{"id":2093,"date":"2013-09-26T07:18:09","date_gmt":"2013-09-26T06:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2093"},"modified":"2013-09-26T07:18:09","modified_gmt":"2013-09-26T06:18:09","slug":"the-kill-druridge-bay-birdwatching-24092013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/the-kill-druridge-bay-birdwatching-24092013","title":{"rendered":"The Kill; Druridge Bay birdwatching 24\/09\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

Through the thickening mist, just inches above the ground, the Sparrowhawk<\/strong><\/em> maneuvered it’s way at speed around bushes and the edge of a reedbed.\u00a0 From that position it couldn’t see any possible targets.\u00a0 Of course, that meant it couldn’t be seen either…<\/p>\n

I’d collected Laura and Barry from Church Point at midday. for an afternoon birdwatching around Druridge Bay<\/a> and southeast Northumberland.\u00a0 Unlike the stunning sunshine and warmth of Monday, conditions were rather overcast.\u00a0 On a walk through woodland, we came across a roving tit flock.\u00a0 Goldcrests<\/strong> <\/em>could be heard high in the trees, and a quick session of pishing soon had one just a few feet away from us as it descended to investigate where the squeaking noise was coming from.\u00a0 Our lunch stop, overlooking the length of Druridge Bay, gave us the opportunity for a spot of seawatching although, with the lack of any substantial breeze, there wasn’t a great deal of movement offshore.\u00a0 Eider<\/strong> <\/em>were dotted here and there, Cormorants<\/strong> <\/em>were flying along the coast, a few Swallows\u00a0<\/em> <\/strong>were catching insects low over the clifftop vegetation and flocks of Goldfinch <\/strong><\/em>and <\/strong>Linnet<\/strong><\/em> were noisily flitting about.\u00a0 Lapwings, Curlew, Dunlin, Ruff, Snipe, Ringed Plover <\/strong><\/em>and <\/strong>Redshank<\/strong><\/em>, the latter in what seemed to be a state of perpetual motion, were working their way along exposed mud as Grey Herons<\/strong><\/em> stalked with an imperceptibly slow motion that\u00a0 spells danger to fish, frogs <\/strong><\/em>and <\/strong>ducklings<\/strong><\/em> everywhere.\u00a0 As the afternoon continued, we were suddenly confronted with heavy mist.\u00a0 Then the rain started.\u00a0 Thinking this would clear the mist proved a forlorn hope, and we watched a flock of Dunlin<\/strong> <\/em>make several low passes over the mud in front of us before they vanished into the mist.\u00a0 Eiders<\/strong> <\/em>and Cormorants<\/strong> <\/em>were diving repeatedly on the River Coquet near Amble and Salmon<\/strong> <\/em>were leaping from the water – a real joy to watch when all three of us in the car are keen flyfishers.\u00a0 With dusk approaching, although this wouldn’t differ too much from the rest of the afternoon, the yapping of Pink-footed Geese<\/strong><\/em> could be heard from behind the grey impenetrable curtain of mist.\u00a0 Growing louder, and with the calls of Greylag<\/strong> <\/em>and Canada Geese<\/strong><\/em> intermingled, the flock appeared on the edge of the mist.\u00a0 Just beyond the limit of clarity, the amorphous mass of several hundred geese<\/strong><\/em> <\/strong>dropped onto the water and then upped the volume of their calls.\u00a0 As another flock arrived they were greeted noisily by the birds already on the water.<\/p>\n

…accelerating on powerful wings, following an approach of supreme stealth, the Sparrowhawk<\/strong> <\/em>exploded from a gap in the reeds, still just inches from the ground.\u00a0 Lapwings<\/strong> <\/em>and Starlings<\/strong> <\/em>took to the air in panic, but the predator quickly fixed it’s baleful stare on the three closest birds to the edge of the reeds.\u00a0 The Dunlin<\/strong> <\/em>took flight, but the concealed approach by the Sparrowhawk<\/strong> <\/em>had given it the edge that it needed in the game of life and death that was playing out in front of us.\u00a0 With lightning quick reflexes it plucked the Dunlin<\/strong> <\/em>deftly from the air, turned back through the channel in the reeds, and settled to devour it’s catch out of sight.\u00a0 Not out of sight from us though \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Through the thickening mist, just inches above the ground, the Sparrowhawk maneuvered it’s way at speed around bushes and the edge of a reedbed.\u00a0 From that position it couldn’t see any possible targets.\u00a0 Of course, that meant it couldn’t be seen either… I’d collected Laura and Barry from Church Point at midday. for an afternoon […]<\/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":[560,372,288,149,170,135,103,283,190,140,360,171,129,420,358,224,241,412,204,131,217,169,182,181],"class_list":["post-2093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-druridge","category-northumberland","category-southeast-northumberland","tag-canada-goose","tag-cormorant","tag-dunlin","tag-eider","tag-gadwall","tag-goldcrest","tag-goldfinch","tag-grey-heron","tag-greylag-goose","tag-linnet","tag-little-grebe","tag-mallard","tag-pink-footed-goose","tag-pochard","tag-redshank","tag-ringed-plover","tag-ruff","tag-salmon","tag-snipe","tag-sparrowhawk","tag-swallow","tag-teal","tag-tufted-duck","tag-wigeon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093","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=2093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2094,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093\/revisions\/2094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}