Heading up the coast to Embleton to collect Pete and Janet for their fourth day out with NEWT (plus a couple of days with their local natural history society on a Northumberland\u00a0 visit in 2009), I had a mixture of anticipation and trepidation.\u00a0 It’s always a pleasure to have them on a tour, but this time we were heading to an area that I know quite well myself, but haven’t covered in any great depth with clients…<\/p>\n
We headed inland, skirting the edge of the Cheviot <\/a>massif, passing through Kielder <\/a>and across into the Scottish borders in ever-improving weather \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Common Buzzards<\/strong><\/em> were soaring against the blue sky, Skylarks<\/strong> <\/em>were singing as they ascended heavenwards, Meadow Pipits<\/strong><\/em> parachuted down at the end of their display flights, Red Grouse<\/strong><\/em> popped their heads up above the heather, Grey Wagtails<\/strong><\/em> were flitting from rock to rock in the shallow streams, Whinchat<\/strong> <\/em>were carrying food back to their nests, recently fledged Wheatears<\/strong> <\/em>scolded us as we disturbed their afternoon nap, Wild Goats<\/strong><\/em> grazed steadily on the hillsides high above the valley bottom and then, in the warmth of the mid-afternoon, came one of those moments you dream of (well, I do – other naturalists may have other dreams!)…<\/p>\n Floating across the hillside on agile wings, passing over a Cuckoo<\/strong> <\/em>perched on a small sapling, carrying food back to his mate and their hungry brood, the male Hen Harrier<\/strong><\/em> drifted by before depositing the prey at the nest.\u00a0 He quickly found more food for himself and settled on a prominent rock in the heather.\u00a0 As we watched him through the ‘scope, a familiar chattering call rattled down the fell.\u00a0 Something had disturbed the female harrier<\/strong><\/em>, and she had left the nest and was soaring above it.\u00a0 Then, the likely source of her displeasure appeared.\u00a0 Racing on swept back wings, a Merlin<\/strong> <\/em>flew straight at the harrier<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 She twisted and turned to avoid the assault by the smallest of our falcons<\/strong><\/em>, and flew towards the ground.\u00a0 The Merlin<\/strong> <\/em>wasn’t going to give up though, and the dogfight continued; the otherwise elegant harrier<\/strong> <\/em>looking cumbersome as the annoying gadfly buzzed around her.\u00a0 Eventually the smaller bird broke off and settled in a nearby tree, as the male harrier<\/strong> <\/em>left his perch and soared high over our heads against the blue sky.\u00a0 When I look back in years to come, this really will be an experience that’s fixed firmly in my memory \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Heading up the coast to Embleton to collect Pete and Janet for their fourth day out with NEWT (plus a couple of days with their local natural history society on a Northumberland\u00a0 visit in 2009), I had a mixture of anticipation and trepidation.\u00a0 It’s always a pleasure to have them on a tour, but this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,36,15,5],"tags":[148,264,256,839,207,56,208,191,235,262,495],"class_list":["post-2427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cheviot-valleys","category-hen-harrier","category-kielder","category-northumberland","tag-common-buzzard","tag-cuckoo","tag-grey-wagtail","tag-hen-harrier","tag-meadow-pipit","tag-merlin","tag-red-grouse","tag-skylark","tag-wheatear","tag-whinchat","tag-wild-goat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2427","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=2427"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2431,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2427\/revisions\/2431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}