans from among the herd and we headed to Druridge Pools where Teal, Mallard and Wigeon were all very vocal and Goldeneye, Tufted Duck and Little Grebe weren’t. Looking across to the distant hills we could see clouds passing over them. As the cloud cleared to the east it was very obvious that it had left a pristine, fresh snowfall. By this time the clouds above us had cleared as well and the temperature had dropped considerably. Spotting a flock of finches flying across the road ahead of us I stopped so we could take a close look at the birds and check through for anything unusual. Mainly Linnets and Chaffinches, they fed close to the road, quite unconcerned by our presence. Then, there was a real gem; a male Brambling in amongst the flock. Eventually it settled on the barbed wire fence close to us so everyone enjoyed binocular-filling views. Flocks of Lapwing, Golden Plover, Oystercatcher, Redshank and Knot circled overhead, spooked by an unseen (by us, anyway) threat and a flock of Pink-footed Geese filled the air over a distant field. The waders picking their way over the rocks as we headed back towards Newbiggin included three or four Purple Sandpipers and there was great excitement amongst the group, seeing this arctic-breeding wader. Back at the Church Point car-park, the flock of Black-headed Gulls surely had to contain a Mediterranean Gull, didn’t it? It did, a stunning adult, sitting on the barrier in the middle of the car-park in the middle of a row of it’s commoner cousins. Fine ID details were studied before the birds took off and the Med really stood out with it’s ghostly white wings and it’s subtle, but obviously, different shape and flight. Seven days until our next Druridge Safari, but in the meantime I’ll be back there trying to get a prize-winning shot of that Brambling. We just need some snow to add to the ‘feel’ of the shot.

Today started with a mini-safari. Meeting at Church Point, the finer points of Black-headed and Mediterranean Gull identification were given a thorough going over as the flock of Med Gulls is still present on the beach. Up the coast and checking the pools, displaying Goldeneye were stunning, Herons were sitting around looking grumpy and a call from Sarah, who was surveying waders elsewhere in Druridge Bay, alerted us to a Barn Owl that was hunting in bright sunshine at lunchtime. As the tide fell we headed back down the coast, stopping to check the waders as they dodged the dog-walkers and settled on the rocks as they became exposed. Curlew, Redshank, Oystercatcher, Turnstone and Ringed Plover were all expected but three Purple Sandpipers were a real bonus. I still couldn’t convince Joanne that they are actually purple though…

After lunch we set out on a mission…to find the roost site for the Jackdaws and Rooks that we’ve been seeing on their evening flight-lines for a few months now. After mapping the directions of the groups of corvids, the roost site was predicted to be…exactly where we found it this afternoon! We also found the pre-roost site, a field where the birds gather in complete silence before flying into the main roost. As we drove around the opposite side of the wood we found another pre-roost gathering. So there’s another mystery to solve…why two separate pre-roosts? Are there two separate roosts in the same wood? Are there even more pre-roosts in the same area? Have we found a ‘super-roost’ of multiple roosts? As the sky suddenly darkened and the rain began to fall we abandoned our observations and drove home, planning our strategy for studying corvid roost behaviour further.

…well, I’m not sure really” We get a lot of ‘phone calls and e-mails that start like that.

“What Turkey-sized birds could be wandering about in Harwood Forest?” (We checked that report out with a visit to Harwood – remarkably the birds in question were, in fact, Turkeys).

Then we were sent a photograph of a Black Panther sitting in a tree, paw dangling down, looking for all the world like it was waiting for an unsuspecting rambler. (That was a stuffed toy, but posed very realistically).

“What’s this bird?” – nearly always a Chaffinch (they may be incredibly common, but if you’ve never seen one before then the psychedelic colours of a male are a bit of a shock).

“What’s this moth?” – these are usually something bright and eyecatching like Cinnabar or Burnet, but with 1000’s of species in Britain anything is possible.

“I’ve just heard a flock of geese flying over my house” (This call was a valuable one in our ongoing efforts to determine the roost sites of wintering geese in southeast Northumberland).

I love these calls. Each and every one of them means that someone has had an encounter with wildlife that has stimulated a desire to know more, leading to discussions about what it is, why it’s there, what it’s doing. When I left my career in chemistry and teaching in order to set up Northern Experience Wildlife Tours I thought I had a rough idea of how the rest of my life would pan out. I never realised the scale of the enjoyment that it would bring me though. Spending the rest of it talking about wildlife with journalists, clients, public sector bodies or people who just want to know what the ‘strange bird in my garden’ is really was a career move I will never regret. In fact, that was one of the comments that led to the existence of NEWT “Don’t regret the things you have done, but one day you may regret the things you didn’t”.