{"id":2803,"date":"2015-04-03T17:22:10","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T16:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2803"},"modified":"2015-04-03T17:22:10","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T16:22:10","slug":"springtime-in-northumberland-druridge-bay-mini-safari-02032015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/northumberland\/springtime-in-northumberland-druridge-bay-mini-safari-02032015","title":{"rendered":"Springtime in Northumberland; Druridge Bay mini-Safari 02\/03\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unexpected safaris are always a pleasure, and yesterday was a mini-Safari around Druridge Bay<\/a> that was only arranged on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

I collected Alison, John, May and Isaac from Low Hauxley and we headed down the coast.\u00a0 In glorious weather, the cacophony of unbridled bird song was a noticeable contrast to the gloomy days of March.\u00a0 Chaffinch, Wren, Goldfinch, Blackbird<\/strong><\/em> and Robin<\/strong><\/em> were all singing and the onomatopoeia of our first Chiffchaff<\/strong><\/em> of the year was emanating from deep cover.\u00a0 A pair of Red-breasted Mergansers<\/strong><\/em>, all crazy hair do and striking pattern, were swimming back and forth with their heads below the surface in search of fish, a Little Egret<\/strong><\/em> stalked elegantly through the shallows, Curlew, Oystercatcher<\/strong><\/em> and Redshank<\/strong><\/em> prodded and probed in the gooey mud, Goldeneye<\/strong><\/em> and Cormorant<\/strong><\/em> imitated the Otters<\/strong><\/em> we were looking for and Grey Herons<\/strong><\/em> stood, sentinel like, against the riverside bushes.\u00a0 Canada<\/strong><\/em> and Greylag Geese<\/strong><\/em> were noisily proclaiming their arrival, a young Whooper Swan<\/strong><\/em> lived up to it’s name and Great Crested Grebes<\/strong><\/em> and Pintail<\/strong><\/em> vied for the accolade of elegant beauty.<\/p>\n

A male Marsh Harrier<\/strong><\/em> drifted by and a Mediterranean Gull<\/strong><\/em>, ghostly white against the speckled backdrop of Black-headed Gulls<\/strong><\/em>, performed for some of the group, before frustratingly hiding in the middle of the gull flock.\u00a0 Common Buzzards<\/strong><\/em> were soaring against the blue sky and hovering Kestrels<\/strong><\/em> were a feature throughout the morning and early afternoon, as Meadow Pipits<\/strong><\/em> song-flighted from coastal fence-posts.<\/p>\n

It certainly feels like the spring…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unexpected safaris are always a pleasure, and yesterday was a mini-Safari around Druridge Bay that was only arranged on Tuesday. I collected Alison, John, May and Isaac from Low Hauxley and we headed down the coast.\u00a0 In glorious weather, the cacophony of unbridled bird song was a noticeable contrast to the gloomy days of March.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5],"tags":[271,133,560,102,268,148,372,172,168,103,488,283,190,128,243,397,193,837,210,179,188,358,116,189,421],"class_list":["post-2803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-druridge","category-northumberland","tag-black-headed-gull","tag-blackbird","tag-canada-goose","tag-chaffinch","tag-chiffchaff","tag-common-buzzard","tag-cormorant","tag-curlew","tag-goldeneye","tag-goldfinch","tag-great-crested-grebe","tag-grey-heron","tag-greylag-goose","tag-kestrel","tag-little-egret","tag-marsh-harrier","tag-mediterranean-gull","tag-otter","tag-oystercatcher","tag-pintail","tag-red-breasted-merganser","tag-redshank","tag-robin","tag-shelduck","tag-wren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2803","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=2803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2805,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2803\/revisions\/2805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}