I collected Lizzie and Tom from Church Point and we set out to explore Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland in search of Otters.
We’ve been mainly concentrating on three sites this year; Site A was great early in the year, and we’d had an Otter there in mid-September, Site B opened our 2016 Otter account on New Year’s Day and has been producing Otter sightings for the last few weeks and Site C has been great, and really, really great this year 🙂 Sites A and B produced skeins of migrating Pink-footed Geese, and agitated Mallards, Gadwall, Little Grebe, Tufted Duck, Teal, Wigeon, Grey Heron and Little Egret but no sign of the cause of their agitation. As daylight started to fade, we headed to Site C. Roosting Lapwings suddenly flushed in panic, forming a twisting, turning, amorphous mass worthy of a Starling murmuration. Greylag and Canada Geese began descending noisily towards the water as Grey Herons stalked the margins and engaged in angry disputes over the best feeding spots. Only two Greylag and one Canada Goose landed though, the rest vanished into the gloom. Then the assembled wildfowl all stretched their heads up; always an encouraging sign. Concentrate on the one part of the pool that seems to be bird-free…and there’s an Otter 🙂 Swimming across in front of us, sinuous and stealthy, it graced us with it’s presence before vanishing into a reedbed that was soon ringing with the calls of Water Rail and Moorhen. The focused gaze of a Grey Heron gave a clue as to the Otter’s whereabouts in the reeds as daylight faded to darkness.