Northern Experience Wildlife Tours

Tag: Mallard

  • The pointy end of wildlife watching; Otter mini-safari 12/08/2014

    As I collected Paul, Lily and Charlie from North Shields, dark clouds were gathering away to the north.  Over Druridge Bay – just where we were heading…

    A late brood of Barn Swallows, still in the nest and being fed by their parents, were quite a size contrast to Grey Herons stalking along the water’s edge. Little Grebe, Tufted Duck, Mallard and Gadwall were dabbling and diving, small groups of Starling were heading to roost and, as darkness approached quicker than it would on a nicer evening, we settled into position to watch for Otters.  We were in a struggle with dusk and the weather, but distantly, in the gloom of the waters’ edge, the tell-tale ‘Loch Ness Monster’ shape of an Otter was resting at the surface 🙂  As it moved around the pool, distant plantations and nearby reedbeds were used as landmarks so that everyone knew just where it was.  Then it began moving closer and eventually came up out of the water onto an exposed patch of mud; an apex predator silhouetted against the dying embers of daylight as an unseasonably cold wind began cutting across us and the first drops of rain dimpled the water’s surface around the gulls, ducks and geese settling down for the night as their mortal enemy watched on with mustelid curiosity and cunning.

  • Edgy; Otter Safari 23/07/2014

    Last Wednesday was a bespoke ‘truncated’ Otter Safari, booked as a retirement present for Joe.  I collected Joe, Ann, Jess and Jack from Newton by the Sea and we made our way south to Druridge Bay.  We had our picnic, overlooking the North Sea, enjoyed the graceful elegance of Avocet and Little Egret and then settled into position at one of our regular Otter sites…

    Otters may be relatively common and widespread in Northumberland, certainly when you compare our county to other areas of England, but they can still prove frustrating.  Many times we’ve watched all of the assembled wildlife behaving as if there’s an Otter present…without our quarry putting in an appearance.  A strip of Amphibious Bistort seemed as good a place as any to start scanning; it should hold small fish and invertebrates, attracting larger animals that prey on them.  Sure enough, scanning along the edge I came across the familiar ‘Loch Ness Monster’ shape of an Otter resting at the surface 🙂  We watched as it twisted, turned, dived and fed for nearly an hour, with Mute Swans, Tufted Ducks and Mallards watching warily and a Black-headed Gull swooping down each time the Otter surfaced.  Eventually it went out of sight, but not before Jess took photos of it through the telescope…using a small compact camera 🙂  The journey back to Newton included not one, not two, but three Barn Owls.   The middle of the summer may often be regarded as not the best wildlife-watching season that we have, but it produces the goods year after year 🙂

  • A wet Wednesday in Warkworth; mini-safari 28/05/2014

    Drizzle and murk aren’t the usual conditions we enjoy in Northumberland, but Wednesday wasn’t looking promising as I drove up the A1 to collect Corin, Claire, Jean, Gene and Lily.

    The drizzle continued steadily as we watched over a beautful stretch of the River Aln.  Blackbirds and Chiffchaffs were singing, fish were rising at surface of the river and a Common Buzzard flapped away downstream.  We headed on, watching a buzzard carrying prey over the road ahead of us, to a site where we hoped to find an Otter.Initially all was serene, Shelducks were watching over their ducklings, Tufted Ducks, Gadwall and a Mute Swan were feeding quietly and a female Mallard was watching over her one remaining duckling (unsurprising given the frequent Otter activity in that pool).  Then there was a change; The Shelducks flew off, abandoning their brood (who all headed away from the edge of the pool and formed a dense cluster), the Mallard abandoned her duckling, which swam up and down plaintively calling and the four Tufted Ducks all turned to stare straight at the same stretch of reedbed.  Then they moved further away, forming a tight mixed flock in the centre of the pool with Mute Swans, Gadwall, Mallards and Greylag Geese.  The drama continued as the lone Mallard duckling swam close to a swan nest and was attacked by both adult swans, diving repeatedly as they struck at it with their beaks.  The swans, ducks andgeese dispersed, still watching the reedbed warily, the Shelducks flew back in, taking the brood under their wing for the night, the lone Mallard duckling contined swimming back and forth, calling for it’s parent and a Roebuck bounded through a reedbed.  Suddenly the air was alive with Swallows, Sand Martins andHouse Martins, indicating one thing…the evening hatch had started.   Zzzzzzzzzzzz, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, zzzzzzzzzzzz; the incessant mechanical droning of hundreds, if not thousands, of flying insects,taking to the air in the warm humidity.  It was getting too dark to see any detail, but as the Mallard duckling swam in front of us, it’s mother returned.  Who doesn’t love a story with a happy ending 🙂

  • Watching; Bespoke Safari 25/04/2014

    The first part of the Bank Holiday weekend was a washout, with our scheduled Dark Skies event, for a Hen Party in Kielder, falling victim to the weather 🙁 Sunday was a bespoke wildlife Safari for Claire and Sophie and, as I collected them from home in Gosforth, things were looking a bit more promising.  Away inland we could see a lot of general murkiness, so we headed for the Northumberland coast – planning to drop down to Druridge Bay as the afternoon progressed.

    Glorious, yet chillingly breezy weather was waiting for us at Bamburgh and we watched Eider and Common Scoter as they bobbed about in the swell.  We checked the wake of very passing boat for any sign of Bottlenose Dolphinsand continued south down the coast.  Willow Warblers, Sedge Warblers, Reed Buntings andWhitethroats were singing all around and Little Grebes were diving for prey before bobbing back to the water’s surface.  Our picnic stop featured Fulmars arcing just above the clifftops a few metres away from us and a viewpoint over the River Wansbeck revealed lots and lots of ducklings; Gadwall, Mallard, Shelduck all had broods of between eight and eleven – although this prime source of Otter food didn’t seem to have attracted the attention of any Otters.  A Roe Deer on the far bank appeared than quickly vanished again as it made it’s way through the bushes, and Swifts, Swallows, House Martins andSand Martins feasted on the buzzing clouds of insects overhead.  As daylight faded we arrived at one site to find a Mallard and a Grey Heron both staring intently into a hole that we’ve long suspected of being an Otter holt.  More Mallards, and the three of us, joined the staring contest but the adversary that eventually flushed the heron, and had the Mallards waddling away at a rate of knots, remained unseen as bats began flitting past our ears.

  • Causing a commotion; Otter mini-safari 15/05/2014

    “If you usually travel through Northumberland to get to Scotland, what is it about Northumberland that made you choose to stay here on this holiday?”  I asked the question as a bit of market research; after all, knowing why people visit Northumberland helps with developing a better experience for them.  The answer was slightly unexpected though “This otter safari”…

    I arrived at Church Point shortly before Philip and Pauline, who were back for their second trip with NEWT following a Druridge Bay safari in 2012.  We quickly met up with Albert and Elisabeth and began our search for Otters in the pools of Druridge Bay.  With no obvious panic amongst the assembled wildfowl, I decided that we should try elsewhere.  Initially all seemed calm and, as an entertaining discussion about mustelids developed (with all four participants on the trip having previously seen one species that is still very high on my wish list…), I kept checking the ducks and geese along the water’s edge.  Then, a change; two pairs of Canada Geese were suddenly very alert.  Necks held straight up, all staring intently along the river bank.  That was a good sign.  Then a better one, as a brood of Mallard ducklings scattered in a semi-circle from the bankside vegetation.  Something had spooked them, but what was it?  For the next five minutes I kept my binoculars trained on the spot that the Mallards had scattered from.  First there was no indication of what had scared them, but it had to be something…then persistence paid off.  What appeared to be a log floating on the water hadn’t been there the last time I looked, and it rolled at the surface, dived and popped back up 🙂  Using the shapes of the trees on the bank as landmarks, everyone was soon watching the Otter as it dived repeatedly in the same spot.  It was so fixated on feeding in a very small area that I was able to train the telescope on it and everyone managed to watch it through ‘scope as well as binoculars.  It vanished for a few minutes, before the geese alerted us to it’s presence a little way downstream.  As daylight faded the surface of the river became a featureless, unwelcoming darkness as bats flitted back and forth around the tree canopy and we headed back.

  • 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 the coast through Druridge Bay.  Our first stop was looking very promising; Goosanders, Grey Herons, Avocets, Wigeon, Teal, Pintail, Mallard, Curlew, Lapwing, Dunlin, Bar-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Common Snipe, Turnstone…and a noticeable lack of birds in one corner of the pond 🙂 Always the first sign we look for when searching for Otters, so I was confident that there was one moving around close by.  It was looking so promising that I thought we should stay put and have lunch where we were.  I went back to the car to fetch our soup and sandwiches and when I got back to the hide, less than 5mins later, I was greeted with “You’re not going to believe it, but there’s an Otter just over there.”  Sure enough, Brenda’s directions had me looking in exactly the spot where it next surfaced 🙂  After a few minutes it went out of sight, before reappearing 30mins later, spreading panic amongst the ducks that were roosting at the water’s edge.  Then, as mysteriously as it first appeared, it dived and didn’t resurface where it could be seen.

    We headed on up the coast in conditions that were becoming less entertaining, with a brutal southeasterly wind that seemed to drive the cold and damp through every layer of clothing that could be mustered.  Noisy Black-headed Gulls were dive-bombing Canada Geese, Little Grebes were just being their cute selves, Sand Martins swirled back and forth over the River Aln, Coot and Moorhen busied themselves around the reedbeds and Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Blackbird, Mistle Thrush, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove and Wren were all singing.

    Probably a more wintry day than any day out we had during the winter, enriched by the sleek, sinuous menace of the Otter 🙂

  • Rain song in beautiful light; Northumberland Birdwatching 12/03/2014

    Last Wednesday was a trip I’d been looking forward to for some time.  Janice and David have visited Northumberland annually for many years and it was David’s 50th birthday so Janice had arranged an afternoon out for him 🙂

    Arriving at Cresswell, I was impressed by the naked-eye view of a Red-throated Diver from the window of the cottage, and we were soon on our way up the coast, for an afternoon’s birdwatching concentrating on locations where there is a better than average chance of seeing an Otter.  David is a keen reader of some of our local birdwatching blogs and it wasn’t long before we bumped into a familiar name as we enjoyed East Chevington’s quartet of grebes – Little, Great Crested, Slavonian and Red-necked – in the company of Alan Gilbertson, who showed us an image he’d taken of Bean Geese at Hauxley.  Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser, Long-tailed Duck, Tufted Duck, Teal, Wigeon, Mallard and Gadwall were all stunning in the beautiful afternoon light and we continued on our way.  The closure of one of the footpaths at Hauxley was going to make viewing the geese slightly tricky, as we’d have to be looking into the sun.  We managed to find one spot that gave us a good view of the birds and, after we’d sifted through plenty of Greylag, Canada and Pink-footed Geese, which were obligingly on the pool rather than on a distant field, I spotted the brown wings and orange legs of a Tundra Bean Goose, which was asleep but woke to allow excellent comparison with the Pinkfeet.

    On to a delightful spot that we’ve been checking recently for Otter, and the songs of Wren, Greenfinch and Goldfinch filled the air, as well as the persistent ‘rain song’ of a male Chaffinch, a Dipper came along the river, calling, and secreted itself away from view under the bridge we were standing on, a Grey Wagtail flew over calling, a Common Buzzard glided low over the trees and a flock of Curlew rose noisily from nearby fields.  The Chaffinch and his mate were busy helping themselves to flies that were trapped in spider webs, and a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers really looked at their best in the sublime low sunlight.

    Our final port of call was Cresswell Pond, which was bathed in warm orange sunlight with the tops of the reeds appearing to be aflame as the sun sank closer and closer to the horizon.  Common Snipe were roosting at the water’s edge and a Starling murmuration twisted and turned above the skyline to the north as the light faded and I returned David back to the cottage.  Incredibly, five hours had quite simply flown past as we enjoyed an afternoon birdwatching and chatting about wind farms, raptor persecution, marine conservation and Scottish independence.  Do you know, you can easily tie all of those topics together 🙂

  • 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 the coast towards Druridge Bay.  Originally the plan had been Harwood and then the coast, but weather conditions suggested it would be better to reverse that.  Then there was a sudden change from the poor conditions and it was looking like a glorious morning after all so we reverted to Plan A.  The Northumbrian weather responded by throwing everything it could at us; sunshine, azure blue skies, fluffy white clouds, torrential rain and brutal biting winds all came, went and came again 🙂 There was no sign of any Goshawk activity in the good spells but you could hardly blame them 🙂  Eventually we retreated back down to the coastal plain…and had the same sequence of changeable weather all over again!  Feeding stations were a hive of bird activity, with Chaffinches, Long-tailed Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit and a very bright male Siskin all entertaining us, but Red Squirrels weren’t to be seen.  Some of our coastal ponds have been producing regular Otter sightings over the last few months…but the most notable thing was that the howling gale was generating waves that you could have surfed on!  Tree Sparrows and Goldfinches were clinging on to branches as the wind buffeted them and, as Curlew, Lapwing and a nice mini-murmuration of Starlings were tossed about on the breeze, Tufted Duck, Goldeneye; Mallard, Wigeon, Teal, Shelduck and Slavonian, Red-necked, Great Crested and Little Grebe struggled in the waves.

    Our final destination for the day was one of our favourite Badger setts.  There was rustling in the scrub on the valley sides, but no stripy black-and-white head appeared, at least not before it was too dark to see.  What did come along though was a Red Fox.  Unusually obliging, this one trotted along just above the sett before stopping and fixing us with a stare.  It didn’t bolt, as foxes so often do, but watched us, and some passing dog walkers, before continuing with its exploration of the hillside.  Often underrated, undervalued, frequently despised…but a thoroughly engaging animal if you take time to watch the almost feline grace of this wild canine.

  • Five star birdwatching; Northumberland Coast 20/02/14

    Our fourth trip this week was a day birdwatching with Simon, who was back again after previous trips including a stunning Farne Deeps pelagic in 2012.  We’d spoken in advance of the trip and Simon was keen to add a few of Northumberland’s wintering birds to his life list; divers, grebes, Purple Sandpiper and Brambling were all mentioned as desirable.

    When I arrived to collect him on Thursday morning, I was still wrestling with the challenge of heading inland for Brambling, yet leaving plenty of time to explore the Northumberland coast.  That worry was quickly taken away, as putting a feeder up outside the holiday cottage meant that Simon had found one of the species on his wish list himself 🙂  Covering most of the coast from north to south produced five lifers;  Red-throated Divers just beyond the surf, Long-tailed Ducks including a breathtakingly beautiful drake, Purple Sandpipers unobtrusively poking around in rock pools, displaying Goldeneye rivaling the attractiveness of the Long-tailed Ducks and, as the afternoon light faded and the rain finally arrived, a very obliging Water Rail.  Twite, Stonechat, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting, Skylark, Marsh Harrier, Slavonian, Little and Red-necked Grebes, Shelduck, Bar-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Grey and Golden Plover, Lapwing, Gannet, Curlew, Teal, Mallard and Wigeon may have been reduced to a supporting role for the day, but all combined to produce an excellent day’s birdwatching on the Northumberland coast 🙂

  • Eye to eye with the predator; Bespoke Photography 21/10/2013

    The chilly morning air was biting as I arrived in Seahouses to collect Peter, Caroline and Aidan.  With camera gear loaded into the back of the car we headed down the Northumberland coast with two species in particular on our target list for the day – one relatively easy, one slightly less so…

    I’d planned the morning to take in a couple of sites for Red Squirrel, and the early afternoon to stake out a regular Otter spot.  So, Red Squirrel is the relatively easy species out of those two…but the first rule of wildlife photography should be ‘wildlife doesn’t perform to order’ and both sites we visited, which have healthy populations of Red Squirrel, didn’t produce any sightings.  That’s often the case though when it’s damp, cool and breezy, so we headed on in search of our second target for the day.  After a brief stake out of a handsome male Stonechat we made our way to the edge of a pond, and were told by another birdwatcher who was there that he’d seen an Otter just 15mins earlier, and it had headed across the pond.  I looked across in the direction he thought it had gone…and the entire bank was lined with ducks and geese.  A good sign; the Otter had obviously spooked them out of the water but it must be still somewhere in the pond, as all of the birds were staring intently.  I couldn’t see any disturbance in the water in that direction though and I was just remarking that I thought the Otter could still be nearby, when it surfaced in front of us 🙂  For the next couple of hours we were treated to regular feeding sorties as the sinuous mustelid caught fish after fish, including at least one large Flounder.  Cormorants and Grey Herons were fishing too, a Water Rail put in a couple of typically fleeting appearances, Common Snipe were prodding, probing and miraculously vanishing in short vegetation, Lapwing, Curlew and Redshank were roosting, calling and occasionally flushing, Mallard and Teal kept standing to attention every time the Otter was close by, a murmuration of Starlings away to the north disbanded into smaller flocks that flew straight over our heads and seven Little Gulls danced their dainty flight back and forth over the pond.  Perhaps the moment of the day though, was when the Otter appeared around the edge of a reedbed and started straight into Aidan’s camera lens.  The second rule of wildlife photography should be ‘…and sometimes it does’ 🙂