Northern Experience Wildlife Tours

Tag: Black-headed Gull

  • “I’m really scared of birds”; Farne Islands Safari 30/06/16

    In late June, a big part of the Farne Islands experience is the aerial bombardment you’re subjected to as Arctic Terns defend their eggs and chicks…

    I collected John from Bedlington, Colin and Martin from Morpeth and then Sue from Old Swarland (for her 4th trip with NEWT).  A breezy but warm morning brought Curlew, Yellowhammer, Grey Seal, Shelduck and a Brown Hare running though short vegetation right on the shoreline.  After lunch overlooking the Farne Islands we boarded the St Cuthbert and headed out of Seahouses Harbour.  We were soon being passed by Puffins, Guillemots, Razorbills and Gannets and soon the unmistakeable sound, and smell, of the seabird colony reached the boat.  Landing on Inner Farne brought the expected mob of angry terns and we watched the tiny beak of an Arctic Tern chick as it chipped way at the eggshell surrounding it.  Fulmars arced along the cliff tops, Kittiwakes were hanging on the strong breeze just a few metres away from us, Sandwich and Common Terns flew by without molesting us and Puffins peeked from their burrows.  As we walked through the courtyard a lady walked by in the other direction; head down, hood pulled up and explaining to her friends how she’s really scared of birds.  Inner Farne probably wasn’t the best choice of visitor attraction then…

  • Summery; Bespoke mini-Safari 22/06/16

    As I collected Len and Jean from Middleton Hall, the bright warm sunshine suggested that summer had genuinely arrived 🙂

    Heading down to the coast we explored a section of river that has produced regular Otter sightings.  Hoverflies and bumblebees were exploring riverside flowers, a Scorpion Fly became the focus of Len’s lens and, as Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Chaffinch sang from nearby bushes, Mallards paddled along the river with their ducklings.  A high-pitched mewing preceded the appearance of a Common Buzzard over a nearby hillside, twisting, turning and soaring in the rising heat as Black-headed Gulls drifted in and out of view dipping towards the river before climbing again.

    The buzz of insects on a warm summer morning, is there anything that epitomises June any more than that 🙂

  • Never trust a weather forecast; Farne Islands Safari 15/06/16

    With a Farne Islands Safari on Wedneday, I’d been keeping an even closer eye than usual on the weather forecast and particularly the forecast sea state and swell height.  1m waves, strong NE winds and heavy rain wasn’t the most promising of forecasts…

    I collected Paul and Rose from the Dunstanburgh Castle Hotel and we headed north of Seahouses for a few hours birdwatching before our sailing across to the Farnes.   A singing Reed Bunting was eventually located, and finally came out obligingly into the open, as Meadow Pipits displayed overhead and Sand Martins hawked back and forth low over the water.  Gulls aren’t everybody’s cup of tea, but Black-headed, Common, Lesser Black-backed and Herring all lined up obligingly next to each other for a mini-ID masterclass.  A Shoveler escorted her ten ducklings across the pool as Coots fed young, Moorhens crept around in bankside rushes, Lapwing roosted in nearby fields and a Skylark, just a tiny dark speck against the clouds overhead, sounded inconceivably loud at the height it had reached.

    Sitting and eating lunch overlooking the islands, the one thing that was really obvious was that the sea was calm, it wasn’t really windy and it wasn’t raining – so much for those forecasts then 🙂  We boarded Glad Tidings VII and headed towards the inner group of islands.  Puffins, Guillemots and Razorbills were all heading back to their nests with food, Grey Seals were lazing around on the rocks and the sound, and smell, of the islands intensified.  The onomatopaeic calls of Kittiwake echoed off the cliffs and a leucistic Guillemot caught my eye as it sat on the rocks amongst all of it’s regular-coloured relatives.

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    Once we landed on Inner Farne, the Puffins took centre stage.  We watched as they headed back towards their burrows, only to be harried by Black-headed Gulls.  One Puffin dropped it’s load of small fish right next to us, it’s wingbeats whirring audibly just over our heads as it tried to evade it’s pursuers.  Large, ungainly, and very, very fluffy Shag chicks had grown to big to be contained in their nests and the grumpy moaning of the assembled auks added to the wall of sound.  Sandwich, Common and Arctic Terns were all tending eggs or chicks, with the Arctic Terns being as feisty as ever, and a couple of them taking a particular dislike to Rose’s hat!  As we walked back down the jetty to sail back to the mainland, Rose’s sharp eyes spotted one of those birds that are so cryptic in some habitats as a Ringed Plover dashed around between pebbles and rocks on the shore line.

  • A Ruff morning for a Redshank; Druridge Bay Safari 03/06/16

    As much as I enjoy searching for, and finding, wildlife with our clients I have to admit to a fascination what wildlife does and how it behaves…

    I collected Stephen and Kate from The Swan for their second day out with NEWT, this time exploring NEWT’s local patch of Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland.

    Druridge Bay is a great place throughout the year, there’s always plenty to see, and Thursday was no exception. Great Crested Grebes, haughtily elegant, Mallard, Wigeon, Teal, Tufted Duck, Gadwall, Shoveler, Shelduck, all so different from the duller plumage they’ll be wearing shortly, dainty Little Gulls flycatching amnogst flocks of Black-headed Gull and even a couple of rarities, Great White Egret, hunched in the rushes near a Grey Heron, and Bonaparte’s Gull, roosting with Black-headed Gulls, for good measure.

    At this time of year one of the highlights is often wading birds on passage.  These birds, so cryptically patterned during the winter months, often appear in rather stunning breeding finery at the end of spring passage, and the start of autumn passage.  There’s little quite as remarkable as a male Ruff dressed in his best dancing clothes.  This blog post from 2010 has an example of one 🙂  Passage birds in the spring have a raging passion burning in their blood, and as Curlew displayed overhead and Common Snipe dropped into the rushes we came across one male Ruff who was giving it his all.  Jumping, prancing, strutting, spreading his ruff like an Elizabethan dandy and bowing handsomely and exaggeratedly at the feet of his intended.  There was only one flaw in this impressive dance of desire…the subject of his attention was a Redshank!  It would appear that in the absence of any Reeves our Ruff wasn’t going to hide his light under a bushel.  Settling for second best, or blinded by desire, his ardour wasn’t dimmed by the persistent rejection from the obviously agitated Redshank 🙂

    Wildlife does the funniest things…

  • “I’ll believe Otters exist…”; Otter Safari 26/05/16

    “…when I actually see one”.  A remarkable number of NEWT’s clients seem to have had holidays on Mull/Shetland/Orkney/Skye searching for Otters (often on guided tours) without seeing one, and that revelation at the start of a tour always ramps the pressure up a bit…

    I arrived at Church Point in heavy mist and drizzle, and quickly met up with Sarah and Charlotte, Keith and Maggie, and Stephanie, and we set off for an afternoon and evening searching for Otters around Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland.  I juggled the sites we were visiting, to take account of the weather, but I knew where I thought we should be towards dusk.  In the misty, drizzly gloom a Little Egret looked luminous.  With warm, humid conditions the air was alive with the sussurating buzz of recently emerged insects.  Black-headed and Little Gulls, and swarms of Swifts, were rampaging through the dense clouds of flies as a Pheasant sat motionless in the grass on the water’s edge.  Gadwall, Goosander, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Canada Goose and Greylag Goose were all lazing on the water and Common Terns harried a Moorhen that had ventured just that little bit too close to their nest.  Grey Herons flew around calling and a dispute over a prime feeding spot broke out between two of these huge birds.

    We arrived at what I’d planned as our final location for the evening and I suggested that one particular part of the pool would be worth keeping a close eye on.  Was that a dark shape beneath the gulls?  I lifted my binoculars and scanned, then decided my eyes must have been playing tricks on me.  As I set the ‘scope up, there was an “erm…” from Charlotte, who was looking at the same spot…and there was an Otter 🙂  We watched it for over an hour as it made it’s way around the pool, feeding almost constantly and creating an interesting wildfowl exclusion zone!  Here’s an Otter from last year, showing it’s fearsome dentition 🙂

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    Eventually it vanished into the impenetrable depths of a reedbed and we headed back towards Newbiggin, encountering a Little Owl perched on a telegraph pole at the roadside 🙂

  • Sounds of Spring; Druridge Bay Bespoke Safari 21/05/16

    Ever improving weather tends to make days out with clients slightly more relaxed than those days where we’re contending with the elements – although I personally prefer the more challenging days 😉

    I collected Julie and Mike from The Plough Inn, not much more than a stone’s throw from the sea, and we set out for an afternoon and evening around Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland.  The reedbeds were resonating with the song of Sedge Warbler and Reed Bunting as Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler were singing from the trees that had grown above the height of the hedgerows, Great Crested Grebes crossed the water with elegant grace and Mute Swan, Greylag Goose and Canada Goose kept a watchful eye on their fluffy babies.  A hatch of flying insects had attracted the attention of Swallow, Sand Martin, House Martin and Swift as well as an impressive flock of Black-headed Gulls and at least six 1stSummer Little Gulls.  The eerie cries of Curlew carried on the southerly breeze and Lapwing displayed so close that we could hear their wingbeats as well as the nuances of their remarkable calls.  Just as remarkable, if not more so, was a Common Snipe ‘drumming’ impressively as it flew back and forth right in front of us while we were dazzled by a shockingly bright Yellow Wagtail.

    With the sun appearing beneath the dark grey cloud layer as it neared the horizon, the landscape was suddenly bathed in extraordinary light.  Intense greens and yellows contrasted with the subtle hues of areas still in shadow as a Barn Owl ghosted by on silent wings, a Grey Wagtail was flycatching from midstream rocks, a Grey Heron stalked the shallows and Mallard and Goosander swam downstream, carried on the rushing bubbling flow where insects trapped in the surface layer fell prey to hungry fish lunging clear of the water and briefly inhabitating an alien world before splashing back down into the watery darkness.

  • Patience; Otter Safari 07/04/16

    I collected Gwyn for a day searching for Otters around Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland and we headed towards the coast…

    Our first site didn’t produce any Otter sightings, and there was nothing happening amongst the assembled Curlew, Redshank, Cormorant, Little Egret, Oystercatcher and Mallard to suggest that they were worried about any unseen predator lurking nearby.  That took us up to lunchtime, and overlooking the North Sea we watched Swallows and Sand Martins battling into the wind.  After lunch our next site was a hive of activity with Goldeneye, Tufted Duck, Red-breasted Merganser, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Mallard, Gadwall, Canada Goose, Greylag Goose and Grey Heron.  Then there was suddenly an obvious gap in amongst the waterfowl, which became a much bigger gap as Goldeneye scattered in an impressive radial pattern that had an Otter cub at its centre 🙂  We tracked its progress for a few minutes until we couldn’t see it any more – although the flock of Black-headed and Common Gulls circling above it still could 🙂

    I was confident it would reappear so we sat and waited.  Cormorant flew by and the arrival of a heavy rain shower brought a dense flock of Sand Martins and Swallows plundering the clouds of midges that had been present throughout the afternoon.  Then the gulls were suddenly up in the air again, along with a couple of very vocal Sandwich Terns…directly above two Otter cubs 🙂  They fished alongside one another, and the highlight of the afternoon was when one came into shallow water and consumed an Eel that it seemed to be having a bit of a struggle with.  With Marsh Harrier and Common Buzzard (now both a regular feature of the Northumberland coast) during the day too, it was a procession of spectacular wildlife in ever-changing, and occasionally dramatic, light – ideal for Gwyn’s camera.

    Otters, raptors and a client with a passion for wildlife and photography (and a fellow Nikon user too!) – a great start to April!  We’ve got Otter Safaris regularly throughout the year so give us a call on 01670 827465 to book your place now.  We can tailor our tours to suit anyone from families with young children all the way to experienced wildlife watchers and serious nature photographers 🙂

  • …or maybe not; Otter mini-Safari 27/03/16

    After Friday’s lovely weather, it was almost too much to hope that the weekend would stay like that…

    I arrived at Church Point to collect Jeanette and Simon, Liz and Simon & Gareth and Chris and we set off on a tour of southeast Northumberland in search of Otters.  As we arrived at our first site the raindrops began to pepper the car windscreen but were short lived.  The next 3 hours brought a remarkable range of weather conditions; bright warm sunshine, heavy cloud, heavy rain, glowering skies and a brutal biting wind.  Oystercatcher, Redshank, Cormorant, Mute Swan and Mallard were all braving the elements at our first site, but there was no sign of the elusive mustelid that we were seeking.  We moved on and watched more wildlife in the grip of the breeze; Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, Gadwall, Red-breasted Merganser, Greylag Goose, Goldeneye, Great Crested Grebe, Lapwing, Sand Martin and a Grey Heron which had to contend with the elements as well as the unwelcome attention of a persistent mob of Black-headed Gulls.

    Things weren’t looking promising; all of the birds seemed calm and bitingly cold winds often make finding Otters a tricky task.  Another scan of the pool and there was a pair of Great Crested Grebes looking agitated…as an Otter cub surfaced in front of them 🙂  It surfaced and dived in the choppy water for a couple of minutes and then vanished, with all of the assembled waterfowl returning to feeding and drifting back into the area they’d vacated when the Otter was there.

  • Between the storms; Bespoke Otter Photography 31/01/2016

    I collected Gill and Stuart from The Swan, ahead of a day in search of photographable Otters, and the most noticeable thing was the gentle breeze and lack of rain/sleet/hail/snow 🙂  Always a good start…

    After a morning of Treecreepers, Moorhen, Little Grebe, Long-tailed Tits, mirror-calm water, two separate incidents where Mallards, Mute Swans and Black-headed Gulls all gave an indication that they’d spotted a predator and lots of entertaining discussion about the ethics of wildlife photography (and the brilliance of the Nikon D810) we had lunch overlooking the remarkably calm North Sea, with a flock of Eider offshore and Fulmars arcing along the cliff tops.  I’d seen two Otter cubs on Thursday, when I was getting in some recce work before the arrival of Storm Gertrude, so I’d already decided where we’d be spending the afternoon.  Goldeneye and Little Grebe were sitting quietly on the water, a lone Little Egret was stalking through the shallows and Cormorants, those briefly convincing Otter lookalikes, were busy eating their way through plenty of small fish.  Then, the change in behaviour I was looking for; Redshank scattered and Cormorants took off as if they’d rather be anywhere other than where they’d been feeding.  Looking like a rock moving slowly through the shallow water the adult Otter was hunting, head and tail submerged and it’s impressive muscular torso above the water line 🙂  Then, much closer to us, an Otter cub diving persistently, crunching it’s prey each time it surfaced.  Closer and closer, until it obligingly got out of the water in front of us.  A second cub was slightly more distant, and we’d got three separate Otters in view as a Kingfisher treated us to repeated fly-bys on what seemed to be a regular feeding circuit.

    As Black-headed and Herring Gulls passed overhead in the rapidly deepening gloom of dusk and a strengthening cold breeze brought persistent drizzle we headed back to the car after nearly three hours with the Otters. You just don’t notice the cold and wet when you’re enjoying yourself 🙂

  • The approaching storm; Druridge Bay Prestige Tour 04/01/2016

    04/01/2008, and NEWT’s first ever day out with clients was a strange, cold, gloomy day where we managed to find our target species for the day, Roe Deer.  Eight years on and I found myself out with clients on January 4th again…

    As I arrived at Church Point to collect Roberta and Dougie, the first thing that struck me was the height of the waves crashing into Newbiggin Bay.  Then the icy cold wind started probing, although it couldn’t breach the layers of clothing I’d aligned against it.  Whichever direction you looked, the weather looked different; a patch of blue sky, sunlight trying to break through the clouds, distant rain…all possibilities seemed open as we headed down the coast.  Greylag Geese, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Gadwall, Teal, Coot, Moorhen and a lone Lapwing braved the cold as the first rain shower of the day made the water’s surface dance.  Next came what all agreed was the highlight of the day as Goldeneye and Little Grebe drifted apart and the space between them was occupied by an Otter 🙂  With a 75% success rate on our Otter Safaris during 2015 it wasn’t suprising that 2016 started with such an obliging mustelid which came closer and closer before drifting away and feeding incessantly.

    Lunch overlooking the North Sea brought Fulmars arcing effortlessly along the cliff tops, a very obliging Little Gull looked tiny alongside Black-headed Gulls and the wader and wildfowl list for the day continued to grow with Wigeon, Red-breasted Merganser, Scaup, Pochard, Pink-footed Goose, Dunlin, Ruff, Redshank, Curlew, Golden Plover and Long-billed Dowitcher.  A very vocal Fieldfare gave remarkably confiding views, Goldfinch and Tree Sparrow jostled for position on feeders and, as the wind strengthened, waves crashed on the shore with a roar reminiscent of heavy traffic and the rain showers intensified, we headed back to Church Point.