Northern Experience Wildlife Tours

Category: Wildlife

  • An icy grip

    I’m resolute in my belief that the winter is an excellent time to visit Northumberland.  It’s relaxing and quiet (not that it’s ever really anything else), there’s a lot of wildlife (ditto) and we often get stunning weather that showcases our remarkable landscape at it’s best.

    Today was a day when everything came together just the way you hope.  As I drove up the A1 Kestrels, Common Buzzards and Roe Deer were all in roadside fields and Redwings and Fieldfares were hedge-hopping from one side of the road to the other.

    I collected Tracey, Guy and Connor (and Ghillie – their collie dog) just after lunch, from their holiday cottage near Belford, and we headed to Holy Island.  The sea by the ends of the causeway was frozen and a sprinkling of snow covered the dunes.  As we crossed towards the island a Merlin flushed from a roadside post and we stopped to admire the beautiful diffused light that illuminated the mudflats.  Our walk on the island was on ground frozen solid, and covered with ice and snow.  The wind was bitingly cold but Grey Seals, Meadow Pipits, Shags, Curlews, Eiders, Red-breasted Mergansers,  Pale-Bellied Brent Geese and flocks of Teal heading towards the mainland all diverted the attention.  As we headed back to the mainland a handsome male Stonechat played hide-and-seek with us along the edge of the causeway, but persistence paid off and Tracey and Guy managed some good shots.  I love having keen photographers on our safaris – especially ones who really appreciate the quality of light that we enjoy up here – so we made several stops as the changing light produced a series of photo opportunities.  I can only hope that we get similar conditions for our first Beginners Photography workshop in January.  The rising tide and fluffy pink clouds of the late afternoon combined with Bamburgh Castle in the snow to offer more memorable images, while we were watching Oystercatchers, Turnstones, Redshanks and a Ringed Plover on the frozen beach.  The route back was made easier by being in a Landrover, and the steady journey allowed us to pick out Brown Hares in the snow-covered fields – seven in total, standing sentinel-like as we approached.  Once I was back on the ice-free A1 and travelling south it was like a different world  to the one I’d been in for the last few hours.  Environmental escapism at it’s best.

  • Seal of approval

    Saturday was scheduled for our “Seal And Seaduck Special”  (sounds like a really bad curry concocted by the Farnes wardens to see them through the ‘hard times’, is in fact a 4 hour NEWT cruise around the Farne Islands and Holy Island).

    The weather forecast hadn’t been particularly promising (that’s not entirely true – it had been promising…heavy rain and howling southeasterlies) but a ‘phone call to William on Friday raised the possibility that we would be able to run the trip.  As we arrived at Seahouses Harbour we could see Glad Tidings VI approaching with the wardens safely on board and their zodiac towed behind.  We had time to welcome David Steel back onto the mainland and then we all boarded and set out into a noticeable swell. 

    The trip had a really good social event feel to it (as all of our pelagic trips tend to do); all three NEWT guides were on board, one of our clients was on her 5th trip with us (this time bringing two of her friends, for a trip they’ll probably never forget – for all the right reasons) and our friends Tim and Vera from Cottingburn House in Morpeth were among the other passengers.  Once we were across at the islands there were a lot of seals, and many of them were ‘singing’ their mournful song; surely the source of many legends of sea-monsters and mermaids.  1347 pups have been born on the islands this year and most of them have departed or moulted out of their cute baby fur already.  A Peregrine Falcon entertained everyone on board as it perched on the Pele Tower on Inner Farne before being pursued towards the Wideopens by a Herring Gull.  The next leg of our journey took us up to Holy Island and several Red-throated Divers flew by and a Great Northern Diver was on the water near Guile Point.  The weather changed at this point and sunlight illuminated Lindisfarne Castle.  We then began a slow run down the coast in search of seaduck.  Flocks of Common Scoter scattered well ahead of our arrival but Sarah managed to get some good images, showing the typical appearance of a flock of flying scoters;

    Common Scoters (Melanitta nigra)
    Common Scoters (Melanitta nigra)
    Common Scoters (Melanitta nigra)
    Common Scoters (Melanitta nigra)

    We also encountered one of the most beautiful birds that winters off Northumberland – Long-tailed Duck.  Camera shy?  These birds made the scoters look like they were hogging the limelight;

    Long-tailed Duck, the 'Stag Light' and St Aidan's Church
    Long-tailed Duck, the 'Stag Light' and St Aidan's Church

    The increasingly choppy seas were making photography frustrating but Sarah stuck gamely to it.  As she was using my camera, and a lens that she wasn’t familiar with, it was even more challenging than pelagic photography usually is.  As we passed by Bamburgh Castle (as impressive from the sea, if not more so, than it is from land) and then Monk’s House the tide turned the last 10 minutes of the cruise into a real experience.  That’s always the point when somebody on board reveals that they usually feel seasick on the boating lake in their local park…

    Nobody was adversely affected by the swell, everyone saw plenty of seals, and the flocks of seaduck flying around us added up to a real winter pelagic treat.  We couldn’t have asked for more from our final journey into the North Sea for 2009.

  • A harrowing story…

    of suffering and depravation. That’s the ongoing tale of heroics, kelp crisps and seal milk over on the Farne Islands blog. I’ve always been impressed by the majesty of the North Sea, particularly when it’s crashing against the east coast in the early winter. It can’t be much fun for the lads out on the Farnes though, with food supplies almost exhausted and beer just a distant memory…

    I was once asked to list my top 5 birdwatching experiences and the Farne Islands are right near the top of that list. The islands feature regularly on the NEWT itinerary; between April-October we run Seal Safaris, from May-July we include landing trips, and in November and December we have our exclusive ‘Tystie Trek’ and ‘Seal and Seaduck Special’ cruises.

    A seabird colony at the height of the breeding season is a thing of great wonder. One of our trips this year was for a journalist from Coast magazine, who we took across to the islands to give her the experience of our beginners birdwatching courses and we arranged an interview with the Head Warden, David Steel, for her as well. At this time of year the birds (well most of them anyway) may be gone but the seals are there. There can’t be many creatures more resilient…but the Farne islands wardens are giving it a go.

  • Going Wild and Taking Stock

    Yesterday saw me doing a lot of travelling in some pretty dire weather (although thankfully not as awful as the events in Cumbria). First was a long journey up to Perth to attend the Wild Scotland annual conference. Luckily I was able to travel up to the conference with someone who was travelling even further to get there. The presentations on Scottish Wildcats, Deer-watching and a Tourism Survey in Scotland were all very interesting, but personally I thought the best part of the day was when the delegates were separated out into focus groups. Now, this isn’t usually something I would find too thrilling but, with wildlife tourism being a fairly well developed industry in Scotland it was an opportunity to hear the thoughts of the people that are at the sharp-end of it. The networking opportunities presented by attending the conference were a real bonus as well, and our ongoing planning for 2010 has been informed (for the better, we hope!) by some of the discussions I was involved in.

    After Perth we had to negotiate the frustration that is the A720 at rush-hour…

    Eventually, and just in the nick of time, we arrived at The Maltings theatre in Berwick for a presentation by Laurie Campbell, entitled ‘Taking Stock’. It was enthralling to sit and listen to a professional wildlife photographer describing how certain images were obtained…while projected on to the screen were some mouth-watering examples of his art. A very nice glass of red wine during the interval (ok, it was a plastic tumbler but that’s the only way they’ll allow you to take liquids back into the auditorium) was enjoyed while chatting with several friends, mainly wildlife and birdwatching photographers from various areas of Northumberland and the Borders.

    I like days where everything is thought-provoking and inspirational.

  • The future naturalists

    In the late nineties and early noughties, when I was a committee member of the Northumberland & Tyneside Bird Club, the issue of the ‘next generation’ of birdwatchers, and the recruitment of new members, was often discussed. Like many organisations, the average age of the club’s membership was increasing by one every year (which isn’t that surprising; you would need an awful lot of new, young members to affect that particular statistic). Committee attitudes varied from genuinely concerned through not thinking there was an issue to, and I still find this one hard to believe. not wanting new, inexperienced, birdwatchers to join at all.

    We frequently hear wildlife ‘celebrities’ bemoaning the fact that young people aren’t interested in wildlife. Are they right in that assumption? I had chance to consider this last week – August is a busy time for family bookings for NEWT (not surprisingly) and we had an Otter mini-Safari, with a family who had sons aged 12 and 15, and a Druridge Bay mini-Safari, where the family had a 9-year old son and 6-year old and 2 year-old daughters. Both trips were very succesful; Otters performing right in front of us on the first one and a wide range of spiders, wasps, bees, moths, butterflies and damselflies on the second….and all of the children were enthusiastic. On Thursday evening, we helped to lead a Bat Walk in Choppington Woods. The walk was fully booked, with 16 participants, and this was mainly families. Despite having to wait for the first bats to appear, enthusiasm levels stayed high and eventually we had them hunting close to us. Two of the children managed to locate a slight gap in the trees and discovered that this was where the bats were hunting. With a bat detector, and the keen eyesight of the young, they were enthralled for nearly 2 hours. There is a generation of young naturalists out there; we just need to work out how to engage, encourage and support them.

  • As the sun goes down

    Martin had just returned from leading a mini-safari when the ‘phone rang; “can you organise an otter safari for us this evening please?” Flexibility has always been a given for NEWT; a late summer tour of Southwest Northumberland, birdwatching in the depths of the winter, photographing otters, searching for rare orchids, an impromptu whale and dolphin cruise for a top national journalist. If we can make it happen then we will…

    The field full of Greylag Geese were sitting quietly, nibbling away at the grass. Behind them, a Roe Deer was working it’s way slowly along the fence line and three Brown Hares were alternately running across the field and impersonating clods of earth. A few Starlings circled overhead and were soon joined by another small group…and another…and another. Eventually over a thousand were swirling over the reedbeds. The big loose flock suddenly condensed into a tight ball as a Sparrowhawk began pursuing them. A juvenile Marsh Harrier made a brief appearance before dropping into it’s nightime roost site and distant flocks of corvids and Wood Pigeons were sprinkled across the sky like poppy seeds.

    Of our main quarry there was no sign; all of the ducks and swans were paddling around calm and contented, so we moved on to site number two. Another set of panic-free wildfowl…and time for a strategic decision; do we wait and hope, or check a site where yesterday afternoon there was so much agitation, and aversion to one corner of a pool, that there had to be a big predator lurking in the reeds?

    The decision to move sites was made and we settled to watch a flock of waders. Roosting on a mudflat and seemingly unstressed…but then a wave of panic rippled through the flock. Calm restored, but only for a few seconds, before the worried calling started again. Then a flock of Canada Geese arrived for the evening roost. A few minutes of calm settled over the pool and we watched the sunset; vivid slashes of pink, then orange, cut across the sky and visibility was so good that we could see The Cheviot and Hedgehope, many miles away to the northwest. Then it happened, chaos as all of the geese tried to take off; with only a few metres to the edge of the water they didn’t really have a chance and they stumbled onto the mudflat, scattering Lapwings left, right and centre. Surely, there could only be one cause for the panic? And there it was; diving gracefully through the reflection of the sunset, making a beeline for the geese before changing course and heading away into the deepening shadows of the night. Then it was time for us to do the same.

  • Like a millpond

    Today featured two very unusual occurences; a mid-November boat trip and all three of the Northern Experience guides on one trip together.

    Watching the weather forecasts for the last few days meant that we were confident the trip would go ahead; and our confidence wasn’t misplaced. Twelve enthusiastic participants gathered at Seahouses harbour at 10am and we boarded the Glad Tidings VI. Heading across to the Farne Islands, the sea was calm and blue, visibility was excellent for many, many miles around and it was just cold enough to make it a proper pelagic experience. Shags and Eiders were around all of the islands but the main entertainment was provided by the Grey Seals and the many pups that they have produced so far this year; little white bundles of fur, marked with bright orange, yellow or red so that the wardens know if a pup has already been counted in their regular surveys of the breeding colony. A seal falling off a jetty in to the sea had several of our participants laughing so hard it’s a wonder they didn’t join it for an impromptu dip. The photographers on board had frame-filling opportunities to fill the memory cards in their cameras.

    Searching around the Gun Rock and the Megstone failed to produce any sightings of Black Guillemot (a rare winter visitor in Northumberland) but a majestic Great Northern Diver flew close past the bow of the boat as we headed back towards Seahouses. Back on dry land we arranged an otter safari for tomorrow with two of today’s participants and answered a few queries about our next boat trip; an exclusive winter cruise taking in the Farne Islands Grey Seal colony, Holy Island and the seaduck of the Skate Road.

  • And now…

    I’m sitting in my office, catching up on paperwork (well, that’s what I should be doing anyway, what’s actually happening is I’m watching a Red Squirrel in our Ash tree and counting Jays as they fly past) and planning tomorrow’s Druridge Bay Safari.

  • And we’ve also…

    Had several very successful tours with clients. August 11th saw us venturing across to the Farne Islands on one of our Seal Safaris, excellent views of the Grey Seals were had by all, as well as brief views of two adult Puffins flying by and a Puffin chick that had only recently entered the water. The Cheviots were a little damp on August 18th but a break in the rain produced Peregrine, Merlin, Buzzard, no less than six Black Grouse and a Hare. August 19th saw us visiting the Grey Seals on the Farne Islands again before heading up the coast and across onto Holy Island to search for more seals and wading birds, then back down the coast as far as Amble. 20th involved an early start (for some…) and a walk along the Blyth. Heavy overnight rain had left the river as a raging torrent the colour of milky coffee and the highlight of the morning was a Red Squirrel making it’s way through the trees on the opposite bank of the river as Jays screamed at us from their hidden vantage points. Druridge Bay trip later the same day and we were treated to large roosts of Lapwing and Oystercatcher as well as a mystery mammal running across the roof of the hide we were sitting in at Hauxley. By the time we raced outside it had disappeared into the trees…
    August 21st and we were back in Druridge Bay. Highlights were a Common Toad that was walking up the path ahead of us, Noctule Bat flying past (and picked up later on our bat detector) and, due to the incredibly clear sky, excellent views of Jupiter and it’s moons through the telescope – leading to an impromptu astronomy extension to our evening.

  • The Red Squirrels Last Stand?

    Northumberland is fortunate as an English county to still have a healthy population of Red Squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris). I can look out of my office window and see them chasing each other around the trees in Choppington Woods, but for how much longer?

    The decline of the Red Squirrel in England has been well documented here but it still clings on in Cumbria and Northumberland.

    I’ve heard the opinion voiced recently, by a naturalist for whom I have a great deal of respect, that it’s a waste of resources to try and protect the Red Squirrel from the inexorable expansion of the population of Grey Squirrels.

    However, steps are being taken to maintain Northumberland as a safe haven for the Red Squirrel but this doesn’t meet with universal approval, particularly amongst people who have little, or no, experience of Red Squirrels.

    It’s a sad fact that, over much of England, the only squirrel that people know and love is the Grey Squirrel, but at least in Northumberland visitors and locals alike can appreciate this charming inhabitant of our woodlands.