Northern Experience Wildlife Tours

Tag: Otter

  • Seabird Spectacular

    Our Seabird Spectacular package holiday managed to coincide with some increasingly heavy seas and strong northerly winds.  Getting on a boat would have been somewhat inadvisable , but we still managed to get good views of all the target species for the holiday, including Roseate Tern, Little Tern and Puffin. Perhaps we should have renamed the…

  • Burning desire

    Tuesday, and I’m sitting with Matt and Becky, waiting in anticipation as dusk approaches.  An orange/yellow glow rimming the horizon and the pallid, diffuse nature of the clouds covering the rest of the sky enhancing the impression that a thousand fires were burning in the distance.  Through the flames, dark ashes danced across our field of view; Tufted…

  • The icing on the cake

    As the rain hammered down while I packed the car ready for Sunday’s Otter Safari I was filled with optimism; the weather forecast (really, I should stop believing these…) suggested that the afternoon and evening would be dry and bright. When I arrived at Church Point Marc and Marika were already there, and we were joined…

  • An eventful evening

    Thursday was my 3rd consecutive late finish. Before setting off for a ‘Red Squirrel and Badger Safari’ I had a few admin things to get done including some more planning for the Birdwatching Northumberland stand at this year’s British Bird Fair (I’ve got 2 lecture slots at the Bird Fair this year!). After collecting our picnic from The…

  • The Otter unpredictability of wildlife

    After Tuesday’s Otter Safari, Wednesday brought another one, this time a Prestige Tour. Now, I know that you can never guarantee the wildlife that you’ll see on any day (not entirely true, I know…) but the sentence “what we really want is to photograph an Otter” adds a certain pressure to the proceedings 🙂 I…

  • A matter of timing

    We had 2 Otter Safaris at the weekend, both accompanied by rain, but both very successful. On Saturday I collected Lesley and Rab from their accommodation at The Swan, and the rain started just as we were getting into the car!  An afternoon spent dodging the showers, and enjoying some excellent birdwatching around Druridge Bay,…

  • The delights of dusk

    There have been times, during the 3 and bit years of NEWT, when it’s almost seemed like working 9 to 5 (although with the difference that you never really know how any given day will turn out).  Gradually though we’re shifting to early starts or late finishes, and it’s really paying off for our clients.…

  • A gift from heaven

    I’ve always known that I tend to be very lucky when out with clients but last week, when we welcomed our first ever clients from Cyprus, that luck took an unexpected form. I collected Jane, Aristos, Eva and Nassos from Newcastle and we headed coastwards in the blazing sunshine.  Our birdwatching along Druridge Bay included what was,…

  • Juggling act

    We’ve just finished what has almost certainly been our hardest week since we started NEWT; organising and guiding a 7-night Northumberland birdwatching holiday for no less than 18 clients. The Bamburgh Castle Inn was our accommodation base for the week and the upstairs conservatory, with it’s excellent views over the harbour, Farne Islands and Bamburgh Castle, was…

  • Putting in the effort

    Early afternoon on Tuesday I collected Julian and Andrew from their accommodation at The Swan for an afternoon of birdwatching and general natural history in Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland.  After a busy afternoon that produced sightings of Barn Owl (an incredibly obliging bird that we watched hunting for nearly 20minutes), 4 Brown Hares and a Temminck’s Stint amongst…