I collected Colin and Tricia from Newbiggin ahead of a tour around Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland searching for Otters and we were soon at our first site…
Little Grebes, Goldeneye and Cormorants were all fishing in water ruffled by a stiff easterly breeze and a Little Egret was trying to fish but constantly harrassed by a juvenile Mute Swan which wouldn’t let it settle in any one spot. Long-tailed Tits called incessantly as they made their way through the trees and we headed to our picnic spot…with a short detour to the NEWT office for me to change my boots after the sole of the pair I’d been wearing came loose as I tried to lift my foot from some very sticky mud at the bottom of a puddle!
The afternoon was similar to recent days out; a stiff breeze and big flocks of birds. Teal, Wigeon, Lapwing, Golden Plover, Greylag, Canada and Pink-footed Geese and Starling all being tossed around on the wind and battling to keep their intended course. Scaup were alongside Tufted Duck and Dunlin, Curlew and Redshank were roosting together, facing into the breeze and taking shelter in the lee of a reedbed. With dusk encroaching on the gloomy daylight Roe Deer were running along field margins, small groups of Starlings coalesced into one extended murmuration that quickly went to roost with the ghostly apparition of a Barn Owl drifting across in front of us marking the point where the light faded to impenetrable.