Northern Experience Wildlife Tours

Category: Northumberland

  • Hopes for 2012

    In no particular order of priority, here a few things we’d love to see happening in 2012;

    1) An increase in the English breeding population of Hen Harriers.  One of the most contentious wildlife issues we have – but perhaps 2012 will see, at least, the beginning of the abandonment of entrenched attitudes and finally some positive news for the ‘grey males and ringtails’.

    2) The stunning cetaceans that spend time in our offshore waters being able to go about their business without suffereing unnecessary disturbance.  There are some excellent codes of conduct for cetacean watching and NEWT use these to inform and plan our offshore activities, and to advise the skippers and boat owners who we work with.  Martin will continue to raise issues of cetacean disturbance at meetings of the PAW Marine Wildlife Enforcement Working Group, but hopes that won’t be too often.

    3) The continued excellent promotion of Northumberland as a holiday destination.  Our county really is beautiful and you can ‘get away from it all’ without having to try too hard.  Whatever your interests – birdwatching, wildlife, photography, history and culture are just a few examples where the county excels – you’ll find something that will make you come back again and again.

    4) The recognition by the Government that all 127 recommended Marine Conservation Zones (rMCZ’s) need to be designated in order to achieve a coherent ecological network that will protect our seas for everyone and for the future.

    5) Health, wealth and happiness for our family, friends and clients 🙂

    Happy New Year everyone 🙂

  • It’s good to be back

    After a planned break from days out with clients, and regular exercise and ice-pack treatment for my knee, we had a mini-Safari on Wednesday afternoon.  Southeast Northumberland is our local patch, so I was getting back into the swing of things with something comfortingly familiar.

    I collected Alastair and Zoe from Church Point and we set out on an exploration of the River Wansbeck.  Stunning Red-breasted Mergansers and Goldeneye, and subtly attractive Little Grebes (amazing how many people still think of them as Dabchicks – a far nicer name!),  were diving along the edge of the river.  A handsome drake Goosander flew upstream and the first of the afternoon’s 4 Sparrowhawks drifted high overhead.  A flock of Long-tailed Tits, those noisy endearing pink and white fluffballs, made their way in procession from one side of the river to the other and Mallards began dropping out of the sky and following each other through the vegetation, quacking noisily.  As daylight faded a flock of Teal drifted backwards and forwards between a reedbed and open water, roosting Pheasants (my vote for most underrated bird in Britain) flushed from a Hawthorn hedge as we made our way back to the car in the dark, and it was time to return Zoe and Alastair to Newbiggin.

  • Winter Wonderland 28/11/11-01/12/11

    Last week was our Winter Wonderland birdwatching holiday, although as I arrived at Saughy Rigg I wondered if Windy Wonderland would be a better name for it 😉

    The original itinerary involved the Solway coast on Tuesday and the North Pennines on Wednesday, but a quick discussion with our guests on arrival meant that our coastal day was switched to Northumberland to avoid the poor weather in the west.

    The plan worked well, at least until mid-afternoon when the weather caught up with us and we had a couple of hours of dodging the showers.  The waders and wildfowl that winter here featured throughout the day and Greylag, Pink-footed, Pale-bellied Brent, Barnacle and Eurasian White-fronted Geese were all enjoying the mild weather on the Northumberland coast.  3 splendid drake Goosanders  were blown across Druridge Pools before battling their way back against the wind, and a Roe Deer was grazing in the gap between 2 reed beds.  As so often seems to happen, some of the best wildlife of the day saved its appearance until the light began to fade.  First a Short-eared Owl, with a strikingly white face, quartering backwards and forwards along the margins of a field, then 2 Water Rails, those small, secretive denizens of the reeds, stepped gingerly into view; prodding and poking and squealing like piglets as they vanished back into the gloom.  Then, as flocks of geese descended to roost, a Bittern flew from the reeds and headed south.

    Wednesday brought another breezy morning, and we headed into the hills.  Remarkable numbers of Red Grouse chuckled at us as we watched from the comfort of the car, and 7 Black Grouse were the first of no less than 75 that we found during the day.  The weather closed in all around us and, after a quick check of a lough wher Teal, Wigeon and Lapwing were roosting and Goldeneye were feeding, we finished the day at one of our favourite evening venues.  An unidentified raptor flew low across the heather moorland and out of sight over a ridge, Red Grouse burst from cover before settling again a short distance away and a lone Short-eared Owl battled into a brutal headwind as the evening faded to darkness.

    Winter Wonderland is one (in fact, two) of the holidays on our itinerary for 2012, so give us a call on 01670 827465 for more details or to book your place.

  • Marine Conservation Zones

    Last week I had an interesting day in Peterborough, meeting with Natural England and stakeholders from all of the Marine Conservation Zone Projects.  We were there to discuss the protocols that Natural England will use to assess the recommendations from the regional projects, but it was clear that there is great concern across all sectors about how decisions will be made on the designations.

    In total there are 127 rMCZ’s (recommended Marine Conservation Zones) and it’s certain that not all will be designated initially.  The Wildlife Trusts have a Marine Conservation Zones page on their website, and we’d urge everyone reading our blog to take a look at that page and write to Richard Benyon MP, Parliament Under-Secretary for Natural Environment and Fisheries, to add your voice to the call for all 127 rMCZ’s to be designated so that we have an ecologically-coherent network of MCZ’s.  Only that way will we be conserving the marine environment for future generations, for our fishing industry and for the wildlife that depends on a clean, healthy marine environment.  We’ve linked to this video before, but it really does give an example of the beauty that exists offshore from Northumberland.  It was a great privilege, and a quite moving experience, to take this video.  Lots of our clients enjoyed superb views of White-beaked Dolphins this year, and we want future generations to enjoy these experiences as well.

  • Red Squirrels

    Now, we’ve never made a secret of our love for Red Squirrels; we regularly take clients to see and/or photograph them and we have them as a garden visitor.

    Northumberland's iconic mammal

    Red Squirrel conservation is a bit of a thorny issue though, particularly as control of Grey Squirrel numbers, especially in and around areas where Red Squirrels still have healthy populations, is an important part of it.

    I went last week to a meeting of Northern Red Squirrels (NRS) (I’m currently Chair of one of the NRS member organisations), and there was an excellent presentation from Red Squirrels Northern England (RSNE).  It was refreshing to see a project which is realistic about the size of the task facing it, realistic about what it’s proposed outcomes should be and aware of the issues, and potential pitfalls, that surround all of that.

    It was encouraging to see just how many local ‘Red Squirrel’ groups there are, and good to see that they’re all communicating with one another.  With good lines of communication between NRS and RSNE, the battle to conserve the Red Squirrel population of Northumberland and the other Northern England counties is one that can surely be won.

    Please, please, please…if you have any sightings of either Red or Grey Squirrels in Northumberland, Cumbria, Merseyside, Lancashire, north-west Durham or the Yorkshire Dales, then submit them via the sightings page of the RSNE website.  A good evidence base makes it much more likely that conservation measures can be targeted appropriately and we’ll see a successful outcome to the project.

  • Whalefest (2)

    After spending the weekend exhibiting at Whalefest we were left with more than a few thoughts, ideas, and plans for the future;

    Brighton is a long way from home 🙂  The drive back on Sunday evening was easier than the drive there on Friday afternoon, but didn’t seem that far!

    There are a lot of charities/volunteer-led organisations in the marine sector and NEWT are proud to be involved in research projects and other activities with several of them.  The Northeast Cetacean Project is about to enter an important expansion phase, and will become a major driving force for marine conservation in the North Sea.  It was heartening to hear about all of the research and community engagement stuff that’s either going on or is in the pipeline for the near future as well.  One burning question though, is why was one marine conservation organisation giving away helium-filled balloons?

    There was only one way to follow Whalefest, so Martin spent Tuesday on the PV St Oswald.  Conditions weren’t exactly conducive to cetacean surveying; 5-6′ of swell, plenty of whitecaps, and misty drizzle, made it more of a physical challenge than usual, so it became more of a ‘pleasure’ cruise 😉  There were a couple of avian highlights, though.  A small group of Little Auks flew by and the tricoloured upperparts of a juvenile Sabine’s Gull shone out in the gloom as it passed close by the bow.

    It’s good to be home 🙂

  • Autumn colours

    Yesterday was a twice-postponed bespoke photography trip to look at the techniques involved in capturing autumn colours at their finest.  I collected Norman from his home in Throckley and we headed towards the Northumberland coast.

    Landscape photography tuition is something I really enjoy delivering.  Just a few simple camera settings can make a huge difference, although not as big a difference as some nice light…

    Autumn colour is a transient, and unpredictable, thing but we managed to get lots of trees in oranges, reds and yellows for Norman to try out a range of new techniques.  At our first site, we enjoyed views of a Red Squirrel, and a young Common Buzzard, as we searched for the best viewpoint along the river, and for a brief spell there was enough sunlight to lift the colours from pastel shades of the riverbank.  As we neared the finish of our day, at Howick Gardens, a thick blanket of cloud cover put paid to thoughts of a glorious sunset.  Redwings called as they passed overhead on their way to roost, and we headed off ourselves as daylight faded.

  • Magic moments

    They happen all the time when we’re out with clients; unexpected, breathtaking, spectacular.  All part of that ‘every day is different’ thing that comes with being a wildlife guide 🙂

    On Saturday, at the end of a day of good autumn birdwatching around Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland, I was privileged to share an extraordinary moment with Richard, Hazel and Ruth.

    It started with the familiar call of distant Pink-footed Geese.  The weather had begun to deteriorate, dark clouds covering much of the sky, and heavy rain falling, but with the sun still managing to burst through in places.  Then it all came together; birds, weather, light, as skein after skein of geese headed north to roost, framed by a double rainbow 🙂

  • Whalefest

    For some reason, everyone we know laughs when we tell them the name of the event where we’ll be on the first weekend in November…

    Whalefest is the first event of it’s kind in Europe; sort of a British Birdwatching Fair for cetacean watchers 😉  We’ll be there, promoting our pelagic trips and holidays and selling our new range of postcards, greetings cards, notelets and limited edition prints.  If you’re visiting Whalefest then please come along and say hello 🙂  We’re really looking forward to this; an opportunity to spread the word about how good Northumberland is and meet other operators, researchers and charities.  We’ve got a few exciting new projects that we’ll be discussing in meetings during Whalefest so watch this space…

    We’ve just added our 2012 dates to the calendar, including an expanded set of pelagic trips.  After excellent sightings of White-beaked Dolphins in 2010 and 2011, we’re looking forward to 2012 already.

  • Bittern by the birdwatching bug

    Clients often comment that what really appeals to them about birdwatching is that every day is different and there’s always something new to learn. I couldn’t agree more; I have lots of days out with clients, and a lot of time in the field on ‘non-client’ days, and still feel enthusiastic every morning when I wake up, knowing that I don’t know what the day will bring.

    Thursday was Peter and Alison’s second day out with us, and this time we were birdwatching around Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland.

    The weather forecast had shown the edge of the rain staying south of Newcastle all day, so that should have been alright…

    As it turned out, we had rain for a good chunk of the day, but the birdwatching was still excellent.  From Black-headed Gulls, and a lesson on moult and ageing, Mediterranean Gulls scavenging in the Church Point car park, 4 Short-eared Owls and a Hen Harrier quartering the ash lagoon bank, a Sparrowhawk hunting as a group of Starlings came swirling in to roost, a tiny Goldcrest flitting about in a windswept Willow, a skittish Water Rail apparently struggling to summon the courage to run across the gap between reedbeds, a thousand Pink-footed Geese flying in at dusk, 300 Barnacle Geese taking to the air together, all the way to the finale of the trip as a Bittern flew between the north and south pools at East Chevington as dark descended, it was another day of outstanding experiences.

    And tomorrow…is another day 🙂