{"id":2087,"date":"2013-09-23T18:54:11","date_gmt":"2013-09-23T17:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2087"},"modified":"2013-09-23T18:54:11","modified_gmt":"2013-09-23T17:54:11","slug":"wild-geese-and-small-predators-druridge-bay-20092013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/wild-geese-and-small-predators-druridge-bay-20092013","title":{"rendered":"Wild Geese and small predators; Druridge Bay 20\/09\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a damp morning around Druridge Bay on Thursday, Friday looked much more promising.\u00a0 I collected Simeon and Kathy from their holiday accommodation in Warkworth and we set off down the coast for an afternoon around Druridge Bay<\/a> and southeast Northumberland.\u00a0 Late summer\/early autumn trips often feature plenty of waders <\/strong><\/em>and <\/strong>wildfowl<\/strong><\/em> and this was no exception.\u00a0 Common Snipe<\/strong><\/em> were playing ‘hard-to-spot’ as they slept in sparse clumps of reed, Dunlin, Ruff, Ringed Plover, Black-tailed Godwit, Lapwing <\/strong><\/em>and <\/strong>Golden Plover<\/strong><\/em> were all either roosting or sticking their beaks into the mud and a lone Greenshank<\/strong> <\/em>was sitting on the periphery of a big flock of Lapwing<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 On slow deep wingbeats a Sparrowhawk<\/strong> <\/em>flew low across the water towards us, pulling sharply up and over us at the last minute.\u00a0 Over a coastal reedbed a juvenile Marsh Harrier<\/strong><\/em> drifted lazily along, swooping down towards the water and scattering the Mallard <\/strong><\/em>and <\/strong>Teal<\/strong><\/em> that had been dozing contentedly there.<\/p>\n

Mid-afternoon we were treated to the spectacle of the sky filled with skein after skein of geese<\/strong><\/em>; mainly Pink-footed<\/strong><\/em>, but with small groups of Greylag <\/strong><\/em>and<\/strong> Canada<\/strong><\/em> interspersed amongst the yapping flocks of one our favourite Icelandic winter visitors.\u00a0 Our next magic moment came courtesy of a mustelid<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Not the Otter<\/strong> <\/em>that we were searching for, but instead the beautiful little predator that has featured on so many of our trips in the last few weeks.\u00a0 For several minutes we watched as a Stoat<\/strong> <\/em>ran backward and forwards along the water’s edge, perched on rocks, had a good look at a Moorhen<\/strong> <\/em>and finally bounded away through the poolside vegetation.\u00a0 Another small predator provided the next wildlife experience.\u00a0 Lapwing, Golden Plover, Ruff, Black-tailed Godwits, Dunlin, Teal, Mallard, Gadwall <\/strong><\/em>and <\/strong>Starling<\/strong><\/em> all took to the air; had they spotted an Otter<\/strong> <\/em>lurking in the reeds?\u00a0 maybe a Fox<\/strong><\/em>?\u00a0 No, what was coming was the Grim Reaper on tiny pointed wings.\u00a0 A Merlin<\/strong> <\/em>was suddenly amongst the scattered birds in the air.\u00a0 Twisting and turning, the tiny falcon had singled out a Dunlin<\/strong> <\/em>from the multitude of possible targets in front of it.\u00a0 The chase was on and could be easily followed by watching the path carved through the tightly bunched Lapwings<\/strong> <\/em>that had taken to the air in alarm.\u00a0 As the Dunlin<\/strong> <\/em>made a final bid for freedom, the Merlin<\/strong> <\/em>gave up the chase and settled, out of sight, in a hawthorn bush in the dunes.\u00a0 It didn’t have long to catch it’s breath before it was disturbed by a dog walker and flew into a dune slack away from disturbance.\u00a0 Simeon’s comment after this life and death chase echoed those of many of our clients previously “it’s gripping, but I was really willing the Dunlin<\/strong> <\/em>to get away”.<\/p>\n

As the evening progressed and the Sun dropped below the western horizon, geese<\/strong> <\/em>began arriving to roost, bats<\/strong> <\/em>were flitting back and forth across our field of view and, as the light finally faded to black and we headed back to Warkworth, a Barn Owl<\/strong><\/em> flew low over the car.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a damp morning around Druridge Bay on Thursday, Friday looked much more promising.\u00a0 I collected Simeon and Kathy from their holiday accommodation in Warkworth and we set off down the coast for an afternoon around Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland.\u00a0 Late summer\/early autumn trips often feature plenty of waders and wildfowl and this was […]<\/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":[97,242,560,288,590,170,175,332,283,190,123,397,56,198,837,129,224,241,204,131,161,183,130],"class_list":["post-2087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-druridge","category-northumberland","category-southeast-northumberland","tag-barn-owl","tag-black-tailed-godwit","tag-canada-goose","tag-dunlin","tag-fox","tag-gadwall","tag-golden-plover","tag-greenshank","tag-grey-heron","tag-greylag-goose","tag-lapwing","tag-marsh-harrier","tag-merlin","tag-moorhen","tag-otter","tag-pink-footed-goose","tag-ringed-plover","tag-ruff","tag-snipe","tag-sparrowhawk","tag-starling","tag-stoat","tag-whooper-swan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2087","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=2087"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2088,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2087\/revisions\/2088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}