{"id":3671,"date":"2016-11-07T16:21:42","date_gmt":"2016-11-07T15:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3671"},"modified":"2016-11-07T16:21:42","modified_gmt":"2016-11-07T15:21:42","slug":"mud-glorious-mud-bespoke-wader-id-workshop-031116","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/northumberland\/lindisfarne\/mud-glorious-mud-bespoke-wader-id-workshop-031116","title":{"rendered":"Mud, glorious mud; Bespoke Wader ID Workshop 03\/11\/16"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday was a trip I’d been looking forward to for several months…Sue’s 5th trip with NEWT was a day searching for and identifying wading birds.\u00a0 Some, like the Curlew<\/strong><\/em> with it’s eerie cry and long downcurved beak are straightforward, but others can be a bit trickier…<\/p>\n

A field full of Oystercatcher<\/strong><\/em> and Lapwing<\/strong><\/em> close to the coast started the trip, and 30+ Whooper Swan<\/strong><\/em> in the same fields were a nice find.\u00a0 Down on to the Aln Estuary anad more Oystercatcher<\/strong><\/em> and Lapwing<\/strong><\/em>, along with Redshank, Curlew<\/strong><\/em> and a lone Woodcock<\/strong><\/em> which dived into cover after a presumably challenging journey across the North Sea.\u00a0 Vast flocks of Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Rook<\/strong><\/em> and Pink-footed Goose<\/strong><\/em> darkened the sky close to the horizon and we headed up the coast.\u00a0 Smaller waders were soon in our sights, with Dunlin<\/strong><\/em> alongside Sanderling <\/strong><\/em>and Ringed Plover<\/strong><\/em> while Turnstone<\/strong><\/em> were busy turning stones, kelp and anything else that they thought might conceal something to eat and the plaintive calls of Grey Plover<\/strong><\/em> carried across the beach on the strengthening breeze.\u00a0 Along the shoreline Redshank<\/strong><\/em> were probing the mud alongside Bar-tailed Godwit<\/strong><\/em> and a lone Pink-footed Goose<\/strong><\/em> flew northwards, calling constantly.\u00a0 A stream of Blackbirds<\/strong><\/em> heading westwards marked an obvious arrival of migrants and a second Woodcock<\/strong><\/em> flew ‘in-off’ as we had lunch.\u00a0 Knot<\/strong><\/em> alongside Dunlin<\/strong><\/em> allowed a nice comparison of two species that can be tricky at a distance and vast flocks of Golden Plover<\/strong><\/em> and Bar-tailed Godwit<\/strong><\/em> resembled Starling<\/strong><\/em> murmurations as they wheeled and turned distantly between Holy Island<\/a> and the mainland.\u00a0 Just offshore from the mud where the waders were feasting Common Eider<\/strong><\/em> and Red-throated Diver<\/strong><\/em> were riding the swell, a Great Northern Diver<\/strong><\/em> flew north, flotillas of Shag<\/strong><\/em> were diving, flocks of Wigeon, Teal<\/strong><\/em> and Pale-bellied Brent Goose<\/strong><\/em> were disturbed by the rising tide and, as light levels began dropping, Sue spotted two Little Egrets<\/strong><\/em> as they left the mud and headed towards a nighttime roost.<\/p>\n

Before the end of the day, Sue had already booked her next trip with us – Kielder<\/a> next March.\u00a0 There’ll be fewer waders, and less mud \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday was a trip I’d been looking forward to for several months…Sue’s 5th trip with NEWT was a day searching for and identifying wading birds.\u00a0 Some, like the Curlew with it’s eerie cry and long downcurved beak are straightforward, but others can be a bit trickier… A field full of Oystercatcher and Lapwing close to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[147,221,556,172,288,175,151,400,382,334,123,243,210,108,129,69,224,80,377,169,359,181,71,158],"class_list":["post-3671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lindisfarne","tag-bar-tailed-godwit","tag-common-eider","tag-common-redshank","tag-curlew","tag-dunlin","tag-golden-plover","tag-great-northern-diver","tag-grey-plover","tag-jackdaw","tag-knot","tag-lapwing","tag-little-egret","tag-oystercatcher","tag-pale-bellied-brent-goose","tag-pink-footed-goose","tag-red-throated-diver","tag-ringed-plover","tag-sanderling","tag-shag","tag-teal","tag-turnstone","tag-wigeon","tag-woodcock","tag-woodpigeon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671","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=3671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3673,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671\/revisions\/3673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}