After the christmas break I was really looking forward to today’s Otter Safari. So, just after dawn, I collected Emily and Darren from their holiday cottage at Composers at Woodlands, excited by the prospect of the day ahead. It was overcast and cold but visibility was good and I spotted a group of four Roe Deer in a field by the road, so we spent some time watching them as they fed. On to our first Otter site and…there was one straight away! Diving, swimming, rolling, feeding, scratching, stretching, scaring ducks, diving, swimming and feeding some more; nearly two hours passed while everyone remained entranced by the easy flexible movement of the ever-popular mustelid. Eventually it dived and made it’s way out of our sight so we headed to a lunchtime rendezvous with Sarah and our picnic hamper. Lunch was accompanied by the sight of a Red Squirrel gnawing away at the wire mesh of a peanut cage, Great Spotted Woodpeckers chasing each other through the trees, Treecreepers chasing each other around the trunk of a tree, a Nuthatch that took over where the squirrel left off and no end of Coal, Blue and Great Tits. Up through Druridge Bay and a duck identification session; Mallard, Teal, Wigeon, Shoveler, Goldeneye and Pochard – males all resplendent in their breeding plumage. Numbers at our regular Starling roost were lower than usual; perhaps the cold and gloomy afternoon encouraged them to hasten to bed. The journey back to Scremerston held one last delight as a Barn Owl sat on a fence post in the headlight beam of the Landrover, tilting it’s head slightly from side-to-side, listening, waiting.
Our 2009 dates will be on the website calendar on January 1st and will include Otter Safaris in every month combined with the special wildlife at each time of the year, although the winter is often the best time to see them when we can also look for Red Squirrels, Roe Deer, geese, ducks and owls.