{"id":1135,"date":"2011-07-11T08:02:46","date_gmt":"2011-07-11T08:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1135"},"modified":"2017-07-08T10:27:07","modified_gmt":"2017-07-08T09:27:07","slug":"bird-watching-magazine-reader-holiday-day-1-07072011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/bird-watching-magazine-reader-holiday-day-1-07072011","title":{"rendered":"Bird Watching Magazine Reader Holiday Day 1: 07\/07\/2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

I met with Geoff and Jenny, Roy and Lorraine & David and Linda on the Wednesday evening in the bar of the Bamburgh Castle Inn<\/a> and, after introductions and drinks, we went upstairs to the conservatory for dinner.\u00a0 A steady stream of Gannets<\/strong><\/em> was heading north and I outlined the plan for the coming days; modified in light of the weather forecast!<\/p>\n

An 06:30 start on Thursday morning appealed to three of the group, so we set off to walk around Seahouses Harbour and along to the golf course.\u00a0 Lorraine had dreamt the night before that we found a Bluethroat<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Not just any Bluethroat though; a Fork-tailed Bluethroat (something that doesn\u2019t exist…although we spent the rest of the holiday looking for one!).\u00a0 The heavy swell and breaking waves gave the sea an imposing look, and the strong, cold southeasterly wind and dark clouds all around added to the atmosphere.\u00a0 With high tide approaching, wading birds were concentrated onto just a few exposed rocks; among the Oystercatchers<\/strong><\/em>, Redshanks<\/strong><\/em> and Curlews<\/strong><\/em> were a single Ringed Plover<\/strong><\/em> and 5 summer-plumaged Knot<\/strong><\/em>, their peachy-orange underparts showing why, in some parts of the world, they\u2019re known as Red Knot<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 A Whimbrel<\/strong><\/em> flew by and Linnets<\/strong><\/em>, Pied Wagtails<\/strong><\/em>, Rock Pipits<\/strong><\/em> and a reeling Grasshopper Warbler<\/strong><\/em> were all added to the day list and we headed back to the inn, and breakfast.\u00a0 No less than 6 Rock Pipits<\/strong><\/em> were outside the window during breakfast and an all too brief probable Hummingbird Hawkmoth<\/strong><\/em> whizzed by.<\/p>\n

The main question was whether our all-day birdwatching trip to the Farne Islands with Glad Tidings would go ahead; the weather forecast wasn\u2019t promising, and the sea looked foreboding.\u00a0 I was optimistic though \u2013 by our planned departure time the tide would be ebbing and should take off some of the swell.\u00a0 Sure enough, we boarded Glad Tidings III<\/em> just after 10am and headed towards the islands.\u00a0 Gannets<\/strong><\/em> soared majestically above the swell, Puffins<\/strong><\/em> raced by on whirring wings and our passage wader list grew with the addition of Grey Plover<\/strong><\/em> and Purple Sandpiper<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Grey Seals<\/strong><\/em> bobbed around, watching as we passed by on our way to Staple Island.\u00a0 Enjoyment of the breeding auks<\/strong><\/em>, Shags<\/strong><\/em>, Kittwakes<\/strong><\/em> and Oystercatchers<\/strong><\/em> was enhanced by the wild feeling of the islands, as waves smashed into the cliffs and fountained high above the birds.\u00a0 Transferring to Inner Farne at 1pm, we were the first group onto the island for the day.\u00a0 The Arctic Terns<\/strong><\/em> gave us their usual warm welcome and we spent the afternoon enjoying the fascinating bird behaviour that can be witnessed at close range.\u00a0 The group were keen to fix the separation criteria for Common<\/strong><\/em> and Arctic Terns<\/strong><\/em> firmly in mind, so we spent some time looking carefully at lots of birds and considering individual variation.\u00a0 We spent a lot of time watching Puffins<\/strong><\/em> as well; not an identification problem, but endearing and fascinating!\u00a0 With mobs of Black-headed Gulls<\/strong><\/em> waiting to rob the adult Puffins<\/strong><\/em> as they return with beaks filled with Sand eels<\/strong><\/em>, the Puffins<\/strong><\/em> have quickly developed strategies to deal with this; circling back out over the sea until the gulls have moved away from your burrow is an obvious one, but the one that is most fascinating involves a Puffin<\/strong><\/em> running into another\u00a0 bird\u2019s burrow, waiting until the gulls have moved and then running to another burrow \u2013 sometimes visiting as many as 5 or 6 sanctuaries before reaching their own chick.\u00a0 In an increasingly heavy swell, the journey back to the mainland was quite an experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I met with Geoff and Jenny, Roy and Lorraine & David and Linda on the Wednesday evening in the bar of the Bamburgh Castle Inn and, after introductions and drinks, we went upstairs to the conservatory for dinner.\u00a0 A steady stream of Gannets was heading north and I outlined the plan for the coming days; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,5],"tags":[230,479,480,229,172,6,185,430,400,835,481,301,334,210,225,176,358,224,142,377,231],"class_list":["post-1135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-farnes","category-northumberland","tag-arctic-tern","tag-bird-watching-holiday-northumberland","tag-bluethroat","tag-common-tern","tag-curlew","tag-farne-islands","tag-gannet","tag-glad-tidings","tag-grey-plover","tag-grey-seal","tag-hummingbird-hawkmoth","tag-kittiwake","tag-knot","tag-oystercatcher","tag-puffin","tag-purple-sandpiper","tag-redshank","tag-ringed-plover","tag-rock-pipit","tag-shag","tag-whimbrel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1135"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3889,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135\/revisions\/3889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}