Northern Experience Wildlife Tours

Category: Southeast Northumberland

“I really love otters”; Bespoke Otter Safari 10-11/04/2015

Friday and Saturday saw a two day bespoke safari for Fran and Georgia, arranged by their mum back in early December.

I collected the girls from The Swan and we headed towards Druridge Bay. We weren’t too far along the road when Georgia asked if we’d seen any Otters recently. I told them about Thursday’s sightings, and there was an obvious raising of excitement levels in the car…and, with typical wildlife unpredictability, we managed to get right through Friday without an Otter sighting 🙁 Dippers zipping back and forth along the River Blyth were entertaining, a drake Garganey on the Wansbeck was stunning, Little Egrets and Avocets were elegant, but of the sinuous stealthy predator there was no sign. We returned to The Swan and I started revising our plans for Saturday…

Saturday 05:00 and I stumble sleepily to the bathroom. There’s one thing I really don’t want to hear, and that’s a howling gale. This wasn’t looking promising; our plan for the day was a Seal Cruise around the Farne Islands, and then more time searching for Otters, and neither of those would be helped by the hoolie that I could hear whistling through the trees in our garden. We arrived in Seahouses for our sailing on Glad Tidings V, and the sea was looking ever so slightly lumpy. We did manage to sail though, and were rewarded with Cormorant, Shag, Guillemot, Eider, Kittiwake and the two stars of the morning – Puffin and Grey Seal. Back on dry land we resumed the search for Otters, and the wind strengthened so that we could hear an eerie whistling around trees, bridges and us! With a wind chill factor taking temperatures down to bone-chilling, and a hail storm pinging ice off our heads, we were having to suffer for our wildlife…and still no Otters. Sarah was out and about checking other locations and sending regular texts to let me know where she’d checked. Our final backup plan was an 06:00 start on Sunday, but I don’t think anyone was really too keen on that idea.

18:30 and the wind shifted from west to southwest and weakened slightly, the sun came out and I started to feel more optimistic. I had one decision left to make though, and that was which of our two options for sunset to go for…

14/04/2015
More mustelid mania; Otter mini-Safari 09/04/2015

I’d arrived at Church Point, to collect Ian, Rosie, Ali, Vicky, Suzie and Aravind, and then had a voicemail on my mobile. One of their cars had a problem, so they’d taken it to CarBar. A quick change of plan and I collected them from Morpeth instead, and we headed towards the southeast Northumberland coast in search of Otters. Goldeneye were displaying, Redshank and Curlew were probing the gooey mud and a Little Egret caught a fish and then dropped it and just stared at the water without refinding it’s prey. Rosie had just asked where Otters were most likely to be seen on the stretch of water we were looking at, I turned to indicate the general area that I thought would be most productive…and there was an Otter 🙂 We watched it for a few minutes as it fed, and I was fairly sure it was one of the young female Otters we’d watched regularly since December.

Each time the Otter dived we could follow it’s movements by the trail of bubbles on the water’s surface but it soon vanished from view, as they often do, and everyone’s attention remained focused on the water. Then another Otter popped up. This one was a bit of surprise though; a very small cub that isn’t any of the four animals we’ve been watching over the last few months. It surfaced like a spyhopping dolphin before sliding back beneath the waves then an adult surfaced just beyond the cub, and we’d seen three different Otters 🙂 Rosie then spotted another mustelid, and the Weasel engaged in a game of peek-a-boo from a stone wall before running along the bank.

Sometimes, when the day seems to be going wrong…

10/04/2015
Weather 1, Newt 1, NEWT 0; Otter Safari 06/04/2015

I’ve long held the belief that the worst weather conditions for wildlife watching are strong cold winds. There is something worse though, although so unusual that we rarely have to worry about it…

I was out early yesterday morning, in what seemed to be ideal conditions. From the coast I could see what looked like low cloud massing on the eastern horizon though. By the time I was driving towards Alnwick to collect Jonathan and Katherine, that low cloud had arrived on the coast, and proved to be an incredibly dense sea fret. A Common Newt, in a state of torpor, had presumably been part way across the footpath when the fret, and it’s bone-chilling temperatures, arrived. We moved the newt out of harm’s way and began our search for Otters. Canada Geese, Greylag Geese, Mute Swans, Mallards and Tufted Duck were all splashing and alarming. There could have been a rampaging pack of Otters terrorising the waterfowl, but as visibility was less than 50m we couldn’t be sure what was causing all of the consternation 😉 A Little Egret shone briefly in the gloom before being enveloped by the next wave of cloud rolling in off the sea and, as we checked all of our regular sites visibility decreased, then improved briefly, then decreased again. A few miles inland it was glorious, but every coastal waterbody was under a thick cloud so, after lunch, we decided to cut the trip down to a mini-safari.

It was atmospheric…

07/04/2015
Mustelid mania; 05/04/2015

Arriving in Newbiggin to collect Susan, Dan, Chris and Helen, the first thing that struck me was just how warm it was. Blue skies, bright sunshine, only a slight breeze – almost an early summer day 🙂

We began our search of Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland with those habitual Otter impersonators, Cormorant and Goldeneye, grabbing our attention. Then Little Egret, Redshank and Mallard all moved away from where I think our regular Otters have their holt, although there was no sign of the elusive predator. A Stoat, all bounding energy, chased, but missed catching, a Rabbit and a pair of Marsh Harriers drifted over coastal reedbeds with a third bird nearby as Cormorants and Curlew lazed in the sunshine and Red-breasted Mergansers delivered their comical courtship display.

Finally, distantly, as the sun slipped towards the horizon a sleek, sinuous shape crossed the river before inspecting a bankside log and vanishing into a tangle of brambles 🙂

07/04/2015
Life, the universe and everything; Otter Safari 04/04/2015

As I arrived at The Swan to collect Alan, Sarah and Sam it was looking like a glorious spring day. The plan for the day was to search all of our regular Otter sites around Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland. Chiffchaff, Chaffinch and Robin were all singing, Little Egret were stalking through the shallows (almost a permanent feature of our coastal trips now), Cormorant and Goldeneye caused momentary panic as they slipped beneath the water’s surface, Stonechats tail-flicked atop coastal bushes and Meadow Pipits were song-flighting. Towards the end of the day we came across a species that is always attention-grabbing, as a Kingfisher flew downstream towards us before crossing the river and perching in a low bush, sitting obligingly as we trained our ‘scopes on it.

As we travelled between sites, Sam’s unquenchable thirst for knowledge generated a keenly contested quiz. Not on wildlife though, this was a quiz on the solar system and astronomy! Now, I thought my knowledge of the universe was good, but thanks to an enthusiastic 7 year old, I finished the day with it expanded 🙂

07/04/2015
Good Friday, great Friday; 03/04/2015

After two unsuccessful searches for Otters in the last week, I decided to spend some time this morning out in the field on my own. Time to track down the elusive predator and get a handle on current activity patterns…

A cold north-easterly and persistent rain maybe aren’t the best of conditions to be sitting around on the edges of rivers and ponds, but putting in the hard hours on my own when the opportunity arises is how we manage to deliver great wildlife experiences for our clients. Wildlife watching may rely to a certain extent on a good deal of luck, but being in the right place at the right time means that the odds are stacked in our favour (as much as they can be when wildlife is involved!).

A lone Chiffchaff was optimistically delivering it’s song from the shelter of a small bush, Little Egret, Cormorant, Goldeneye and Red-breasted Merganser were all making a dent in the local fish population, Grey Herons somehow managed to look even more miserable than usual, Sand Martins were probably wondering why they’d arrived back in Northumberland already and then the discomfort of sitting in the rain paid off. First a Kingfisher flew along the water’s edge; bright orange and electric blue shining through the gloom. As I watched it’s progress through the drizzle, three Goldeneye crossed my field of view, all apparently in a hurry to be somewhere else – and that ‘somewhere else’ proved to be anywhere that the two Otters weren’t 🙂

03/04/2015
Wind tunnel testing; Otter Safari 02/03/2015

Wild and windy conditions invariably lead to fewer wildlife sightings, and it’s easy to understand why getting your head down and avoiding suffering the effects of the wind as far as possible is a good idea…

I collected Colin, Carol, Jessica, Alex and Tom (and Kelsey and Winnie) from Lowick and we headed down the coast towards Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland for a day searching for Otters. The pressure of having a particular target species is one thing…but the pressure of having a client who works with your father-in-law is something else altogether 🙂 Cormorant, Grey Heron, Goldeneye, Little Grebe, Tufted Duck and Mallard were all battling against the wind, which had whipped up the surface of the rivers and pools into a frothy white mess. Site A didn’t produce an Otter, Site B didn’t produce an Otter…so on to Site C, and yet more white water. A noticeable movement of Tufted Duck, Mallard and Canada Goose away from one side of the pond heralded the arrival of the star of the show and we watched an Otter for nearly an hour as it twisted, turned and dived. Each time it surfaced we could see that it was chomping on some small prey item, but then it surfaced with a big Eel which it slowly dragged towards the edge of the pond before disappearing into the reeds. A few minutes later it was back out and hunting, travelling quickly along one side of the pond before again vanishing from sight.

Winnie (possibly the tiniest dog I’ve ever seen) provided some insight into the absence of wildlife in windy conditions, as she kept laying down facing directly into the wind. I’m sure if she could have, she would have crept off into a nearby reedbed to get even more shelter 🙂

01/04/2015
Local knowledge; Otter mini-Safari 27/02/2015

When you arrive at a site, and meet somebody coming the other way who gloomily informs you that “there aren’t any Otters about this morning”, there’s a temptation to head off to a different site in the hope of good luck there…

I collected Chris and Christine from Church Point and we set off for a morning searching for Otters around Druridge Bay and south east Northumberland. The gloomy comments from a local photographer made me think twice about our itinerary for the morning, but I decided to stick with my original plan. As we reached the water’s edge the sunlight glinted off something in the far distance, so I lifted my binoculars. Nothing, where a second earlier there had been something…and that was enough to focus my attention. A few seconds of patiently staring at that one spot, and then an Otter surfaced 🙂 Twisting, turning, diving and munching, the sinuous predator entertained us for over 30 minutes. It came closer and closer, and then surfaced with what can only be described as one great big mouthful of fish. Slowly carrying it’s prize to the water’s edge where it would be much more manageable, the Otter vanished from sight against a pile of boulders, no doubt consuming its catch hidden from the prying eyes of other predators.

We’ve been watching this Otter since December, and he’s a fair bit bigger now than he was back then! Here’s an image of him in January.

We can help you search for Otters on mini-Safaris, Safari Days or Prestige Tours so please do give us a call on 01670 827465 to book your trip 🙂

03/03/2015
If at first you don’t succeed; Bespoke Otter Safari 14/02/2015

When we’re searching for Otters, a fair degree of success is down to hard work (checking sites repeatedly, so we know when and where they are), a good bit of it is down to luck (they are wild animals after all, so don’t perform to order…) and those often combine to give a gut-feeling…

I collected Adam and Heather from Newcastle Central Station and we set off towards southeast Northumberland and Druridge Bay for their bespoke Otter Safari. Our first destination was the site that’s our current ‘Plan A’…where there wasn’t any indication of Otter activity 🙁 Along the coast we checked other sites without any luck, although there were lots of Goldeneye, Little Grebe and thousands of Pink-footed Geese. Canada and Greylag Geese, Curlew and Redshank were all making a racket that suggested there was an Otter nearby, but still no sign. In marked contrast to the Arctic blast of a day earlier, we had our lunch on the top of the dunes looking over towards Coquet Island, above a beach covered in Sanderling, Turnstone, Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher, Curlew, Bar-tailed Godwit and Redshank and a lone Grey Plover.

Then we headed back to ‘Plan A’. I was as confident as I could be that, with no Otter activity earlier in the day, at least one would be out and feeding as the afternoon wore on. Sure enough, we were soon watching the lithe sinuous shape twisting and turning in the water as an Otter fed on small fish 🙂 The look on Heather’s face was priceless, and reminded me that as much as I enjoy watching wildlife, I really enjoy seeing our clients enjoying it too 🙂

Here’s an image of the Otter we were watching, taken in mid-January.

Our Otter Safaris take place all year round, from warm summer evenings when we’re still out an about late in the day, through to the depths of winter, so there’ll be a time and date that suits you – just give us a call on 01670 827465 to find out when!

28/02/2015
From the sublime to the gloomy; Bespoke Birdwatching 04/11/2014

The first of two bespoke birdwatching days for Alan and Sandra began when I collected them from Weldon Bridge and we headed across to Druridge Bay and the southeast Northumberland coast.

A ghosty pale Mediterranean Gull was a good start to the morning, Redshank, Turnstone, Oystercatcher and Purple Sandpiper were roosting just above the breaking surf and Eiders were rafting just offshore. Atlantic Salmon heading upstream on the River Coquet provided lunchtime entertainment, then the afternoon brought beautifully sublime light conditions that illuminated Golden Plover and Lapwing as they twisted and turned while Common Snipe slept, fed and bickered with each other in the muddy margins, a Little Egret stalked patiently along the edges of the reeds and a Spotted Redshank stood out like a shining beacon as the sun sank below a thick bank of cloud on the western horizon and it turned cold and gloomy. Starlings came to roost, although with little appetite for a full-blown murmuration, and Pink-footed Geese arrived from surrounding fields, yapping noisily as they dropped from the air towards the water. When it was too dark to see anything and we headed back to the car, the yapping of the late arrivals still cut through the gloom overhead.

13/11/2014