Prime target for today’s Druridge Bay mini-safari was to see Otters. Walking along the River Wansbeck, the air was shimmering in the heat and we enjoyed good views of ducks, geese and herons. Swallows and martins were swooping around the treetops and drinking from the river and Chaffinches, Wrens, Blackcaps and Whitethroats were all engaging in some midday serenading. As we drove up the coast an adult Mediterranean Gull kept pace with us for over a minute. Bloody Cranesbill, Viper’s Bugloss and Common Spotted Orchid added a splash of colour to the verdant grassland and we settled at our picnic spot. Common Terns and two incredibly vocal Sandwich Terns were close by as myself, Martin and Jill scanned the pond. Chance dictated that the direction I was facing saw the appearance of our target; a rounded head bobbed into view, then the dark, sinuous shape of a diving otter. It gradually worked it’s way across the pool, then back again, repeatedly rolling on it’s back to enjoy a healthy lunch of fresh fish. Eventually, it moved out of view and we all left with memories of this stunning predator. Birdwatching, botany and elusive mammals; that’s why I love Northumberland so much – there’s something for all natural history interests.
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Open Farm Sunday
After spending Saturday at the Rising Sun Country Park, where the Newcastle RSPB Member’s Group were celebrating their 40th birthday, Sunday saw us spending a long day in the field. As part of Open Farm Sunday we were helping Ian Brown at Lee Moor Farm. We started with a (not quite the) Dawn Chorus Walk followed by breakfast at the Black Olive Cafe and then guided conservation tours were on offer right through the day. As we wandered through some excellent wildflower habitat, marvelling at the amount of Ragged Robin Lychnis flos-cuculi, lots of birds were in evidence. Buzzards were seen on each walk, Willow Warblers were singing their descending scales, Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat were both seen as were Siskin and Goldcrest. The recent influx of Painted Lady butterflies was mentioned by one walker, who had witnessed the huge numbers of this beautiful insect arriving in Sussex in late May…and Sarah’s sharp eyes soon picked up one as it raced by. Eventually 3 were seen as they settled on the track in front of us, and we all pondered on the fact that, although we may regard butterflies as delicate, they had travelled the distance from North Africa and the middle-East to be in Britain for the summer. As shadows lengthened, guests began to arrive for the evening barbecue and Bat & Moth walk. Just as the sun slipped below the horizon, the bat detector crackled into life and our first Pipistrelle of the evening appeared close by, hunting insects over a small pond. Everyone, young and old, was able to see this tiny mammal, which was soon joined by a 2nd, then a 3rd. A dispute between two of the bats saw a high-speed chase, before one returned to swooping and diving just feet away. As a spectacular moonrise illuminated the fields around Lee Moor, attention turned to the moth trap and it’s first ‘customers’ of the evening. After close study they were released unharmed into the vegetation, and we left Lee Moor after a long and successful day.
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Brock
It was still daylight as we settled into position; both of us standing with our backs against tree trunks to minimise the obvious human silhouette. Blackbirds were alarming frantically; probably the first stirrings of the Tawny Owl, that was soon hooting mournfully from the branches directly above our heads, had triggered their agitation. A Nuthatch suddenly began trilling nearby, the first one we’d heard in this particular piece of woodland. Crows and Rooks cawed as daylight faded and the woodland was lit by the eerie light of the moon, filtered through a thin layer of cloud. The eyes start to play tricks on the mind at this time of day – was that a movement in the undergrowth? is that shape a tree stump or something much more interesting? Then it happened; a flash of white in the gloom. Then nothing…no, wait, there it was again – this time appearing from behind a tree trunk on a bend in the track through the wood. Sprinting up the track straight towards us; not the Fox that we’ve seen on all our previous visits to this site, but a Badger cub. Hurtling at breakneck speed. What’s it doing? That question was soon answered…it was coming to investigate me. For 10 seconds I was within inches of the cub as it sniffed my legs. Not sure whether it was going to bite me or scent mark my feet, I moved my head fractionally because it was so close that I couldn’t see it. Then it was off, back down the track. The movement had revealed my identity. I should probably be offended that it didn’t seem too concerned by my scent…something gleefully pointed out by Sarah, who’d had a grandstand view of the proceedings from 10 feet away.
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Of grouse and cottongrass and Gentiana verna
After a stunning couple of days inland, I’ve finally got time to sit down and catch up on paperwork, and blogging…
Saturday dawned bright and clear. By breakfast time it was already incredibly sunny and warm. Ideal for a wander through some of the hidden woodlands of our inland areas. Large clearings within plantations were carpeted with cottongrass. Under a brilliant yellow sun, and with a cool breeze blowing, the tufted heads at the end of each stem were like a raft of candles floating on a green sea. Buzzards soared overhead, chiffchaffs sang from dense stands of spruce and, out on the moorland edges, Black Grouse wheezed and cooed at each other. Birdwatching in a Northumberland woodland is sometimes hard work, but with the trees alive with birdsong, sheltered glades filled with (Red) squirrel-nibbled pine cones and woodland rides carpeted with sphagnum moss, heather and bog-rosemary, the cares of the world just melt away.
Sunday saw us concentrating on Upper Teesdale. Black Grouse were there again but the artic-alpine flora was our focus for the day. Mountain Pansies and Common Dog Violets were everywhere that the eye could see. I’ve yet to take anyone to Upper Teesdale who wasn’t amazed at just how small these flowers are. Then, a real speciality of the area, Bird’s-eye Primrose Primula farinosa. The striking pink flowers formed a narrow ribbon across the fellside, paralleling the line of a small stream. Spring Sandwort Minuartia verna could be found around the bare areas amongst the grassland, but we were still searching for the real prize. Then, as we looked over another swathe of pansies, a stunning blue caught my eye. Spring Gentian Gentiana verna; a plant of alpine meadow and moorland in central and southeastern Europe, and only found in Upper Teesdale in mainland Britain. In the blazing sunshine, the flowers were wide open and we found four separate plants – which is twice as many as I found in 2008. The blue of the gentians is indescribable; search for it on Google Images and you’ll get an idea, but to actually see it in real life, under a clear blue sky, in hot spring sunshine with a warm breeze blowing from the southeast, really can’t be bettered.
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A day in the life…
…of Martin Kitching (age 42). When we receive enquiries, people always ask what one of our Safari Days involves. Every day is different, and depends very much on particular requests from our clients; some want to see otters or foxes or badgers or Red Squirrels, some are very keen on a guided birdwatching tour and some just want to see, and discover more about, Northumberland. So, bearing that in mind, here’s yesterday’s run-down (with my bits added on as well);
06:00 Alarm goes off. Get out of bed, go downstairs and make coffee and breakfast.
06:30 Get dressed. Assemble maps, field guides and freshly-polished binoculars ready for use by clients.
07:00 Wash Landrover, polish mirrors and clean windows. Go to garage and fill with diesel (over £1/litre again!!).
08:00 Deal with e-mails and other admin stuff
08:30 Drive to Eshott Hall to collect clients (the recipients of the first Gift Vouchers we ever sold!). Top of their wish-list was to see otters in the wild…
09:00 Leave Eshott Hall and drive down through Southeast Northumberland, stopping at roadside ponds and enjoying close views of Coots sitting on nests, Herons, ducks, Swallows, martins and Swifts.
10:30 Walk along River Blyth and through woodland. Best way to learn birdsong is to get out into a good wooded area and listen, and then track down the singers to confirm what you’re hearing. Chiffchaff, Blackbird, Chaffinch and Song Thrush were dominating as we stood in a shaded grove, surrounded by bluebells, forget-me-nots and wild garlic. Then, there it was…Red Squirrel. We’ve got a 95% success rate on trips where we go looking for them, but they can be awkward when all of the trees are in leaf. Putting in a lot of time, when we haven’t got organised trips, gives us a much better than average chance of finding them at any time of the year though.
11:30 Head towards the coast, with a running commentary on the industrial and natural heritage of the area as we pass significant landmarks. Visit Newbiggin-by-the-sea before starting the journey up the coast.
12:00 Arrive at our lunch spot. Altered from our usual spot, overlooking the North Sea, as the local otters have been active around lunchtime in the last few days. Point out the most likely spots for the otters to appear. Enjoy lunch, and watch and wait…
12:30 Excited shout from Iain, and there are two otters, rolling and diving. No wait, three otters! Feeding, resting, swimming, running along the water’s edge, play-fighting (the otters, not us!), and causing general panic amongst the ducks and geese on the pool takes us all the way to…
14:00 On to check more coastal pools. Great-crested Grebes displaying, Shovelers shovelling, Gadwall engaging in what appear to be interminable chases and a good cast of ducks, geese, Little Gulls and terns all hold the interest until it’s time to return to Eshott Hall at…
16:00 Head home, put Landrover back in it’s garage. Go and buy DV tapes so that I can (hopefully…) record some good sequences of the two female cubs play-fighting (they’ve been at it for several days now, and seen well on our trips on Monday and yesterday).
19:00 More e-mail and admin stuff
19:30 Settle down for the evening with an excellent chinese meal, courtesy of Sarah, and enjoy the extraordinary display of football served up by Barcelona against the rather lacklustre Manchester United.
22:30 And so to bed, dreaming of squirrels, otters…and the day that Hull City are crowned champions of Europe 🙂
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Birdwatching on the Costa del Druridge
The fabulously warm summer weather that has blessed us this bank holiday has meant that the participants on this weekend’s otter safaris could do without their coats and gloves and were able to enjoy some fantastic wildlife and birdwatching in glorious sunshine under brilliant blue Northumberland skies.
On Sunday, our group had fantastic views of an adult Mediterranean Gull which was easily compared to close by Black-headed Gulls (in fact it is the Mediterranean Gull that has the black head, but ‘Dark Chocolate Brown-headed Gull’ isn’t too catchy!). Warblers were singing along our walk of a very tranquil River Blyth, including Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff. Later on in the day, Whitethroat and Reed Warbler were added, with the latter even being viewed from not too far away. A lunch stop near the coast allowed a Fulmar that wheeled around the cliffs to be photographed, whilst the rest of us enjoyed a well earned picnic lunch! Further up the coast it was the unexpected that caught our eye. A Pheasant had mistakenly wandered into a Lapwing’s breeding territory and the Lapwings called in reinforcements to deter the clearly very confused Pheasant. We had a very entertaining 10 minutes watching as the Lapwings dive bombed the Pheasant who did not know what to make of the whole debacle as it just stood there are put up seemingly no resistance before wandering off to comparative safety. We were hardly able to tear our eyes away from this to watch the Grey Partridges who had appeared close by, but who wisely decided not to follow in the Pheasant’s footsteps. A little later it was another unexpected sighting that had all of our binoculars pointing skyward as two adult Spoonbills flew over. We watched them fly northward and speculated on where they might land but we did not manage to catch up with them again as we meandered back north along the coast to return our guests to the Red Lion in Alnmouth.
Today we were out again, as it seemed was almost everybody else, keen to enjoy the warm sunshine. A Roe Deer came to drink from a pond where we were watching Herons, Gadwall, Lapwing and Ringed Plover, amongst other things. It disappeared into the willow to graze. As we headed off for our lunch stop, House Martins were busy gathering mud from a roadside puddle to use as cement for their nests, and starlings and House Sparrows came to bathe. Then, as we were busy eating lunch, overlooking one of our favourite otter spots, we were able to enjoy views of an otter diving as it looked for lunch. Then as it moved off to relax, it was joined by not one, not two, but three other otters, presumably youngsters as they were play fighting in the water together. They entertained for at least another half an hour before moving on, which was a shame because we could have sat there all day watching had they allowed us to!
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Thermals
This morning we had a mini-safari to Kielder. Our clients were local and had received Northern Experience Gift Vouchers from their daughter, with the main aim of the trip being to reveal some of the hidden gems for birdwatching in Northumberland’s biggest forest. Although it was warm and sunny near the coast, as we headed inland it started to cloud over. There are a lot of rivers and streams throughout the border forests and we were soon watching a male Grey Wagtail as he bobbed his tail up and down from his vantage point on a mid-stream rock. Oystercatchers angrily chased Crows around the fields and a pair of Siskins were resplendent in their striking black and yellow plumage. We settled to watch over the forest from a vantage point and sure enough, as the sun began to break through the clouds, Common Buzzards began soaring with the lift provided by thermals. One strayed over the territory of a pair of crows and soon found these angry black birds snapping at his tail feathers. Other buzzards began rising and one was in view for a few minutes as it hovered repeatedly over an area of clearfell. A Sparrowhawk flew by and, all around us, Coal Tits, Goldcrests, Blackbirds, Song Thrushes, Chaffinches and Willow Warblers were singing. A Little Grebe was chased by a female Mallard and responded by swimming across the reservoir and singing. A pair of Oystercatchers were tending a nest, and Mallard ducklings skittered in and out of the vegetation by the water’s edge. As we headed back towards Bellingham I pulled over at the side of the road, where there was just a large enough gap between the trees to afford a view of the river. Swallows, Sand Martins, House Martins and Pied Wagtails all hunted the abundant flies just above the water and a pair of Mandarins with a duckling swam by.
And no, the other sort of thermals weren’t necessary; Spring has come to the forest.
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Is this the way to…
A couple of years ago, I was with Sarah checking a flooded field not far from home and we noticed two young women in a parked car. One of them got out, walked along the road towards us and said, in a heavy Scots accent “is this the way to Glasgow?”. It was quite a challenge to direct them towards even an appropriate road, given that they had somehow found themselves on a minor country lane between Morpeth and Druridge Bay. We’ve often wondered since then, about how they arrived next to one of the many excellent birdwatching sites near the Northumberland coast when they were aiming for the major conurbation on the west coast of Scotland.
Yesterday I found myself on that same country lane, this time with a Landrover full of keen birdwatchers. Five minutes earlier we’d been discussing how excited some birdwatchers get about summer-plumaged godwits…so the six birds feeding in the flash pool couldn’t have been better if they’d been working to a script. The deep chestnut red of one bird identified him as a male Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit. Herring Gulls, Black-headed Gulls and Great Black-backed Gulls were all strangely intolerant of these elegant waders, harassing them persistently, causing them to keep changing position on the pool and revealing the striking black and white wing pattern that separates them from Bar-tailed Godwits. As we reached the coast, migrating waders became a bit of a theme; 4 Whimbrel flew over Cresswell, giving the distinctive seven-whistle call and a male Ruff, well on the way to developing the elaborate plumes around his throat that form part of his breeding finery. A pair of Grey Partridges walked straight towards us and Sandwich Terns perched so close that ‘scope filling views were enjoyed by all. A bit more exposed mud around some of the coastal pools would be nice, but we can’t have everything, can we?
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Eyebrow to…
…big red, feathery eyebrow. That’s how I found myself yesterday. After a few days of windy, drizzly weather, Sunday dawned bright and sunny and we had a hastily arranged trip into the North Pennines. Although cloud cover increased it was still a beautiful day, and the patches of bright sunlight picked out the contours of the hills as we drove down through Allendale. Black Grouse site number one didn’t produce any birds so we continued on our way. Sarah spotted some movement in the grass, and out came a stripy black, white and yellow Golden Plover chick. Sure enough, one of it’s parents was soon perched on a rise in the surrounding terrain, calling plaintively. If you’ve never heard the call of a Golden Plover then you’ll have to take my word for it, that it’s hauntingly beautiful. Black Grouse site number two appeared devoid of birds so I decided to stalk along the edge of the field behind a dry stone wall and check the next field. As I lifted my head just over the wall, there they were! Three stunning blackcocks, quietly feeding by the shelter of the wall. I turned and motioned for Sarah and Andy to join me, and we were all able to enjoy these magnificent birds. By keeping low and not making any sudden movements, we avoided alarming them and had the best views we’ve ever managed. Images and video will be added to our gallery as soon as I have a free moment…
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Paradise?
As the boat heads across the short stretch of North Sea between Seahouses and the Farne Islands, the number of birds flying by steadily increases. First, the terns; Sandwich, Common and Arctic, all flying back towards the islands after hunting the shallow coastal waters and Seahouses harbour itself. Then the auks; chocolate brown Guillemots, the stark black-and-white contrast of Razorbills and, everybody’s favourite, the Puffins. With it’s massive multi-coloured beak and comical waddling gait, the ‘Tommy Noddie’ is a must-see on many people’s holiday ‘To-do’ list. The Grey Seals were all basking in the warm sunshine, totally unconcerned by another boat full of tourists. Once on the islands, the embryonic breeding season was obvious; Sandwich Terns were courting and food-passing, pairs of Arctic Terns, tiny twinkling lights against a stunningly blue sky, were flying in close formation way overhead, Puffins were popping up out of their burrows like Meerkats in evening dress, and the early breeders, Shag, Eider and Kittiwake, were already firmly ensconced on their nests.
A Farne Islands Safari is more than just a visit to the islands though; summer-plumaged Grey Plovers (IMO the best looking of all the waders that we see), Greenshank in a typically erratic feeding frenzy, Common Scoters watched from our picnic spot and plunge-diving Gannets were all part of yesterday’s trip. That last spectacle was ranked Number One in Nature’s Top 40. I’ve seen and heard some criticism of that ranking, on the grounds that it isn’t really something that everyone can enjoy. That criticism seems unjustified, you don’t need to visit offshore islands; we watched Gannets feeding yesterday from the mainland, I’ve sat with clients watching them from July through to the end of October and our birdwatching pelagics from Royal Quays in July, August and September have always produced stunning views of them as well.
Now it’s time for me to head out of the office and check our favourite sites for Number 4 on the Nature’s Top 40.