{"id":1449,"date":"2012-02-02T11:38:32","date_gmt":"2012-02-02T11:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1449"},"modified":"2012-02-02T11:38:32","modified_gmt":"2012-02-02T11:38:32","slug":"raptors-raptors-everywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/raptors-raptors-everywhere","title":{"rendered":"Raptors, raptors everywhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

Standing on the Heugh on Holy Island with Jill and Steve, we’re all scanning towards Guile Point.\u00a0 Cormorants, Shags, Red-breasted Mergansers <\/em><\/strong>and Eider<\/em><\/strong> are all bobbing about on the water, Pale-bellied<\/strong><\/em> and Dark-bellied<\/strong><\/em> Brent Geese, Bar-tailed Godwits, Grey Plover, Curlew\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>and\u00a0Oystercatchers<\/em><\/strong> are flying by, Common <\/em><\/strong>and Grey Seals<\/em><\/strong> are splashing in the surf as the tide falls…and I’m focused on the sea with\u00a0one species in mind.\u00a0 Then 2 distant white dots, gradually narrowing the gap\u00a0toward us, and I know I’ve achieved that primary target.\u00a0 Soon, I’ve got 2 very happy clients watching an immaculate drake Long-tailed Duck<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Outrageously attractive, he waved that eponymous tail in the air before taking off and vanishing out of sight around the headland.<\/p>\n

At the other end of the day we watched a flock of 20 Slavonian Grebes<\/strong><\/em> and a similar number of Common Scoter<\/strong><\/em>, another 6 Long-tailed Ducks<\/strong><\/em>, an elusive\u00a0Black-throated Diver<\/strong><\/em> and 3 equally elusive Red-throated Divers<\/strong><\/em> and 2 Harbour Porpoises<\/strong><\/em> as the light faded to the point where even the impressive assembly of optical equipment wasn’t offering an advantage any more.<\/p>\n

Sandwiched in between though, was a veritable feast of raptors;\u00a0 we’d already had a couple of Common Buzzards<\/strong><\/em> (and I’d had 2 on the drive to Hauxley before collecting Jill and Steve),\u00a02 Sparrowhawks<\/strong><\/em> and several Kestrels <\/strong><\/em>by lunchtime, but the best was yet to come.\u00a0 First a Merlin<\/em><\/strong> perched on a post in front of us for 10 minutes, then we found 2 Peregrines<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0sitting on boulders at low tide.\u00a0 Soon a wave of panic spread through the assembled waders,<\/strong><\/em> and the Barnacle<\/strong><\/em>, Greylag<\/strong><\/em>, Pink-footed<\/strong><\/em> and White-fronted Geese,<\/strong><\/em> as the 2 Peregrines<\/em><\/strong> swooped back and forth.\u00a0 Then, our second Merlin<\/strong><\/em> of the day began harrassing one of the Peregrines<\/strong><\/em>. As chaos raged across the mudflats, one of the Peregrines<\/strong><\/em> made a kill; an unfortunate Redshank<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 It took it’s prize to a rock and began plucking it…and 2 more Peregrines<\/strong><\/em> arrived!\u00a0 All 3 tussled over the spoils of the hunt, before 2 of them conceded and sat a little distance away.\u00a0 A dry, cold wintry day and spectacular drama played out by some excellent wildlife.\u00a0 The Northumberland coast in the winter – there’s nothing better \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Standing on the Heugh on Holy Island with Jill and Steve, we’re all scanning towards Guile Point.\u00a0 Cormorants, Shags, Red-breasted Mergansers and Eider are all bobbing about on the water, Pale-bellied and Dark-bellied Brent Geese, Bar-tailed Godwits, Grey Plover, Curlew\u00a0and\u00a0Oystercatchers are flying by, Common and Grey Seals are splashing in the surf as the tide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,119,10,5,141],"tags":[147,391,150,148,67,187,172,445,400,835,240,128,68,56,401,55,392,69,177,131,525],"class_list":["post-1449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-holy-island","category-lindisfarne","category-northumberland","category-northumberland-coast","tag-bar-tailed-godwit","tag-barnacle-geese","tag-black-throated-diver","tag-common-buzzard","tag-common-scoter","tag-common-seal","tag-curlew","tag-dark-bellied-brent-geese","tag-grey-plover","tag-grey-seal","tag-harbour-porpoise","tag-kestrel","tag-long-tailed-duck","tag-merlin","tag-pale-bellied-brent-geese","tag-peregrine","tag-pink-footed-geese","tag-red-throated-diver","tag-slavonian-grebe","tag-sparrowhawk","tag-white-fronted-geese"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449","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=1449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1450,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449\/revisions\/1450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}