{"id":1276,"date":"2011-08-31T07:26:54","date_gmt":"2011-08-31T07:26:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1276"},"modified":"2011-08-31T07:26:54","modified_gmt":"2011-08-31T07:26:54","slug":"a-matter-of-timing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/a-matter-of-timing-2","title":{"rendered":"A matter of timing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Being in the right place at the right time is so critical to everything we do; if we’re searching for Otters<\/strong><\/em> we need to be there when they rise from their slumber and become active, if Badgers<\/strong><\/em> are the target for the trip then arriving the correct length of time before sunset is important, and if we’re visiting Holy Island<\/a><\/strong> then timing is\u00a0a real\u00a0key to success.<\/p>\n

I set off up the A1 with\u00a0Jo on board, and collected\u00a0Paul from Bamburgh.\u00a0 The plan for the day was a simple one; spend a few hours birdwatching on Holy Island, then leave as the tide was rising and check sites down the coast towards Bamburgh.\u00a0 From the top of the Heugh, we scanned across the sandflats whilst listening to the ghostly moaning of a group of Grey Seals<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 An Arctic Skua<\/em><\/strong> was harassing the roosting terns and gulls, Curlew<\/em><\/strong> and Bar-tailed Godwits<\/em><\/strong> were probing along the water’s edge, Grey Plover<\/em><\/strong>, many of them still in their incredibly beautiful breeding plumage, seemed to be everywhere that we looked and a Kestrel<\/em><\/strong> chased a Peregrine<\/em><\/strong> through the dunes around Snook House.\u00a0 Back on the mainland we found a Whimbrel <\/em><\/strong>in a group of Curlew<\/em><\/strong>, our second Peregrine<\/em><\/strong> of the day beat a menacing path along the shoreline\u00a0and there was a real surprise in the shape of 5 Pale-bellied Brent Geese<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Budle Bay produced a Little Egret<\/em><\/strong>, a flock of 150+ Grey Plover <\/em><\/strong>and a distant feeding frenzy of Gannets<\/em><\/strong> that could be seen above the breaking surf.\u00a0 Finally, as the tide begin to crash against the dunes in the shadow of Bamburgh Castle, <\/strong>we watched as a flock of Knot<\/strong><\/em>, Turnstone<\/strong><\/em>, Oystercatcher<\/strong><\/em>, Redshank<\/strong><\/em>, Sanderling<\/strong><\/em> and Dunlin<\/strong><\/em> braved the onrushing waves for longer than the human visitors to\u00a0the beach \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being in the right place at the right time is so critical to everything we do; if we’re searching for Otters we need to be there when they rise from their slumber and become active, if Badgers are the target for the trip then arriving the correct length of time before sunset is important, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,3,119,5],"tags":[362,147,172,288,149,185,400,835,128,334,243,108,55,358,80,359,231],"class_list":["post-1276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bamburgh-castle","category-birdwatching","category-holy-island","category-northumberland","tag-arctic-skua","tag-bar-tailed-godwit","tag-curlew","tag-dunlin","tag-eider","tag-gannet","tag-grey-plover","tag-grey-seal","tag-kestrel","tag-knot","tag-little-egret","tag-pale-bellied-brent-goose","tag-peregrine","tag-redshank","tag-sanderling","tag-turnstone","tag-whimbrel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276","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=1276"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1278,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions\/1278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}