Northern Experience Wildlife Tours

Tag: Long-tailed Tit

  • 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…

  • Rising tide; Northumberland Coast Bespoke Birdwatching 09/10/2015

    Friday was Tony’s third, and final, day of bespoke birdwatching with NEWT and we headed north in similar weather to Thursday… Travelling north, Roe Deer seemed unsure which way to run across the road so dodged back and forth in front of us.  On the rising tide, Little Egrets, Bar-tailed Godwits, Curlew, Dunlin, Redshank and…

  • Fantastic Mr Fox; Moorland and Coast 07/03/2014

    One of the best bits of being outside and searching for wildlife is the how everything around you ties together to create an experience; the landscape, the wildlife and the weather all come together to produce whatever they may… I collected Paul and Jeanette from their holiday accommodation in Warkworth and we started out down…

  • Never work with children or animals…

    Back when I was a teacher, and developing demonstration experiments, I came across a piece of advice that has stuck with me since then ‘prior practice prevents poor presentation’.  It served me well; it’s far better to accidentally set fire to the ceiling tiles in your classroom when there’s just yourself, a lab technician and…

  • Big Garden Birdwatch 2013

    Last weekend was the Big Garden Birdwatch and we followed tradition by sitting in our kitchen with a mug of coffee, and a bacon and tomato sandwich, having topped up all of the feeders the evening before.  An hour later, we’d racked up a list of 21 species; Blackbird 3, Jackdaw 2, Collared Dove 2,…

  • Sentinel

    It’s a rare day when a trip features a limited number of birds and other wildlife, but even the days with lots to see often have a few things that really stand out; sometimes by being scarce, sometimes it’s an intriguing behaviour, and sometimes it can be something that’s quite common but rarely seen.  An…

  • It’s good to be back

    After a planned break from days out with clients, and regular exercise and ice-pack treatment for my knee, we had a mini-Safari on Wednesday afternoon.  Southeast Northumberland is our local patch, so I was getting back into the swing of things with something comfortingly familiar. I collected Alastair and Zoe from Church Point and we…

  • Images of the future

    Yesterday evening we attended the Northumberland Wildlife Trust Photography Competition Awards event, as sponsors of the two junior categories in the competition. The standard of entries throughout all of the categories was very high.  The winning entry in the over 18 category was Peter Tapsell’s stunning shot of 3 Long-tailed Tits, and any regular reader…

  • Familiarity breeds content

    During the winter, when I’m busy with admin and business development, I do most of my birdwatching close to home.  Studying Jackdaw and Starling roosts involves a short walk, but with a constant level of activity around the feeding station (conveniently placed to be visible from the office window) I can enjoy the hobby that…

  • Feeding time

    I’ve never been good at sitting in the office and concentrating on one task for any length of time.  Having an office window that looks out over the 76ha of mixed woodland of Choppington Woods LNR is a real blessing, allowing me to mix work and birdwatching.  When I need to stretch my legs, a…