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Bottlenose Dolphins; Farne Islands safari 06/06/2014
Whenever I head out for a day guiding clients, I have a plan. Occasionally we deviate from that plan… I was heading to collect Liz and Mark from the Lord Crewe in Bamburgh, for their Farne Islands prestige tour, and I thought I knew what we’d be doing throughout the day – a walk along…
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A trip with extra added bite; Otter Safari 02/04/2014
After a remarkably mild winter, Wednesday brought some weather with a bit of bite, the sort of day where you really need the wildlife to be performing at it’s best to take your mind off the conditions… I collected Katherine and Brenda from Church Point for an afternoon/evening Otter Safari, and we headed north up…
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Winter Wonderland Day Two 05/12/2013
04:30, and I wake to what sounds like a train crashing through our garden. It isn’t though, instead it’s the howling gales that had been forecast. Meeting up with David for breakfast at The Swan, I’m glad that we switched our day in Druridge Bay and Southeast Northumberland to today. Lindisfarne in howling gales and…
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Seabird Spectacular 10-13 June 2013; birdwatching on the Northumberland coast
Arriving at The Swan on Monday evening I met up with Ronnie and Liz at the start of our Seabird Spectacular holiday. Of all of our holidays, this is the one that concentrates on the really outstanding wildlife available on the Northumberland coast in the summer. Tuesday started out very nice, although cloud cover was…
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Otter Watching 02/06/13 – Patience pays off
Just a couple of days before the end of 2008, I led an Otter Safari that produced prolonged sightings of our target species…just 5 seconds after arriving at the first site I’d planned to visit that day! That produced a complication all of it’s own – how do you keep a family with a young…
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Otter Watching 01/06/2013
Single-species trips can be some of the most stressful experiences for NEWT, although possibly not quite so stressful for our clients 🙂 Some species that our clients want to see can be very straightforward, like Grey Seals or Puffins (at least if you come at the right time of year!), others can be more difficult,…
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Nature’s bounty
After a day in the North Pennines, I had an hour at home before setting out for an evening mini-safari around Druridge Bay. I couldn’t have anticipated that the evening would bring one of the most astonishing things I’ve seen… I collected Fiona and Damien from Morpeth and then headed north east to Amble to…
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Black Grouse Bonanza Day 1; Nothing to grouse about
As I drove to Peth Head Cottage on Thursday afternoon, the rain was hammering against the car windscreen. Friday’s forecast was good though so, after a meal at The Travellers Rest in Slaley, I reminded Derek and Deirdre that we would have an early start the next morning. 19/04/2013 05:00…the incessant ringing of the alarm…