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In the summertime…Druridge Bay bespoke birdwatching 26/06/18
Yesterday was Sue’s 8th day out with NEWT and after I collected her from Old Swarland we headed south east towards NEWT’s local patch, Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland… We’re now starting our Druridge Bay trips with a riparian woodland walk, and Nuthatches were feeding noisy fledglings in the branches overhead, Blue, Great and Coal…
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Owling; Otter Safari 17/07/17
I collected Una and then Verna from Church Point and we set off for an afternoon and evening around Druridge Bay and South East Northumberland searching our favourite Otter spots… The heat of the afternoon was tempered by a gentle breeze as we came across 8 Little Egrets and a Kingfisher put in a brief…
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Chorus of the valleys; Bespoke Cheviot Valleys Safari 12/05/17
I collected John and Kate from Church Point at 06:00 and we headed westwards towards the Cheviot massif… Stepping out of the car in a cold breeze, the density of bird song was like a wall of sound. Willow Warbler, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Robin, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff and Blackcap were all belting out their best tunes,…
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Creepy crawlies;Druridge Bay mini-safari 15/08/2015
The easiest wildlife to engage with is often the small stuff that we might walk by on our way to search for something bigger… I collected Flora, Pete, Katie (‘the Awesome’!), Joe and Madeleine from Church Point and we set out for a morning exploring around Druridge Pools. Once I’d armed everyone with sample pots,…
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The Island; Lindisfarne Safari 12/10/2014
After a break from work and blogging, and our first proper holiday in quite a while, I got back into the swing of things on Sunday with a visit to probably my favourite mid-October location… Crossing the causeway to Holy Island is always accompanied by a sense of anticipation, and when I collected Graham and…
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The pointy end of wildlife watching; Otter mini-safari 12/08/2014
As I collected Paul, Lily and Charlie from North Shields, dark clouds were gathering away to the north. Over Druridge Bay – just where we were heading… A late brood of Barn Swallows, still in the nest and being fed by their parents, were quite a size contrast to Grey Herons stalking along the water’s…
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Six of the best; Cheviot Valleys and Druridge Bay 09/06/2014
Monday’s trip was a birdwatching tour of two of Northumberland’s excellent locations; the Cheviot Valleys in the morning, and Druridge Bay in the afternoon. I collected John, Graham, Andy, Sue, Sue and Lesley from their cottage in Shilbottle and we set off inland towards the imposing landscape of the Cheviot massif. As we got out…
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Flying in for a day birdwatching in the North Pennines
I always enjoy meeting up with our previous clients again, and Saturday morning found me at Newcastle Airport waiting to meet Jacob and Nancy as they arrived for a couple of days birdwatching in Northumberland. They were going to be spending Sunday on the Farne Islands, but our destination on what was developing into a…
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Images of the future
Yesterday evening we attended the Northumberland Wildlife Trust Photography Competition Awards event, as sponsors of the two junior categories in the competition. The standard of entries throughout all of the categories was very high. The winning entry in the over 18 category was Peter Tapsell’s stunning shot of 3 Long-tailed Tits, and any regular reader…