Tuesday’s North Pennines Prestige tour was a complete contrast to Wednesday’s Otter Safari. The weather was much nicer than on Tuesday as I collected Mark and Clare from Alnwick. Our Otter Safaris, although structured to maximise our clients’ chances of getting good views of Otters, always produce lots of other wildlife as well. This one was no exception, with excellent views of Red Squirrel, Roe Deer, Brown Hare and Little Owl, amongst all of the usual suspects. Unusually, we were struggling to find an otter, so I had one last throw of the dice…however, the nice weather had brought out lots of holidaymakers and they appeared to be concentrated around that last chance 🙁 Clare, after watching a ‘sleek, shiny lump’ hidden in a small channel in the reeds, that she decided couldn’t be an otter, was concerned that the lump had now vanished! Then, the behaviour we’d been watching for; Teal and Mallard began to leave the safety of the reeds and head out into the open water. More importantly, they were doing this in sequence along the edge of the pool. Sure enough, there was the sleek, dark shape of an otter working it’s way through the reedbed 🙂 Not the best views, but Mark did see it lift it’s head, just before a group of holidaymakers appeared in front of the hide! One last view as it bounded along a furrow in the field behind the pool, and then the ducks all settled back down. They really are an excellent indicator; they know when a predator is close, and they know when it’s far enough away to stop worrying. The conclusion to two of the most enjoyable days we’ve had with clients since our first safari.
Tag: Little Owl
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Oats, coast, stoat
Today dawned bright and clear; very cold but just the sort of day to spend birdwatching in southeast Northumberland. After a breakfast of porridge I was warmed through and ready for the day ahead. I collected Keith and Chris from Morpeth and took them on what appeared to be a magical mystery tour as we searched for Little Owls and Waxwings before reaching the coast at Newbiggin. 20 minutes later we were on our way towards Druridge Bay, with two clients who now had the knowledge of how to identify Mediterranean Gulls, and had put this into practice on at least two birds.
Wildfowl are still the major attraction in the bay, and the bright sunlight really showed Teal, Wigeon, Goldeneye, Shelduck, Gadwall, Red-breasted Merganser and even the humble Mallard in their best light. Big flocks of Pink-footed and Greylag Geese featured throughout the day and binocular-filling views of Skylarks and Twite went down very well. A Little Owl watched us intently from high in a tree and a Common Buzzard was soaring over East Chevington. Eventually we located a big flock of Pink-footed Geese on the ground and we searched through them for Bean Geese. No luck, but just as we turned our attention to a flock of Greylags, Keith spotted a white blur and we watched the tail of a Stoat vanishing into some long grass. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I started squeaking and kept going for a couple of minutes until the ermine predator came to see what was in distress. It showed incredibly well, first poking its nose through the grass before reappearing behind a fence and fixing us with a Little Owl-esque stare. As it slipped out of sight again I looked up…and there was a Bittern overhead. Another stunning end to another stunning day 🙂
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Along the valley
I must have driven the A69 between Throckley and Haydon Bridge over 1000 times. Working at that corner of the county for three years meant that I had the return journey at all times of year and in all weather conditions. It also meant that I could check out birdwatching sites along the route (at least whenever I set off early enough in a morning…or extended the journey home).
Today we drove that familiar route, traversing the county from east to west, with the snow-covered North Pennine hills away to the south, past Little Owl sites near Ponteland, a couple of fields with Roe Deer (where I first saw them in 2001), several Common Buzzard territories and a Peregrine territory, where there were two birds today – scattering Jackdaws and Lapwings as they went. Astonishing sight of the day was a Fulmar making it’s way E along the valley! I’ve seen them inland before (even our garden has 2 records – and a Fulmar shearing along the allotments is a pretty bizarre sight) but this was almost as far from the sea as you can get in the Northeast. Lapwings were dotted around the snow-covered fields, Fieldfares and Redwings were in the roadside hedges and Kestrels were hovering intently over the verge.
Eventually we arrived at our destination, Poltross Wild Bird Foods, where we caught up with Martin and Jose and had a chat about the ongoing battle to save the Red Squirrel. With a car boot filled with bird and squirrel food we drove back east and set about replenishing all of the feeders. Almost immediately the garden filled with birds, including 8 Long-tailed Tits and a dozen Chaffinches. The predicted return of bitterly cold weather is likely to lead to a daily re-filling of the feeders. Maybe we’ll even resurrect the Choppington Woods feeding station, although I think ourselves and all of our neighbours are providing an adequate supply…and the feeders are safer when they’re in our gardens 😉
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I prefer snow…
We set off for Holy Island this morning with a clear objective in mind for the journey – photograph a Little Owl. Many years ago one of my fellow photography students produced a series of excellent images of Tawny Owls and explained his technique for finding the birds. Needless to say, the hard work was done in the dark. Finding Little Owls in daylight isn’t uncommon although I’ve realised in the last couple of weeks that, especially when all the trees are bare of leaves, it’s easier to find them at night. We stopped off at one of the sites I’ve been watching regularly and there, in beautiful light for photography, was a Little Owl. Sarah has been developing (no pun intended) as a photographer, so I manouvered the Landrover into position as she took the shot…with my new D300s.
Who are you looking at? The highlight of the remainder of the journey north was a large flock of Linnets, with a few Brambling mixed in, swirling backwards and forwards as a male Merlin darted across the field they were in. A covey of Grey Partridges sat tight just long enough for Sarah to fire the shutter again.
Partridges…nowhere near a Pear tree As we neared Holy Island the rain began, and by the start time for our walk it was icy and heavy. Not the highlight of the day.
Well, with today’s images processed and added to our ‘Northumberland in the Winter’ presentation we’re on our way out now to entertain a group of holidaymakers who may need cheering up 🙂
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Snow on the sand
I’m lucky enough to not suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). In fact I look forward to the winter months – I’m a bit dysfunctional in very hot weather (that’s one of the reasons I live in the north of England, and why I enjoy winter holidays in northwest Scotland so much).
Our very wintry Lindisfarne Safari on Monday was just about my ideal day out; bitterly cold, inspirational winter light, hardly another person to be seen anywhere and plenty of wildlife.
That inspiration manifested itself in a repeat visit to the Lindisfarne NNR yesterday. I had two goals in mind; photograph Pale-bellied Brent Geese, and capture an image of Bamburgh Castle as the light faded.
The geese were some distance away, due to the state of the tide, but I managed to capture the distant birds in the shadow of Lindisfarne Castle, and a small group as they flew along the tideline.
Lindisfarne Castle and Pale-bellied Brent Geese 
Pale-bellied Brent Geese The light was fading rapidly so I drove to Bamburgh, along roads that resembled a ski run, and made my way down to the beach. Frozen rock-pools and a beach dusted with snow aren’t a frequent occurence so it was an unusual opportunity to photograph the castle in these conditions. The big, thick gloves that were keeping my hands nice and toasty were too bulky to let me operate the camera so I had to suffer for the image. And it was suffering; just a few seconds with my gloves off and my hands were protesting at the cold.
Bamburgh Castle in the snow 22/12/09 
The Moon, high over Bamburgh 22/12/09 20 miles back down the road, with gloves on and the car heater on full, my fingers began to warm through…so I decided to extend the journey home and check some of our favourite owl sites, even though that would require some very, very careful driving. A Barn Owl perched on a stack of hay bales was justification enough for that decision and two Little Owls, perched in trees just a hundred metres apart were the icing on the cake.
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Classic arrival conditions?
After the Seal and Seaduck Special on Saturday, we opted for a birdwatching walk on Sunday. The original plan was to leave my car at Alnmouth, drive to Craster in Sarah’s car and then walk the coastal path between the two villages. As we set off from Craster it looked good for our walk, but within 15 minutes we were caught up in a howling southerly and driving icy rain. Eventually, after slightly less than half of our planned route we admitted defeat and returned to Craster harbour. Then the weather improved…sitting and enjoying our picnic at the harbourside, watching Turnstones, Redshanks and Oystercatchers, we were alerted to the presence of a dumpy brown bird coming ‘in-off’ as everything scattered from the harbour wall. Thoughts of Little Owl, or something rarer, quickly vanished as the bird’s very long bill became evident. Now, mid-October in a howling northeasterly is the time we would expect to find Woodcock arriving on the coast, but early December in a 25mph southerly? It landed just a few feet from us, in the middle of the track, and sat for about 20 seconds before flying low up the road out of the village.
After 2 days out and about, the payback was a day of housework/admin on Monday. So, I decided to ‘sort out’ our bookshelves. Always a bad idea as I’m easily distracted, and re-arranging our books invariably leads to “hmm, I haven’t looked at that for a while”…