{"id":3287,"date":"2016-05-03T12:28:54","date_gmt":"2016-05-03T11:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3287"},"modified":"2016-05-03T12:28:54","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T11:28:54","slug":"welcome-home-to-northumberland-bespoke-coast-safari-280416","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/northumberland\/druridge\/welcome-home-to-northumberland-bespoke-coast-safari-280416","title":{"rendered":"Welcome home to Northumberland; Bespoke Coast Safari 28\/04\/16"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I arrived at Church Point to collect Tom and Sue, the weather was slightly breezy but dry.\u00a0 The forecast suggested that it might be showery later during the afternoon and promised a bit of a contrast with Tom and Sue’s home country of Australia. Tom’s a Northumbrian so I was really looking forward to showing him parts of the coast that he wasn’t familiar with, hopefully with the weather showcasing Druridge Bay<\/a> and southeast Northumberland at its best…<\/p>\n

Cormorants<\/strong><\/em> air-dried their wings in the stiffening breeze and a Coot<\/strong><\/em> took umbrage at a Moorhen<\/strong><\/em> that was doing nothing more sinister than just wandering along the water’s edge, Woodpigeons, Jackdaws, Greylag Geese<\/strong><\/em> and Canada Geese<\/strong><\/em> speckled the dark grey sky.\u00a0 A typically nervous Great Spotted Woodpecker<\/strong><\/em> watched us warily from behind a tree trunk, Tree Sparrows<\/strong><\/em> were chipping in the hedgerows, a Magpie<\/strong><\/em> was going back and forth presumably from it’s nest, Robins<\/strong><\/em> flicked across paths just ahead of us, Curlew, Redshank<\/strong><\/em> and Oystercatcher<\/strong><\/em> probed in the mud in conditions that were starting to resemble the winter and a Little Egret<\/strong><\/em> was a shockingly bright bundle of white feathers in an ever darkening vista of Northumberland’s coastal wildlife as Avocets<\/strong><\/em>, delicate visions in black and white, swept their heads from side to side through shallow water in seach of food.<\/p>\n

Great Crested Grebes<\/strong><\/em> comported themselves with their usual elegance as more Cormorants<\/strong><\/em> stood hunched in the wind and then, as Chiffchaff<\/strong><\/em> and Willow Warbler<\/strong><\/em> must have been wondering if they were in the right place at the right time of year, the heavens unleashed hail, sleet and snow from an apocalyptic sky and a Water Rail<\/strong><\/em> scurried mouse-like between reedbeds as two Otter<\/strong><\/em> cubs appeared just beyond the grebes<\/strong><\/em> \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Their first appearance was fleeting, just a few seconds before they vanished from sight behind a reedbed.\u00a0 Then they were back, and porpoising side by side, back and forth, before once again heading into the shelter of the reeds.<\/p>\n

As Fulmars<\/strong><\/em> soared along the clifftops and Gannets<\/strong><\/em> rode the uplift just above the waves offshore, we ended the day with the clouds overhead breaking to reveal blue sky and sunshine in a remarkable area of glorious weather that was surrounded in every direction by leaden grey clouds and storms.\u00a0 Atmospheric wildlife watching…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I arrived at Church Point to collect Tom and Sue, the weather was slightly breezy but dry.\u00a0 The forecast suggested that it might be showery later during the afternoon and promised a bit of a contrast with Tom and Sue’s home country of Australia. Tom’s a Northumbrian so I was really looking forward to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21],"tags":[40,560,268,270,372,122,185,488,25,190,382,243,47,198,837,210,116,125,237,213,158],"class_list":["post-3287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-druridge","category-otter","tag-avocet","tag-canada-goose","tag-chiffchaff","tag-coot","tag-cormorant","tag-fulmar","tag-gannet","tag-great-crested-grebe","tag-great-spotted-woodpecker","tag-greylag-goose","tag-jackdaw","tag-little-egret","tag-magpie","tag-moorhen","tag-otter","tag-oystercatcher","tag-robin","tag-tree-sparrow","tag-water-rail","tag-willow-warbler","tag-woodpigeon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287","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=3287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3289,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287\/revisions\/3289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}