Whenever we’re out in the Northumberland countryside there’s always plenty of wildlife to see, but sometimes the star of the show is just so captivating that we could watch it all day…
I collected Pat and Jenny from Amble, for the first of their two days out with NEWT, and we headed down the coast for a day exploring Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland in search of Otters. Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall, Mallard, Goldeneye and Tufted Duck were all evident at our first site and, along with the wary Greylag Geese nearby, were studiously avoiding one area of the pond. There was no sign of any obvious source of concern for the assembled wildfowl though so, as they began dispersing across all of the water, we headed on. Our second site looked initially unpromising too, as somebody already there told us that they hadn’t seen an Otter and neither had another observer who’d been there for four hours. I was still confident though – it’s a site I’ve watched regularly for eight years, so I’ve got a good idea of the what and when of Otter activity there…and after 5 minutes I spotted an Otter cub as it crept furtively along the water’s edge 🙂 For nearly two hours we watched as it fed non-stop, making it’s way around a circular feeding route a couple of times. Redshank, Curlew and Little Grebe got out of the way as the hungry mustelid approached them. Eventually it disappeared from view and we moved on to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.