Hunters and hunted; Druridge Bay mini-safari 07/05/2014

So many of our experiences with clients revolve around the day-to-day life and/or death activites of the wildlife that we watch.

I collected Philip and Wendy from Amble and we headed south along Druridge Bay.  Two birds in particular had us all transfixed during the evening.  First was a Grey Heron, elegant, statuesque, patient and focused, it stalked steadily along the edge of the pond, frequently pausing, contorting its neck and body into apparently unfeasible orientations before making a lightning-fast stab into the murky water, emerging more often than not with a small fish as reward.  We can only imagine how many little fish it must take to provide the nutritional requirements for such a large bird.  As the waders and wildfowl settled to roost, it was the turn of another old favourite to take centre stage.  Quartering over reedbeds and rough grassland, the Barn Owl seemed to glow in the darkening gloom.  Back and forth, perching on fence posts, returning to the nest with a hapless rodent before resuming the relentless hunt, ghostly pale as it hovered like an avenging angel over the increasingly featureless (to our eyes, at least…) landscape, it vanished behind bushes and dunes before reappearing well away from where it had gone out of sight.  Eventually our diurnal eyes were beaten by the heavy cloak of dusk and we headed back 🙂