{"id":3061,"date":"2015-09-11T18:14:15","date_gmt":"2015-09-11T17:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3061"},"modified":"2015-09-11T18:14:15","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T17:14:15","slug":"when-the-wind-blows-whales-waders-and-wildfowl-4-7092015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/northumberland\/druridge\/when-the-wind-blows-whales-waders-and-wildfowl-4-7092015","title":{"rendered":"When the wind blows; Whales, waders and wildfowl 4-7\/09\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last weekend was our ‘Whales, waders and wildfowl’ mini-break<\/a>, with an extension to include our Farne Deeps pelagic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Day -1 (Friday 04\/09\/15).\u00a0 A late cancellation left Sandra and Linda as the only guests on the holiday, and with conditions unsuitable for being offshore, we headed to the far north of the county.\u00a0 Fulmars<\/strong><\/em> and Gannets<\/strong><\/em> were battling into the stiff breeze and Eiders<\/strong><\/em> were riding the deep troughs and towering crests of the waves that were pounding the shoreline.\u00a0 Bar-tailed Godwit<\/strong><\/em> busied themselves along the water’s edge and the eerie moaning of Grey Seal<\/strong><\/em> and haunting cries of Curlew<\/strong><\/em>, carried on the rushing wind, enveloped us in the atmosphere of Holy Island<\/a> in the early autumn.\u00a0 By mid-afternoon, the wind had died down and the sea was calming – had the forecasters got it wrong…<\/p>\n

Day 1 (Saturday 05\/09\/15).\u00a0 04:00 and I wake up to the sound of a strengthening northerly \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Throughout the day, we were close to the sea and could see the amount of swell close to the shore.\u00a0 Linnets, Goldfinches, Meadow Pipits<\/strong><\/em> and Greenfinches<\/strong><\/em> were tossed like leaves on the breeze as they ventured from the cover of bushes along the dunes, a stunning male Stonechat<\/strong><\/em> looked equally uncomfortable and Lapwing, Redshank, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Dunlin<\/strong><\/em> and Black-tailed Godwit<\/strong><\/em> were roosting facing into the wind as Grey Herons<\/strong><\/em> sat motionless and a Little Egret<\/strong><\/em> still radiated elegance as it’s feathers were disarranged by the now rather stiff wind.\u00a0 Always impressive, a male Marsh Harrier<\/strong><\/em> flew by before vanishing over a distant ridge, and the day finished with Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall, Mallard, Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit<\/strong><\/em> and 30 Little Grebes<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Day 2 (Sunday 06\/09\/15).\u00a0 No breeze, bright warm sunshine \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 An extraordinary contrast to the preceding days, and with close views of Cormorant<\/strong><\/em> and Eider<\/strong><\/em> as they dived in calm water.\u00a0 The Cormorants<\/strong><\/em> spent a lot of time standing with wings spread in heraldic pose, drying them before heading back into the water, always an impressive sight.\u00a0 Wigeon, Gadwall, Mallard, Teal, Tufted Duck, Little Grebe<\/strong><\/em> and Mute Swan<\/strong><\/em> were swimming lazily around in the afternoon sunshine and a huge flock of gulls<\/strong><\/em>, roosting, bathing and following the plough, exploded into the air like a burst eiderdown as a Common Buzzard<\/strong><\/em> drifted over.\u00a0 Dinner at the excellent Ashianna in Bedlington<\/a> ended the holiday after three great days with Sandra and Linda \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Our next holiday is Winter Wonderland in early December<\/a>, so give us a call on 01670 827465 to find out more and to book your place now \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last weekend was our ‘Whales, waders and wildfowl’ mini-break, with an extension to include our Farne Deeps pelagic. Day -1 (Friday 04\/09\/15).\u00a0 A late cancellation left Sandra and Linda as the only guests on the holiday, and with conditions unsuitable for being offshore, we headed to the far north of the county.\u00a0 Fulmars and Gannets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10,141],"tags":[147,242,148,372,172,288,149,122,170,185,103,75,283,835,123,140,243,360,171,397,207,210,358,241,215,169,182,181],"class_list":["post-3061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-druridge","category-lindisfarne","category-northumberland-coast","tag-bar-tailed-godwit","tag-black-tailed-godwit","tag-common-buzzard","tag-cormorant","tag-curlew","tag-dunlin","tag-eider","tag-fulmar","tag-gadwall","tag-gannet","tag-goldfinch","tag-greenfinch","tag-grey-heron","tag-grey-seal","tag-lapwing","tag-linnet","tag-little-egret","tag-little-grebe","tag-mallard","tag-marsh-harrier","tag-meadow-pipit","tag-oystercatcher","tag-redshank","tag-ruff","tag-stonechat","tag-teal","tag-tufted-duck","tag-wigeon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061","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=3061"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3065,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061\/revisions\/3065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}