{"id":2613,"date":"2014-08-25T15:36:06","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T14:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2613"},"modified":"2014-08-25T15:36:06","modified_gmt":"2014-08-25T14:36:06","slug":"the-pointy-end-of-wildlife-watching-otter-mini-safari-12082014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/the-pointy-end-of-wildlife-watching-otter-mini-safari-12082014","title":{"rendered":"The pointy end of wildlife watching; Otter mini-safari 12\/08\/2014"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As I collected Paul, Lily and Charlie from North Shields, dark clouds were gathering away to the north.\u00a0 Over <a href=\"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/tours.php?id=2\" target=\"_blank\">Druridge Bay<\/a> &#8211; just where we were heading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>A late brood of <em><strong>Barn Swallows<\/strong><\/em>, still in the nest and being fed by their parents, were quite a size contrast to <em><strong>Grey Herons<\/strong><\/em> stalking along the water&#8217;s edge. <em><strong>Little Grebe, Tufted Duck, Mallard<\/strong><\/em> and <em><strong>Gadwall<\/strong><\/em> were dabbling and diving, small groups of <em><strong>Starling<\/strong><\/em> were heading to roost and, as darkness approached quicker than it would on a nicer evening, we settled into position to watch for <em><strong>Otters<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 We were in a struggle with dusk and the weather, but distantly, in the gloom of the waters&#8217; edge, the tell-tale &#8216;Loch Ness Monster&#8217; shape of an <em><strong>Otter<\/strong><\/em> was resting at the surface \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 As it moved around the pool, distant plantations and nearby reedbeds were used as landmarks so that everyone knew just where it was.\u00a0 Then it began moving closer and eventually came up out of the water onto an exposed patch of mud; an apex predator silhouetted against the dying embers of daylight as an unseasonably cold wind began cutting across us and the first drops of rain dimpled the water&#8217;s surface around the <em><strong>gulls<\/strong><\/em>, <em><strong>ducks<\/strong><\/em> and <em><strong>geese<\/strong><\/em> settling down for the night as their mortal enemy watched on with <em><strong>mustelid<\/strong><\/em> curiosity and cunning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I collected Paul, Lily and Charlie from North Shields, dark clouds were gathering away to the north.\u00a0 Over Druridge Bay &#8211; just where we were heading&#8230; A late brood of Barn Swallows, still in the nest and being fed by their parents, were quite a size contrast to Grey Herons stalking along the water&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/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],"tags":[451,170,283,360,171,837,161,182],"class_list":["post-2613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-druridge","category-northumberland","tag-barn-swallow","tag-gadwall","tag-grey-heron","tag-little-grebe","tag-mallard","tag-otter","tag-starling","tag-tufted-duck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613","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=2613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2615,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613\/revisions\/2615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}