Stirring things up; Druridge Bay Safari 07/10/18


I collected Ruth and Chris, and Wendy, Peter and Elizabeth, from Church Point and we set out for an afternoon and evening around our local patch, Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland, with one species in particular at the top of the trip wish list…

The weather forecast had been looking very promising, so it was a surprise that the first drops of rain started as we gathered before setting off.  Within 30mins it was unpleasantly wet and Little Egrets were stalking along the water’s edge as a flotilla of Cormorants did their best to made a dent in the local fish population.  As the rain eased the breeze strengthened and Stonechats were waving in the wind at the top of reedmace.  Exposed mud was covered in Lapwings, Dunlin, Common Redshank, Spotted Redshank and lots of Common Snipe.  The high yapping calls of Pink-footed Geese drew our eyes towards v-shaped skeins of them heading north then, after our picnic on a clifftop overlooking the North Sea, it was time to head to our final site for the day.  Within a few seconds I’d found two Otter cubs play fighting near a bay in the reeds and with everyone’s attention focused on that spot there were suddenly 4 Otters running almost head on towards us 🙂  They vanished into the reeds and the next hour saw an extraordinary arrival of geese; Canada, Greylag,, Barnacle and Pink-footed all heralded their arrival with calls cutting through the gloom of dusk.  More and more arrived, settling in shallow water, and the noise level continued rising then suddenly with a loud rush of wingbeats and a deafening cacophony of mixed goose calls they lifted from their roost in panic…as one of the Otter cubs had reappeared and was bounding straight across the mud and through the roost 🙂  It slid effortlessly into the deeper water and swam out of sight before putting in another appearance as it ran across the reed edge right in front of us as dusk descended towards darkness and we headed back towards Newbiggin.