{"id":1446,"date":"2012-01-30T11:59:37","date_gmt":"2012-01-30T11:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1446"},"modified":"2012-01-30T11:59:37","modified_gmt":"2012-01-30T11:59:37","slug":"here-for-the-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/here-for-the-weather","title":{"rendered":"Here for the weather?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just as I arrived\u00a0at Harkess Rocks to collect Andy and Helen for an afternoon of birdwatching around the Holy Island of Lindisfarne and the North Northumberland coast, the first drops of sleety rain began splattering on the windscreen.\u00a0 We haven’t really had any sort of winter yet, apart from an hour of snow on December 16th, but yesterday afternoon did feel positively chilly.\u00a0 Undaunted by the easterly wind and icy showers we enjoyed the wader and wildfowl spectacle that is the Northumberland coast in the winter.\u00a0 Curlews<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 singing as they flew by must have a joie de vivre that lets them vent that emotional haunting call wherever they may be.\u00a0 Other wading birds entertained as they probed, prodded and buried their bills face-deep in the mud; Grey Plovers, Bar-tailed Godwits, Redshanks <\/em><\/strong>and\u00a0Oystercatchers<\/em><\/strong> were all making the most of the exposed mud at low tide.\u00a0 A big flock of Yellowhammers<\/strong><\/em>, Chaffinches<\/strong><\/em>, Greenfinches<\/strong><\/em>, Goldfinches<\/strong><\/em>, Tree Sparrows<\/strong><\/em>, House Sparrows<\/strong><\/em> and Reed Buntings<\/strong><\/em> held our attention for a good while and wildfowl were well represented with Shelduck<\/strong><\/em>, Eider<\/strong><\/em>, Mallard<\/strong><\/em>, Teal<\/strong><\/em>, Wigeon<\/strong><\/em>, Goosander<\/strong><\/em> and Pintail<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 As we watched a very obliging Dark-bellied Brent Goose<\/strong><\/em>, it was a sobering thought that our wintering birds are generally here because conditions in the areas where they breed are too harsh at this time of the year.\u00a0 Mammals were braving the cold too; 7 Roe Deer<\/em><\/strong>, a Brown Hare<\/em><\/strong> and 5 Common Seals <\/em><\/strong>made a not too shabby mammal list for the afternoon.<\/p>\n

I often reflect on my decision to return to Northumberland from Arizona, and as we watched that lone Brent Goose, <\/strong><\/em>with\u00a0the biting wind\u00a0driving\u00a0waves of showery rain, were my thoughts of the warmth and sunshine of Tucson?\u00a0 No, what I was thinking was that this is the weather I came home for…and the reason that good outdoor clothing is a necessity \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just as I arrived\u00a0at Harkess Rocks to collect Andy and Helen for an afternoon of birdwatching around the Holy Island of Lindisfarne and the North Northumberland coast, the first drops of sleety rain began splattering on the windscreen.\u00a0 We haven’t really had any sort of winter yet, apart from an hour of snow on December […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,119,10,5],"tags":[147,57,102,187,172,173,103,378,75,400,160,171,179,358,127,66,189,169,125,181,126],"class_list":["post-1446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-holy-island","category-lindisfarne","category-northumberland","tag-bar-tailed-godwit","tag-brown-hare","tag-chaffinch","tag-common-seal","tag-curlew","tag-dark-bellied-brent-goose","tag-goldfinch","tag-goosander","tag-greenfinch","tag-grey-plover","tag-house-sparrow","tag-mallard","tag-pintail","tag-redshank","tag-reed-bunting","tag-roe-deer","tag-shelduck","tag-teal","tag-tree-sparrow","tag-wigeon","tag-yellowhammer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446","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=1446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1447,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446\/revisions\/1447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}