{"id":1369,"date":"2011-10-28T14:52:58","date_gmt":"2011-10-28T14:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1369"},"modified":"2011-10-28T14:52:58","modified_gmt":"2011-10-28T14:52:58","slug":"rough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/rough","title":{"rendered":"Rough…"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last 2 days were spent\u00a0running 2 Prestige Tours for Peter and Alison, and the Northumberland coast delivered plenty of birdwatching gems.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday we were covering Holy Island<\/a> and the Northumberland coast, and planned to spend the morning on Holy Island and then come off at lunchtime\u00a0just before\u00a0the tide covered the causeway (remember – the crossing times are published for a reason, don’t drive into the North Sea, it won’t end well!).\u00a0 A thorough check around the village, and the Heugh, produced 2 Black Redstarts<\/strong><\/em>, Blackcaps<\/strong><\/em>, lots of Blackbirds<\/strong><\/em>, Fieldfares, <\/strong><\/em>Redwings<\/strong><\/em> and an intriguing\u00a0Chiffchaff<\/strong><\/em> (almost sandy brown above, very unlike our breeding birds).\u00a0 Grey Seals<\/strong><\/em> and Pale-bellied Brent Geese<\/strong><\/em> were out on the mud, Dark-bellied Brent Geese<\/strong><\/em>, Wigeon<\/strong><\/em> and Teal<\/strong><\/em> were roosting on the Rocket Field and a Woodcock<\/strong><\/em> was flying circuits of the village.\u00a0 As well as an almost continuous wave of thrushes leaving the island, the distinctive flight calls of Skylarks<\/strong><\/em> and Lesser Redpolls<\/strong><\/em> could be picked out.<\/p>\n

Once we were off the island, I’d decided to head north to Goswick.\u00a0 Another Black Redstart<\/strong><\/em> and a Yellow-browed Warbler<\/strong><\/em> were around Coastgurad Cottage, and we made our way through the dunes.\u00a0 The adult drake Black Scoter<\/strong><\/em> was still present, although less than easy to see with a line of rolling surf impeding the view.\u00a0 As the tide rose, flocks of Bar-tailed Godwit<\/strong><\/em>, Knot<\/strong><\/em>, Dunlin<\/strong><\/em> and Grey Plover<\/strong><\/em> rose from the exposed sandbar, shuffling along to the next ‘dry’ spot.\u00a0 A Short-eared Owl<\/strong><\/em> was seen coming in-off, harrassed by Herring Gulls<\/strong><\/em> before finally finding sanctuary on the Snook, and then the bird of the day (well, I think so anyway) appeared just behind us.\u00a0 Tracking south along the coast a juvenile Rough-legged Buzzard<\/strong><\/em> was given a bit of a going over by the local corvids.<\/p>\n

Heading back towards Seahouses we stopped off at Harkess Rocks,\u00a0 where Purple Sandpipers, Turnstones, Redshank<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Oystercatchers<\/strong><\/em> were all flitting from rock to rock and Eider<\/strong><\/em> were bobbing about just offshore as daylight faded and it was time to return Peter and Alison to their holiday accommodation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last 2 days were spent\u00a0running 2 Prestige Tours for Peter and Alison, and the Northumberland coast delivered plenty of birdwatching gems. On Wednesday we were covering Holy Island and the Northumberland coast, and planned to spend the morning on Holy Island and then come off at lunchtime\u00a0just before\u00a0the tide covered the causeway (remember – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,119,5,141],"tags":[147,509,462,133,461,268,445,288,149,23,400,835,143,334,134,210,401,176,69,358,22,508,456,238,359,71,403],"class_list":["post-1369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-holy-island","category-northumberland","category-northumberland-coast","tag-bar-tailed-godwit","tag-black-redstart","tag-black-scoter","tag-blackbird","tag-blackcap","tag-chiffchaff","tag-dark-bellied-brent-geese","tag-dunlin","tag-eider","tag-fieldfare","tag-grey-plover","tag-grey-seal","tag-herring-gull","tag-knot","tag-lesser-redpoll","tag-oystercatcher","tag-pale-bellied-brent-geese","tag-purple-sandpiper","tag-red-throated-diver","tag-redshank","tag-redwing","tag-rough-legged-buzzard","tag-short-eared-owl","tag-skylarks","tag-turnstone","tag-woodcock","tag-yellow-browed-warbler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369","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=1369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1370,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions\/1370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}