{"id":4001,"date":"2017-08-02T12:06:05","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T11:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4001"},"modified":"2017-08-11T08:34:32","modified_gmt":"2017-08-11T07:34:32","slug":"a-little-spoonful-otter-safarimini-safari-010817","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/uncategorized\/a-little-spoonful-otter-safarimini-safari-010817","title":{"rendered":"A Little Spoonful; Otter Safari\/mini-Safari 01\/08\/17"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Otters fail to perform during an Otter Safari<\/a>, there’s always something else to take centre stage…<\/p>\n

I collected Eileen from Warkworth and the first half of the afternoon was spent intently studying the behaviour of birds along a river, looking for any indication that they were concerned about something. The cries of Oystercatcher<\/strong><\/em> and Curlew<\/strong><\/em> drifted on the breeze as Little Egrets<\/strong><\/em> stalked through the shallows or roosted in trees overlooking the water.\u00a0 A stop off at Cresswell produced lots of Lapwing, Oystercatcher<\/strong><\/em> and Curlew<\/strong><\/em>, a dozen or so Dunlin<\/strong><\/em> and a summer-plumaged Knot<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 We’d managed to just miss a Spoonbill<\/strong><\/em> though, although back to that later…<\/p>\n

After a picnic overlooking Druridge Bay<\/a> we collected Tony and Norma, and Alicia and Emmie for the second half of the trip.\u00a0 More Curlew, Lapwing<\/strong><\/em> and Dunlin<\/strong><\/em> followed, with some Black-tailed Godwit<\/strong><\/em> still sporting their breeding plumage, an elegant Wood Sandpiper<\/strong><\/em> patrolling the muddy edges, Tufted Ducks<\/strong><\/em> with ducklings, a female Marsh Harrier<\/strong><\/em> and a dense cloud of Sand Martins<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Then Little Owls<\/strong><\/em>; one, then two, then three, then two, then three, then one as they shuffled position along a fence and a stone wall.\u00a0 One of the owls even found itself sitting on the apex of a roof alongside a Magpie<\/strong><\/em>, before deciding the black and white corvid needed seeing off.\u00a0 Norma had spotted a white bird tucked away in the rushes and it took off, flying directly towards us…and there was the Spoonbill<\/strong><\/em> \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

As dusk approached Great Crested Grebes<\/strong><\/em> offered small fish to their well-grown chick as Grey Herons<\/strong><\/em> squabbled over prime feeding spots, Common Terns<\/strong><\/em> took a bath, Starling<\/strong><\/em> flocks swirled by and Emmie spotted her first Roe Deer<\/strong><\/em> – first a doe and then a buck sporting a fine pair of antlers as the light faded to the point where everything was shadow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the Otters fail to perform during an Otter Safari, there’s always something else to take centre stage… I collected Eileen from Warkworth and the first half of the afternoon was spent intently studying the behaviour of birds along a river, looking for any indication that they were concerned about something. The cries of Oystercatcher […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[242,172,288,128,123,243,397,210,909,66,398,161,182,558],"class_list":["post-4001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-druridge","category-uncategorized","tag-black-tailed-godwit","tag-curlew","tag-dunlin","tag-kestrel","tag-lapwing","tag-little-egret","tag-marsh-harrier","tag-oystercatcher","tag-red-knot","tag-roe-deer","tag-spoonbill","tag-starling","tag-tufted-duck","tag-wood-sandpiper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001","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=4001"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4011,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions\/4011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}