{"id":2365,"date":"2014-05-23T17:40:12","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T16:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2365"},"modified":"2014-05-23T17:40:12","modified_gmt":"2014-05-23T16:40:12","slug":"all-adding-up-bespoke-wildlife-tour-20052014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/all-adding-up-bespoke-wildlife-tour-20052014","title":{"rendered":"All adding up; Bespoke wildlife tour 20\/05\/2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even after 20 years living in Northumberland, I’m sometimes still amazed at what can be seen in one day, with seven mammals in a day<\/a> in June 2010 showing what’s possible with planning and just a bit of luck \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Sometimes you just have to hope that the weather’s helpful though…<\/p>\n

I collected Mike and Jane from Greycroft <\/a>and we set off towards the foothills of the Cheviots<\/a>.\u00a0 Our first targets for the day were reptiles<\/strong><\/em>…and it wasn’t looking promising; thick low cloud and a cold breeze really aren’t the ideal conditions for these cold-blooded predators.\u00a0 Nevertheless, we made our way along a track with several likely sunning spots.\u00a0 All were devoid of reptiles<\/strong><\/em>, but an hour later, as we were surrounded by the songs of Blackcaps, Garden Warblers, Sedge Warblers <\/strong><\/em>andChaffinches<\/strong><\/em>, it turned slightly brighter and the temperature rose (from ‘chilling’ to ‘almost warm’!) so I suggested it was time to retrace our route.\u00a0 Almost as if scripted, the most likely looking spot had an Adder<\/strong> <\/em>laid in it \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 It slithered away into the grass and out of sight as we headed on our way.\u00a0 Our next destination was the southeast Northumberland coast and Druridge Bay<\/a>.\u00a0 Despite a concentrated session checking their regular hang-outs we didn’t manage to find any Red Squirrels<\/strong><\/em>, although it was cold and windy which doesn’t help.\u00a0 Birdwatching our way up the coast produced Fulmar<\/strong> <\/em>soaring along the cliff tops as we ate our lunch,\u00a0 House <\/strong><\/em>andSand Martins<\/strong><\/em> hawking insects, Dunlin <\/strong><\/em>andGrey Plover<\/strong><\/em> feeding up on their way north, and a Grey Heron<\/strong><\/em> that had found a rich vein of Eels<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 It caught, and consumed, four in less than an hour!\u00a0 Jane spotted a Roebuck<\/strong><\/em>as we drove alongside the fields, and then another two by the River Coquet<\/strong>.\u00a0 Our final stop was in the shadow of Bamburgh Castle, with Common Eider<\/strong><\/em> just offshore, as well as waddling up the beach, and a small group of Common Scoter<\/strong><\/em> just beyond them.<\/p>\n

With a rich variety of mammals, birds, reptiles, flowers<\/strong><\/em> and other wildlife, Northumberland in May really is an excellent destination for the keen naturalist.\u00a0 I like it almost as much as I like the winter \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even after 20 years living in Northumberland, I’m sometimes still amazed at what can be seen in one day, with seven mammals in a day in June 2010 showing what’s possible with planning and just a bit of luck \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Sometimes you just have to hope that the weather’s helpful though… I collected Mike and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,5,141,139],"tags":[371,461,102,67,288,345,149,122,617,45,283,400,232,24,66,218,227],"class_list":["post-2365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-cheviot-valleys","category-northumberland","category-northumberland-coast","category-southeast-northumberland","tag-adder","tag-blackcap","tag-chaffinch","tag-common-scoter","tag-dunlin","tag-eel","tag-eider","tag-fulmar","tag-garden-warbler","tag-great-tit","tag-grey-heron","tag-grey-plover","tag-house-martin","tag-jay","tag-roe-deer","tag-sand-martin","tag-sedge-warbler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2365","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=2365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2367,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2365\/revisions\/2367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}