Now you see it, now you don’t 😉 Otter Safari 09/11/17


I collected Pauline and Paul from Newbiggin and we set out for a morning and afternoon searching Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland for one of NEWT’s favourite mammals

Little Grebe, Goldeneye and Mallard were all looking just too relaxed and we walked further on as a noisy tribe of Long-tailed Tits moved through the trees, the high-pitched calls of Goldcrest revealed tiny shapes flitting around in the canopy and four Mute Swans flew by with their wings making an impressive noise.  Little Egrets looked exotically out of place as they flapped by and then Pauline said “There’s one”…and right in front of us was an Otter 🙂  We watched it as it fed and porpoised for 50 minutes, including an attempt at catching a Cormorant,  then it was lost from sight and we couldn’t refind it.

The rest of the afternoon was dominated by ducks; Mallard, Gadwall, Shoveler, Wigeon, Teal, Goldeneye and Tufted Duck all featured, alongside a supporting cast of Little Grebe, Slavonian Grebe, Cormorant, Coot, Moorhen, Mute Swan and some very vocal Whooper Swans.  One of the Mute Swans was shadowed very closely by two Wigeon who were feasting on anything that had been disturbed by the swan’s progress but surfaced behind it 🙂   22 Common Snipe were flushed by a Sparrowhawk and a pair of Stonechat entertained us as they were flycatching above a reedbed before the final hour of the afternoon produced no less than six Kestrels.