Northern Experience Wildlife Tours

Tag: Mute Swan

  • Slugs and snails and dolphin tails; Druridge Bay Safari 25/06/2015

    As I drove to Newton to collect Sue and Julian, the first few raindrops hit the windscreen of the car.  My optimism that the rain would soon pass over was drenched, literally, by a torrential downpour that the windscreen wipers couldn’t cope with and which sounded like I was in a tin can being pelted with stones 🙁  We set off for Bamburgh, completely surrounded by storms and found a flock of Common Scoter and Eider on the sea, and a miserable looking Puffin on the beach.  The rainfall left the air warm and humid, so as the afternoon passed into evening paths were covered in slugs and snails.  Common Toad and Common Frog crossed our path too, and the air was alive with small insects – and a good handful of Common Pipistrelles hunting them.  A Fox trotted along the edge of Cresswell Pond, where Avocets and Black-Tailed Godwit were roosting and feeding.  A male Marsh Harrier flew by, causing consternation amongst the Swallows, and Tufted Duck and Red-breasted Merganser both looked elegant as Mute Swans and Shelduck watched carefully over their young.  A Whitethroat sang from rank vegetation just a few metres away from us, and dusk brought Swallows, Sand Martins and Starlings to roost.

    The day will remain in the memory for years to come though, as a pod of dolphins put on a remarkable display.  We’d just finished our picnic and I decided to have one last scan before heading up the coast.  Top Tip – always have ‘one last scan’ 🙂  Close inshore I saw a small group of dolphins breaking the surface. White-beaked Dolphin should be here in a few days time, but these were big, dark animals and we soon confirmed that they were Bottlenose Dolphin.  Now, these are big impressive animals, and we spent nearly 40mins watching at least 12 of them as they slowly travelled north.  They weren’t just travelling though; synchronous breaching, tail-slapping, lob-tailing, spy-hopping, flipper waving and fighting continued as they passed by our viewpoint and eventually out of sight away to the north.  I’ve spent a lot of time watching dolphins, both with clients and when carrying out offshore surveys, but I’ve never seen a group of dolphins so animated as these were.  Wonder if they’ll be there for this evening’s pelagic trip 🙂

  • Dodging the showers; Otter mini-Safari 27/05/2015

    A weather forecast that ‘promises’ heavy rain for the entire duration of an evening with clients isn’t what we would hope for, but you can’t always trust the forecast…

    As I arrived at Church Point, followed soon after by Lesley and Andrew, the rain was falling steadily and the sky looked ever so slightly ominous.  Gordon and Mandy arrived a few minutes later and we set 0ff on an evening exploration of Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland in search of Otters.  Our first site revealed a skittish Mallard, although we couldn’t see what was spooking it, Little Egret, Common Terns and very close views of a Mink.  The weather had improved by this point, although there were still some ominous dark clouds away to the west as we headed north along Druridge Bay.  A Barn Owl broke off from hunting and perched obligingly on a fence post for several minutes, before launching a persistent attack on a male Marsh Harrier that was quartering the reeds.  Tufted Ducks were looking very alert, as were a pair of Great Crested Grebes, although we couldn’t be certain whether this was because of the harrier or another threat that we couldn’t see.  A Mute Swan pair with nine fluffy cygnets seeemd unconcerned and, as dusk approached, we positioned ourselves overlooking a spot where I was reasonably confident we’d find an Otter.  With hardly a breath of wind, and an overcast sky, viewing conditions were near perfect; very still water and a pale surface against which anything moving, particularly anything dark, would stand out…

    After a few minutes Mandy spotted something swimming along and diving, just visible above the tops of the reeds in front of us, and we were soon all watching an Otter 🙂  After a few minutes of feeding it changed direction and headed quickly straight across the pool and out of sight into the reeds.  Then the dark clouds arrived overhead, accompanied by a strong breeze and heavy rain…

  • Weather 1, Newt 1, NEWT 0; Otter Safari 06/04/2015

    I’ve long held the belief that the worst weather conditions for wildlife watching are strong cold winds.  There is something worse though, although so unusual that we rarely have to worry about it…

    I was out early yesterday morning, in what seemed to be ideal conditions.  From the coast I could see what looked like low cloud massing on the eastern horizon though.  By the time I was driving towards Alnwick to collect Jonathan and Katherine, that low cloud had arrived on the coast, and proved to be an incredibly dense sea fret.   A Common Newt, in a state of torpor, had presumably been part way across the footpath when the fret, and it’s bone-chilling temperatures, arrived.  We moved the newt out of harm’s way and began our search for Otters.  Canada Geese, Greylag Geese, Mute Swans, Mallards and Tufted Duck were all splashing and alarming.  There could have been a rampaging pack of Otters terrorising the waterfowl, but as visibility was less than 50m we couldn’t be sure what was causing all of the consternation 😉  A Little Egret shone briefly in the gloom before being enveloped by the next wave of cloud rolling in off the sea and, as we checked all of our regular sites visibility decreased, then improved briefly, then decreased again.  A few miles inland it was glorious, but every coastal waterbody was under a thick cloud so, after lunch, we decided to cut the trip down to a mini-safari.

    It was atmospheric…

  • Breezy; Otter Safari 28/03/2015

    With the end of March approaching I was hoping for less breezy weather than we’ve been having recently.  Not my lucky day though…

    I collected Melissa, Graham and Marjorie and we set off to spend the day exploring Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland.  Hormones coursing through the veins of Red-breasted Merganser, Shelduck, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Goldeneye, Teal and Mallard meant there was a lot of activity everywhere we went.  Cormorants were doing their very best Otter impressions, Little Grebes kept catching the eye as they dived beneath the waves and then, finally, the sign I’d been watching for.  A pair of Mallards sitting in the edge of a reedbed suddenly sat very upright, staring intently into the same corner of the pool that had produced an Otter on our previous Otter Safari.  This time though the wind had lifted the water’s surface into a series of rolling waves that could have hidden the Loch Ness Monster itself, and the cause of the duck’s distress remained unseen by our eyes.

    After a run of successful Otter Safaris, with some days where conditions really weren’t favourable, there was bound to be a day when they didn’t play ball…

  • Once Bittern; Druridge Bay mini-Safari 22/10/2014

    Yesterday afternoon brought quite different conditions to Tuesday evening; still cold and windy, but the clear skies had been replaced by gloomy cloud as I collected Charlotte, Ali, Ben and Thomas from Newbiggin for their second NEWT trip in two days.

    In difficult light, and occasional rain, we didn’t manage to find an Otter, but there was a wealth of birdlife to enjoy; a Cormorant was drying it’s wings as Little Grebe, Shoveler, Mallard, Teal, Wigeon, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Moorhen and Mute Swan fed nearby, flushed briefly by a Sparrowhawk that landed on a small rock in the water before heading off to menace something else.  As dusk approached, although it was hard to discern any difference from mid-afternoon, Starlings began a murmuration, Greylag and Pink-footed Geese arrived noisily to roost, Whooper Swans were whooping loudly and there was the ‘is it a heron, is it an owl?’ moment as a Bittern flew lazily from the reeds, passing by us on it’s way to another reedbed 🙂

  • 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 sting in the tale; Druridge Bay 10/04/2014

    With a holiday for a family wedding in Scotland looming, my last day out with clients for a couple of weeks was a mini-safari around Druridge Bay.  The unpredictable weather of recent weeks had been replaced by something much better as we headed north along the coast.

    The remnants of winter birdwatching, in the shape of Wigeon, Goldeneye, Pintail and Red-breasted Merganser, were intermingled with the early spring in the elegant form of at least three Avocets, and a lone Whooper Swan, in the midst of a herd of Mute Swans, probably hasn’t made it’s mind up what it’s doing for the summer yet.  Towards the end of the afternoon a yapping flock of Pink-footed Geese flew north, quickly gaining altitude as if heading off towards Iceland…before encountering the stiff northwesterly wind and looping back round again…and again…and again, before they eventually gave it up as a bad job and settled on the water with the discordant sounds of Canada and Greylag Geese around them.  The comings and goings at a feeding station held the attention for some time, with Great Tits, Coal Tits, Blue Tits, Tree Sparrows and Chaffinches all clustering around the feeders.

    Trips including young children can be a bit fraught but 3-year old Sylvie demonstrated a sharp eye for finding spiders, and 5-year old Felix, with some help from his little sister, wove a remarkable tale of a superhero Otter with a poisonous sting in it’s tail that I could have listened to for the rest of the day – a great way to finish work before NEWT’s first ‘proper’ holiday for a long time 🙂

  • Call of the wild; Druridge Bay 17/09/2013

    I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been asked to describe my favourite wildlife experience…and how many times I’ve said that I don’t think it’s possible to narrow it down to just one choice.  There are a few though, that would make a great ‘top five’ (or ‘top ten”)…

    I collected David and Sue from their holiday accommodation and we headed north along the Northumberland coast.  The plan for the afternoon was to search some of our regular Otter sites, and have a good look at the other wildlife that was around.  There’s really only one weather condition that I’m not keen on for wildlife-watching, and unfortunately we got it yesterday afternoon.  A stiff wind is not ideal for finding wildlife; insects are likely to stay deep in vegetation and mammals and birds are more likely to find somewhere sheltered and have a nap than subject themselves to the ravages of the wind.  One bird that seemed to be everywhere we went was Kestrel; we must have seen seven or eight of these small falcons hovering in the breeze during the afternoon.

    As we watched Wigeon, Teal, Mallard and Mute Swan a rarely seen denizen of our reedbeds put in a brief appearance.  In just a few seconds the Water Rail ran out of one reedbed, quickly crossed a patch of open mud and vanished into the depths of another reedbed.  Wader passage was still evident, with Black-tailed and Bar-tailed Godwit, Ruff, Lapwing, Curlew and Dunlin.  One bizarrely comical moment was caused by a Starling flying into the middle of the wader flock to bathe.  We can only guess at what the roosting waders thought it was, but it caused a ripple of alarm that could be traced through the flock as it flew in.

    Then, drifting on the breeze, a high-pitched yapping marked the beginning of one of my favourite wildlife experiences.  First a flock of Pink-footed Geese came in low and splashed down on the water.  Soon after a flock of Greylag Geese arrived, then more Pink-feet, a large flock of Canada Geese and four very endearing, but obviously escaped, Bar-headed Geese.  More geese followed, and then a flock of Pink-feet, heralded by those yapping calls, could be seen as tiny specks high against the clouds overhead.  These birds were surely just arriving from far-flung parts, to join the wintering goose flocks around Druridge Bay.  Suddenly birds took to the air; Dunlin first, then Lapwing, followed by ducks and then geese.  Too much panic, surely, for an Otter?  What the birds had seen, and we eventually spotted as it drifted high against the clouds above us, was a Marsh Harrier.  Making it’s way steadily north west, it eventually drifted out of sight and the birds settled back down.

    As dusk approached , the breeze finally relented and, with the backdrop of a stunning sunset, both Noctule and pipistrelle bats flew by.  The cause of a sudden panic amongst the assembled ducks was caused remained unseen, and as the light faded to the point where it was time to head back, we could still hear the geese – over a mile away from where we were.  The dark of the night brought one last wildlife experience though, as a Badger trotted along the road just in front of the car.

  • Breathtaking menace

    One of the species that our clients are always keen to see is the Otter.  From my own perspective though, one of it’s smaller relatives is a much more attractive mustelid.

    I collected Jackie, and Steve and Karen, from Church Point, and we set off on an exploration of Druridge Bay and the Northumberland coast.  As we sat scanning a coastal pool, watching for any sign of agitation among the assembled Mallards, Gadwall, Tufted Ducks, Little Grebes, Teal and Mute Swans, there was a rustling in the grass just in front of us and a Stoat popped it’s head out.  I started making quiet squeaking noises, and soon it peered out at us, then came out in the open and reared up on it’s hind legs – presumably fooled by my pishing into thinking that a small rodent was in trouble and in need of a Stoat to do it’s good deed for the day and end it’s misery 🙂 The Stoat is one of those species that are fairly common and widespread, but rarely seen.  When you do get one sitting out in full view though it really is a quite beautiful creature; lithe and muscular, inquisitive and deadly, it was a real treat to have this little predator right in front of us.

    As the evening wore on, small groups of Starlings were gathering ready to roost, Snipe seemed to be everywhere that we went and the eternal game of cat and mouse, between predators and prey, that is the natural world was still all around us as the sun dropped below the horizon away to the west.

  • “I am Gadwall…”

    After the heavy rain of Monday, it was good to drive to Newbiggin, to collect Bryan and Zoe & Simon, in warm sunshine and broken cloud.  Our evening Otter mini-Safari would take in the best of Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland…

    One thing that I always enjoy is the response to bird names from clients who’ve never come across a particular species before.  Godwit is a name that always raises a chuckle, and both Bar-tailed Godwit and Black-tailed Godwit, resplendent in their breeding finery, were among the noisy flocks of Redshank and Curlew.  Turnstones were also looking particularly stunning, two juvenile Marsh Harriers were drifting over reedbeds, a particularly dark male Pheasant couldn’t make his mind up which way to run when we stopped to admire him and a Stoat poked it’s head out of the grass, then back in, then out again, before finally running across in front of us.  Gadwall and Wigeon invoked more bemusement at bird names and we added Red Admiral, Meadow Brown and Magpie Moth to the trip list.  Small groups of Starlings were heading to roost and it was time for us to head to our final site of the evening.

    As the sun dropped towards the horizon we settled to scan for any indication of Otter activity.  A Sparrowhawk passed through, causing consternation in the Swallows, Sand Martins and House Martins and a Common Snipe was illuminated by a patch of sunlight, raising it from the level of ‘brown bird with long bill that pokes it’s face in mud’ to something quite sublime.  Then, a sudden panic among the ducks.  Females with ducklings were fanning out rapidly from one edge of the pond and we intensified our scanning of the reedy margins.  Nothing, but the birds weren’t settling.  Then a pair of Mute Swans gave a call that we’ve come to associate with one thing, and it was only a matter of time…in the dark shadow of a reedbed, I saw a line of bright water appear.  Everyone’s attention turned to that edge of the pool and then the Otter popped up at the surface 🙂  For 20 minutes it made it’s way steadily across the water, including a stunning few minutes in the reflection of the sunset, before finally vanishing into the darkening gloom.

    As we headed back towards Newbiggin, the discussion turned back to bird names and led to one of my all time favourite things that any client has said “I am Gadwall, a wizard of the elven kingdom, and you are Turnstone, a Dwarf” 🙂