{"id":3311,"date":"2016-05-25T19:56:31","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T18:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3311"},"modified":"2026-09-27T15:58:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T14:58:21","slug":"cheviot-valleys-bespoke-birdwatching-230516","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/northumberland\/cheviot-valleys\/cheviot-valleys-bespoke-birdwatching-230516","title":{"rendered":"Cheviot Valleys Bespoke Birdwatching 23\/05\/16"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday was Pete and Jan’s 8th trip with NEWT, and we were heading back to the Cheviot valleys where we’d watched a Cuckoo together back in 2013<\/a>.\u00a0 It’s always a pleasure to have a day out with them and catch-up on what’s been happening since we last met, as between us we’re keen recorders of a range of wildlife and the other members of their local Natural History Society are always busy recording some weird and wonderful species…<\/p>\n

In glorious sunny weather the verges were alive with insects<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Lots of hoverflies<\/strong><\/em> (I’m just starting to take an interest in these…) and a very bright Orange-tip<\/strong><\/em> as well as a couple of unidentified female damselflies<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Willow Warbler<\/strong><\/em> and Chiffchaff<\/strong><\/em> were singing enthusiastically as Oystercatchers<\/strong><\/em> plundered the earthworm population of grassy fields before returning to feed their chicks.\u00a0 Brown Hare<\/strong><\/em> sat motionless in short crops, as if we couldn’t see them, before realising they were being watched and loping off.\u00a0 The triumvirate of riparian nervous energy all put in an appearance; Grey Wagtail<\/strong><\/em> flycatching above the rushing stream, Common Sandpiper<\/strong><\/em> bobbing up and down as it made it’s way upstream in a game of avian hopscotch from one bankside rock to the next and Dipper<\/strong><\/em>, almost invisible until it turned and revealed it’s bright white throat and breast.\u00a0 On the edges of the heather moorland, Red Grouse<\/strong><\/em> were standing, sentinel like, and territorial disputes were revealed by the resonant cries of ‘go back, go back, go back’.\u00a0 Common Buzzards<\/strong><\/em> soared on the breeze, a Kestrel<\/strong><\/em> flew quickly by and the plaintive cries of Curlew<\/strong><\/em> echoed around the valley sides.\u00a0 Throughout the afternoon, our walk towards the Scottish border was accompanied by the onomatopaeic calls of Common Cuckoo<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 As the air buzzed with the trill of Lesser Redpoll, <\/strong><\/em>a Goldcrest <\/strong><\/em>showed itself briefly after a burst of song, Spotted Flycatchers<\/strong><\/em> sallied from trees and fence posts and Cuckoos<\/strong><\/em> were calling from every plantation.\u00a0 One perched in a treetop and was quickly mobbed by Meadow Pipits<\/strong><\/em>, another flew over the neighbour it had been having a vocal dispute with, prompting a harsh grumbling response, and others flew across the valley.<\/p>\n

Gorgeous weather, and clients who are great company – an ideal start to the summer…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday was Pete and Jan’s 8th trip with NEWT, and we were heading back to the Cheviot valleys where we’d watched a Cuckoo together back in 2013.\u00a0 It’s always a pleasure to have a day out with them and catch-up on what’s been happening since we last met, as between us we’re keen recorders of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[57,268,381,214,172,771,257,135,45,256,767,128,134,207,769,210,208,285,213],"class_list":["post-3311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cheviot-valleys","tag-brown-hare","tag-chiffchaff","tag-common-cuckoo","tag-common-sandpiper","tag-curlew","tag-damselflies","tag-dipper","tag-goldcrest","tag-great-tit","tag-grey-wagtail","tag-hoverflies","tag-kestrel","tag-lesser-redpoll","tag-meadow-pipit","tag-orange-tip","tag-oystercatcher","tag-red-grouse","tag-spotted-flycatcher","tag-willow-warbler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311","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=3311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3313,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311\/revisions\/3313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}