Tag: Golden Plover

  • Game on; North Pennines Safari 19/04/17

    I collected Steph from her home in Gateshead, for the first of four North Pennines trips I’m guiding over the next week, and we headed westwards… A Greyhen, hunkered down against the wind and rain in roadside vegetation, was fairly obliging as Snipe, Curlew and Lapwing displayed overhead and a Blackcock sat motionless in a…

  • Northumberland in the win(d)ter; Winter Wonderland holiday 19-22/02/17

    Day 1. 19/02/17. I arrived at the Bamburgh Castle Inn for the start of our Winter Wonderland holiday, then met up with with Christine, John, Linda and Rosie in the bar and outlined the plan for the next two days while we enjoyed a fantastic meal. Day 2. 20/02/17.  Our first full day was targeting…

  • Mud, glorious mud; Bespoke Wader ID Workshop 03/11/16

    Thursday was a trip I’d been looking forward to for several months…Sue’s 5th trip with NEWT was a day searching for and identifying wading birds.  Some, like the Curlew with it’s eerie cry and long downcurved beak are straightforward, but others can be a bit trickier… A field full of Oystercatcher and Lapwing close to…

  • Arrivals; Holy Island bespoke birdwatching 20/10/16

    Yesterday was Pete and Jan’s 9th trip with NEWT and we headed to a location that they haven’t visited with us previously… Heading north from Embleton we soon encountered the first rain of the day, and by the time we reached the Holy Island causeway the mud and shallow water around the array of Redshank,…

  • Damp; Druridge Bay 19/10/16

    I collected Phil and Richard and we set out for a day birdwatching around Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland.  The forecast suggested there was the possibility of a rain shower sometime in the early afternoon… Eider were well-appreciated, as Golden Plover carpeted the mud at low tide, and other ducks are starting to look very…

  • Avoiding the crowds; Lindisfarne mini-Safari 23/08/16

    Northumberland is a sparsely populated county where it’s relatively easy to get away from it all and enjoy watching wildlife without the hustle and bustle of large numbers of other people… I met up with Lynsey, Francis, Gregory and Thea in the main car park on Holy Island ahead of an afternoon mini-Safari around the…

  • Dodging the showers; Lindisfarne Safari 09/08/16

    The unpredictability of the weather in northern England is one of the reasons I love living here.  Early August and you just don’t know whether there’ll be clear skies and sunshine, or something akin to the depths of the autumn… I arrived at Kingston Park and met up with Chris (for his third trip with…

  • “Can you remember when…”; Druridge Bay Safari 04/08/16

    Yesterday was a Druridge Bay Safari for Andy, Jill and Cat, who’d been out with us in February, and Gill, who’s a newcomer to NEWT, but has two more trips booked next week 🙂 Five Little Egret together between Amble and Warkworth was a good start to the day, while 15 juvenile Goosander formed a…

  • When the north wind blows; Lindisfarne Safari 02/06/16

    Thursday was a Lindisfarne Safari where we had the option of either staying on the island over the high tide period, or concentrating on the mainland sites in the Lindisfarne NNR… I collected Stephen and Kate from The Swan, and we headed up the A1 to collect Gordon and Mandy for their 4th day out…

  • Winter’s Icy Grip; Bespoke Lindisfarne Safari 25/02/2016

    There’s a special quality to the winter; stark, icy landscapes filled with vast flocks of wintering birds grip the attention and leave you marvelling at the inhospitable conditions our winter wildlife contends with.  We can wear a range of incredibly technical clothing, and head back to the car, or even indoors, if conditions deteriorate but…