{"id":3795,"date":"2017-05-10T18:50:34","date_gmt":"2017-05-10T17:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3795"},"modified":"2017-05-10T18:50:34","modified_gmt":"2017-05-10T17:50:34","slug":"may-magic-otter-safari-090517","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/northumberland\/druridge\/may-magic-otter-safari-090517","title":{"rendered":"May magic; Otter Safari 09\/05\/17"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a week away from home, leading a wildlife photography holiday for another company, I was looking forward to getting back to all things NEWT and as I collected Mike and Barbara from Low Newton, ahead of an afternoon and evening around Druridge Bay<\/a> searching for Otters<\/a>, I was thinking that the afternoon sunshine was maybe just a bit too bright and hot but that the evening could be good…<\/p>\n

Whitethroats, Sedge Warblers<\/strong><\/em> and Blackcaps<\/strong><\/em> were all singing, and occasionally affording brief glimpses, and a male Bullfinch<\/strong><\/em> was equally stunning in the few seconds that he perched at the top of a small tree.\u00a0 Little Egrets<\/strong><\/em> and Grey Herons<\/strong><\/em> were hunting in the shallows, Shelduck, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Shoveler, Teal<\/strong><\/em> and Gadwall<\/strong><\/em> were all feeding and a Lesser Whitethroat<\/strong><\/em> was a nice addition to the trip list.\u00a0 Lapwing<\/strong><\/em> were displaying and Avocets<\/strong><\/em> were sitting on nests and occasionally getting up to rearrange their precious contents as the Sun headed westwards.<\/p>\n

Then the waders took centre stage; a male Ruff<\/strong><\/em>, coming into his breeding finery, Black-tailed Godwits<\/strong><\/em> (and single Bar-tailed<\/strong><\/em>), noisy Curlew<\/strong><\/em> and a Whimbrel<\/strong><\/em> flew right overhead uttering it’s distinctive call as Lapwings<\/strong><\/em> were tumbling and calling and at least 20 Common Snipe<\/strong><\/em> took flight.\u00a0 Male Stonechat<\/strong><\/em>, male Reed Bunting<\/strong><\/em> and dapper Tree Sparrows<\/strong><\/em>, all excellent attractive birds, still paled when compared to at least 7 Yellow Wagtails<\/strong><\/em>, including an exquisitely beautiful Channel Wagtail<\/strong><\/em> (perhaps should be known as Chanel Wagtail!), which were in a feeding flock with both Pied<\/strong><\/em> and White Wagtails<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 A real bonus bird came in the form of a Long-eared Owl<\/strong><\/em>, hunting masterfully in and around the bushes it passed by just 20m in front of us at one point! A male Marsh Harrier<\/strong><\/em> was another great bird for the trip and he engaged in an overly optimistic attempt to chase and catch a Black-headed Gull<\/strong><\/em> in flight \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

As the Sun dropped lower the light was simply sublime and we settled into position at our final site for the evening.\u00a0 Canada<\/strong><\/em> and Greylag Geese<\/strong><\/em> were incubating, a Grey Heron<\/strong><\/em> took a Mallard<\/strong><\/em> duckling and swallowed it whole right in front of us as the agitated parents called in vain before returning to protect their one remaining offspring.\u00a0 A small group of Black-headed Gulls<\/strong><\/em> caught my attention, circling persistently as Swallows, Sand Martins, House Martins<\/strong><\/em> and Swifts<\/strong><\/em> swirled around and feasted on the bounteous hatch of flying insects that the warm weather had brought.\u00a0 There, directly beneath the gulls was an Otter<\/strong><\/em> \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 We watched it’s progress along the shadowy water near the reeds and a couple of times it got out and bounded along the bankside.\u00a0 A second Otter<\/strong><\/em> was also given away by the bright trail of its wake, as the swifts<\/strong><\/em> and hirundines<\/strong><\/em> were replaced by the insectivorous night shift of Pipistrelle<\/strong><\/em> and Noctule Bats<\/strong><\/em>, and by the time we headed back to the car the Moon<\/strong><\/em> and Jupiter<\/strong><\/em> were both shining brightly in the darkening sky.\u00a0 Through the ‘scope the quality of seeing was extraordinary; without any atmospheric turbulence Jupiter<\/strong><\/em> was a perfect disc, the Galilean moons<\/strong><\/em> were pinpoints of light surrounding it and the craters of the Moon<\/strong><\/em> were impressive at 60x magnification.<\/p>\n

Wonderful wagtails<\/strong><\/em>, stunning waders<\/strong><\/em>, Otters<\/strong><\/em> and astronomy; that’s a lot of quality packed into one afternoon and evening \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Druridge Bay<\/a> and Otter Safaris<\/a> are available all year round, so have a look at our calendar<\/a> for available dates and get in touch to see what we can do for you.\u00a0 If there isn’t date that’s good for you, still get in touch – we’re always happy to add additional trips to our calendar!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a week away from home, leading a wildlife photography holiday for another company, I was looking forward to getting back to all things NEWT and as I collected Mike and Barbara from Low Newton, ahead of an afternoon and evening around Druridge Bay searching for Otters, I was thinking that the afternoon sunshine was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,139],"tags":[40,147,271,242,461,27,560,889,373,172,170,283,190,232,703,123,592,243,174,171,397,798,60,837,536,292,127,241,218,227,189,269,215,217,233,169,125,182,231,244,819,234,552],"class_list":["post-3795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-druridge","category-southeast-northumberland","tag-avocet","tag-bar-tailed-godwit","tag-black-headed-gull","tag-black-tailed-godwit","tag-blackcap","tag-bullfinch","tag-canada-goose","tag-channel-wagtail","tag-common-snipe","tag-curlew","tag-gadwall","tag-grey-heron","tag-greylag-goose","tag-house-martin","tag-jupiter","tag-lapwing","tag-lesser-whitethroat","tag-little-egret","tag-long-eared-owl","tag-mallard","tag-marsh-harrier","tag-moon","tag-noctule-bat","tag-otter","tag-pied-wagtail","tag-pipistrelle","tag-reed-bunting","tag-ruff","tag-sand-martin","tag-sedge-warbler","tag-shelduck","tag-shoveler","tag-stonechat","tag-swallow","tag-swift","tag-teal","tag-tree-sparrow","tag-tufted-duck","tag-whimbrel","tag-white-wagtail","tag-white-fronted-goose","tag-whitethroat","tag-yellow-wagtail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3795","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=3795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3797,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3795\/revisions\/3797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}