{"id":1800,"date":"2012-10-17T14:56:32","date_gmt":"2012-10-17T13:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1800"},"modified":"2012-10-17T14:56:32","modified_gmt":"2012-10-17T13:56:32","slug":"dragons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/dragons","title":{"rendered":"Dragons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our returning clients theme continued last week, when I collected Elaine and Sue for an Otter Safari<\/a>, concentrating mainly around Druridge Bay<\/a> and southeast Northumberland.\u00a0 We first met between Christmas and New Year 2008 when they joined myself and Sarah on a guided walk on Holy Island.\u00a0 On that day Elaine photographed this stunning Stonechat<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Common<\/a><\/p>\n

and we also had a brief view of a Jack Snipe<\/strong><\/em> as it flushed ahead of us.<\/p>\n

Last Wednesday we set off up the coast, stopping to check our favourite Little Owl<\/strong><\/em> site.\u00a0 Elaine spotted the bird, as it was mobbed by no less than six Magpies<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 It fixed it’s tormentors with what can only be described as a look of utter contempt and they gradually drifted away.\u00a0 Cresswell Pond produced a persistently-bobbing Jack Snipe<\/strong><\/em>, tucked in amongst the reeds and much more obliging than our 2008 bird on Holy Island, and plenty of Common Snipe<\/strong><\/em> like this one, again photographed by Elaine.<\/p>\n

\"Common<\/a><\/p>\n

Curlew, Golden Plover, Lapwing, Dunlin, Redshank <\/strong><\/em>and<\/strong> Oystercatcher<\/strong><\/em> <\/strong>were all roosting around pool edges and the change out of eclipse plumage was very noticeable among the ducks, with drake Teal<\/strong> <\/em>looking particularly good.\u00a0 As the warm autumn sunshine bathed the landscape around us, the air was suddenly filled with dragonflies and Elaine captured this portrait of a stunning Migrant Hawker<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"dragonfly,Migrant<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s something captivating about dragonflies and, as myself and Sue concentrated on scanning reed edges for any indication that an Otter<\/strong> <\/em>was lurking, Elaine returned to the spot where the dragonfly had been earlier.\u00a0 Within a matter of minutes the temperature fell slightly and insect activity ceased.I’m not sure we have any finer insect than Migrant Hawker<\/strong><\/em>, and you can see from Elaine’s photo what a stunner it is.<\/p>\n

As sunset neared and we searched for any sign of our quarry, we watched a Starling<\/strong> <\/em>murmuration developing as a herd of Whoop<\/strong>e<\/strong>r<\/strong><\/em> Swans <\/strong><\/em>flew between distant fields.\u00a0 Just before it got dark the Whoopers<\/strong> <\/em>appeared overhead, giving their eerie call and dropping into their overnight roost site.\u00a0 After a really enjoyable day out, we returned to our starting point and I looked forward (with good reason!) to seeing Elaine’s images from the day, which I’m really happy to be able to post in our blog – thank you Elaine :-).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our returning clients theme continued last week, when I collected Elaine and Sue for an Otter Safari, concentrating mainly around Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland.\u00a0 We first met between Christmas and New Year 2008 when they joined myself and Sarah on a guided walk on Holy Island.\u00a0 On that day Elaine photographed this stunning Stonechat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9,5,139],"tags":[373,172,288,175,562,123,72,47,563,564,837,210,358,161,215,130],"class_list":["post-1800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-druridge","category-northumberland","category-southeast-northumberland","tag-common-snipe","tag-curlew","tag-dunlin","tag-golden-plover","tag-jack-snipe","tag-lapwing","tag-little-owl","tag-magpie","tag-migrant-hawker","tag-murmuration","tag-otter","tag-oystercatcher","tag-redshank","tag-starling","tag-stonechat","tag-whooper-swan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1800","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=1800"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1805,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1800\/revisions\/1805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}