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Bird Watching Magazine Reader Holiday Day 3: 09/07/2011
On Saturday morning our destination was Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland and another poor weather forecast ( a bit of a running theme during the holiday…) suggested that we may well get wet. An addition to the mammal list for the trip raced across the road ahead of us; a Stoat – an endearing predator…
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Comfort zone
I’ve been a general naturalist since an early age, but birdwatching has been the thing that has always gripped my imagination. As a wildlife guide though, is that really enough? That’s a question that seems to arise occasionally on internet forums. I decided at an early stage of NEWT that I needed a much broader…
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A real challenge
In the 17 years that I’ve lived here, I’ve always believed that Northumberland is one of the finest counties for birdwatching in the whole of the UK. That belief played a big part in reaching the decision to launch NEWT, and it’s why we’re such an enthusiastic member of the Birdwatching Northumberland Consortium. We’ll be…
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On the trail of the otter…and then some
Yesterday was the first of several forthcoming days where we’re running multiple trips on the same day, and with 6 clients during the day, and 2 of them joining us for an evening safari as well, it was a day that could go really well, or not… The primary target species for everyone was our…
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Birdwatching; Northumberland in the rain
I’ve always maintained that, whatever the weather (with the possible exception of a howling gale), it’s always possible to have a really good day birdwatching in Northumberland. Yesterday’s forecast didn’t promise too much in the way of good weather though and, as it turned out, we had to contend with drizzly rain for the whole…
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A lazy summer afternoon
It’s that time of year again. Bright sunshine, insects are on the wing and in Southeast Northumberland, birdwatching is taken at a steady pace. On yesterday’s Druridge Bay trip Common Blue and Blue-tailed Damselflies were flitting about in front of us and every so often would stop and rest, giving everyone an opportunity to see just…
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A day in the Bay, Birdwatching Northumberland (part 2)
Our second day out with the winners of last year’s Birdwatching Northumberland competition, was a day in Druridge Bay. It provided a real contrast with our earlier trip to the Harthope Valley. After collecting Jean and Andy from the Bamburgh Castle Inn we headed down to Embleton to collect Helen, our third client on this trip,…
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The dawning of the “season”
After a cold, wet day surveying one of our inland tetrads for the Bird Atlas, we had a very early start on Sunday for our Dawn Chorus walk at Lee Moor Farm. Ian was, as always, an entertaining host for the event and we walked around the farm, enjoying the songs of Willow Warbler, Song…