Northern Experience Wildlife Tours

Tag: Song Thrush

  • All change

    Over the last few days there has been a distinct change; now, when I open our patio door, I can hear Song Thrush, Greenfinch, Chaffinch and Robin all singing.  Last Saturday, even in the bitter cold and howling gale that was battering the Northumberland coast, our Druridge Bay Safari was enriched with birdsong.

    Opportunities to get out and really take it all in have been limited.  I spent two full days last week getting my Outdoor First Aid certification.  While I was still teaching I had some First Aid training, but that was a picnic compared to an intensive two days where the trainers spend most of their time during casualty scenarios doing everything they can to get inside your head and see how you perform with your stress levels heading heavenwards.  It was curiously enjoyable though, and of course my wish is that I don’t need to put any of it into practice before I’m due to renew my certification in three years time.

    Another project which has kept me in the house has been choosing and processing the images that will grace the Birdwatching Northumberland stand at the British Bird Fair.  Finally we selected seven images of species that typify Northumberland birdwatching; inland, coastal and covering different times of the year.  And the species we chose?  Well, you’ll just have to come along and see us at Rutland Water between 20th and 22nd August.

    Now it’s another stunning Northumberland morning; clear blue skies, a gentle breeze, cold enough to freeze the wotsits off a brass monkey…and I’m heading out for a day of birdwatching with clients.

  • When the weather is miserable…

    After the changeable weather during the Birdwatching Northumberland press trip culminated in excellent conditions on Monday, I hoped that we would get more of the same on Tuesday for a Lindisfarne Safari that I was leading.  It looked good; at home we had a heavy frost and clear blue skies.  Yet just a few miles down the road, as I headed to Gosforth to collect our client, there was a bank of thick fog.  Not to worry, conditions might be better on Holy Island…they weren’t, in fact the fog was even thicker.  As we stood on the Heugh it was eerie.  A bitingly cold southeasterly wind and visibility down to just a few metres.  Oystercatchers, Redshanks and Herring Gulls could all be heard through the mist and we continued our journey around the island.  Song Thrushes lifted from each clump of grass as we walked towards the harbour and slightly improved visibility allowed us to look closely at Teal, Bar-tailed Godwits and Curlew.  Lichens and mosses came under great scrutiny (remarkable structures when viewed under a hand lens).  Off the island we found Pale-bellied Brent Geese, small groups of Whooper Swans, a field with lots of Greylag and Pink-footed Geese (and a ‘Canalag’ hybrid), several Kestrels, an incredibly obliging Common Buzzard, a mixed thrush flock (Redwing, Fieldfare, Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush and Blackbird), plenty of waders and, finally, as the mist returned and brought steady rainfall with it, Common Scoter, Shag and Eider on the sea. As we drove back down the A1 the worsening weather made it seem likely that we’d had better conditions than back at home.  There’s always something to see, whatever the weather.