{"id":1150,"date":"2011-07-18T09:32:54","date_gmt":"2011-07-18T09:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1150"},"modified":"2011-07-18T06:24:04","modified_gmt":"2011-07-18T06:24:04","slug":"the-icing-on-the-cake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/the-icing-on-the-cake","title":{"rendered":"The icing on the cake"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the rain hammered down while I packed the car ready for Sunday’s Otter Safari<\/a>\u00a0I was filled with optimism; the weather forecast (really, I should stop believing these…) suggested that the afternoon and evening would be dry and bright.<\/p>\n

When I arrived at Church Point Marc and Marika were already there, and we were joined by Becky and Jim soon after.\u00a0 The trip was a present for one of each couple, and we set off for an afternoon of birdwatching combined with searching for\u00a0Otters<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 First stop was one of our Little Owl<\/em><\/strong> sites, and Becky’s sharp eyes picked out a juvenile bird that was doing a very passable impression of a stone.\u00a0 Our next stop, beside the River Coquet, produced Common Terns<\/em><\/strong> fishing, flyby Curlews<\/em><\/strong> (and a discussion of separation from Whimbrel<\/em><\/strong>), 4 Common Sandpipers<\/em><\/strong> and some impressive thunderstorms away to the north and west of us.<\/p>\n

A heavy shower as we reached the NWT reserve at East Chevington kept us in the car for a few minutes, during which time we were entertained by a family party of Stonechats<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 As the rain eased we walked to the hide overlooking the north pool.\u00a0 Amongst the throng of Common<\/strong><\/em>, Sandwich<\/strong><\/em> and Arctic Terns<\/strong><\/em> and Lapwings<\/strong><\/em> were 3 adult Knot<\/em><\/strong>, still in breeding plumage.\u00a0 Suddenly the entire roosting flock lifted, and the unmistakeable figure of a Spoonbill<\/em><\/strong> flew across our field of vision.\u00a0 It seemed intent on landing, but the constant harrassment from the terns meant that we were treated to several flypasts, including one where it was just 20m away from us.\u00a0 As if this wasn’t spectacular enough, 2 Little Egrets<\/em><\/strong> appeared, while the Spoonbill<\/em><\/strong> was still circling,\u00a0and were subjected to the same treatment.\u00a0 Eventually a semblance of calm returned and we watched a juvenile Marsh Harrier<\/strong><\/em> as it pranced comically in the wet grass, presumably eating worms that had been brought to the surface by the rain, and a second juvenile harrier harrassed by crows.\u00a0 Another creature to benefit from the rain was a very young Hedgehog<\/em><\/strong> busily eating worms and, in a real ‘aahh’ moment, pausing briefly to sniff the air.<\/p>\n

Our picnic stop, overlooking the southern end of Druridge Bay, produced rafts of Eiders<\/strong><\/em> and Common Scoters<\/strong><\/em>, the piping calls baby Guillemots<\/em><\/strong> rising from the waves below, Gannets<\/strong><\/em> and Sandwich Terns<\/strong><\/em> plunging into the sea, at least 3 Arctic Skuas<\/strong><\/em> and the majestic lumbering menace of a Pomarine Skua<\/strong><\/em> passing south just offshore.<\/p>\n

Changeable, showery weather often produces good sunsets, and this was no exception; as a band of steel grey cloud drifted along the horizon, sunlight shone through a narrow gap, fading from gold to orange to red to pink.\u00a0 And there, in the reflection of the dramatic sky, was the main event – an Otter<\/em><\/strong>, twisting and turning, creating panic among the waterfowl, perched imperiously on a boulder and then vanishing into the deepening shadows\u00a0of the water’s edge.\u00a0 Clouds of Noctule Bats<\/em><\/strong> and Common Pipistrelles<\/em><\/strong> swirled overhead, occasionally passing within a few feet of us, a female Tawny Owl<\/em><\/strong> called from the nearby trees, and the scene faded to darkness…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the rain hammered down while I packed the car ready for Sunday’s Otter Safari\u00a0I 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9,5,21,139],"tags":[362,250,214,67,229,172,149,186,489,243,72,397,60,837,387,398,215,78],"class_list":["post-1150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-druridge","category-northumberland","category-otter","category-southeast-northumberland","tag-arctic-skua","tag-common-pipistrelle","tag-common-sandpiper","tag-common-scoter","tag-common-tern","tag-curlew","tag-eider","tag-guillemot","tag-hedgehog","tag-little-egret","tag-little-owl","tag-marsh-harrier","tag-noctule-bat","tag-otter","tag-pomarine-skua","tag-spoonbill","tag-stonechat","tag-tawny-owl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150","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=1150"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1152,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150\/revisions\/1152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}