{"id":4093,"date":"2017-09-27T16:32:07","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T15:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4093"},"modified":"2017-09-27T16:32:07","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T15:32:07","slug":"waifs-strays-and-the-gloom-of-dusk-druridge-bay-safari-260917","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/northumberland\/druridge\/waifs-strays-and-the-gloom-of-dusk-druridge-bay-safari-260917","title":{"rendered":"Waifs, strays and the gloom of dusk; Druridge Bay Safari 26\/09\/17"},"content":{"rendered":"

I collected Richard and Liz from Whitley Bay and we headed north along the coast for an afternoon and evening around Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland<\/a>…<\/p>\n

After a few breezy weeks, we’d got something different to contend with; dense, patchy fog all along the coast.\u00a0 I don’t mind that too much though, it’s usually manageable, and the birdwatching can be exciting when you don’t know what’s lurking in the mist \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Brambling<\/strong><\/em> and Tree Sparrow<\/strong><\/em> called overhead as we had lunch, and Redshank, Oystercatcher<\/strong><\/em> and Ringed Plover<\/strong><\/em> were on the beach below us.\u00a0 A Little Owl<\/strong><\/em>, only revealing it’s presence as it flew quickly out of sight, and a much more obliging Little Owl<\/strong><\/em> a couple of minutes later were a great find early in the trip.\u00a0 Teal, Wigeon, Mallard, Gadwall, Tufted Duck<\/strong><\/em> and Shoveler<\/strong><\/em> were sleeping and feeding and, particularly in the case of one female Mallard<\/strong><\/em>, being very vocal as Great Crested Grebes<\/strong><\/em> and Cormorants<\/strong><\/em> hunted with elegant menace, a Little Grebe<\/strong><\/em> demonstrated a remarkable aptitude for catching small fish and Lapwings<\/strong><\/em> were battling the breeze before settling to roost with Starlings<\/strong><\/em> and the disembodied voices of Curlew<\/strong><\/em> carried through the mist.<\/p>\n

Given the cold foggy conditions, moths and butterflies were a surprise.\u00a0 First a dozen or so Nettle-tap Moths<\/strong><\/em>, then the first of several Red Admirals<\/strong><\/em> and a Speckled Wood<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 A Sparrowhawk<\/strong><\/em> was pursuing a small bird (possibly a Chaffinch<\/strong><\/em>) and passed just a few metres in front of the car windscreen in it’s pursuit and we set about one of the great joys of birdwatching on the Northumberland coast; wandering along a narrow track between Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Elder<\/strong><\/em> and Sycamore<\/strong><\/em> with the mist curling it’s cold tendrils around us.\u00a0 Robins<\/strong><\/em> were ‘ticking’ from the bushes, and at least three were singing when they would be better of putting their effort into feeding.\u00a0 Blackcaps<\/strong><\/em> were in the Elders<\/strong><\/em> and we tracked down our quarry, although it proved elusive before eventually offering confiding views.\u00a0 First just a brief glimpse of a small warbler<\/strong><\/em> as it flitted between bushes, apparently settling in a Sycamore<\/strong><\/em> before vanishing again.\u00a0 Then as we were looking where we thought it had gone it flew out from behind us and over our our heads, giving a remarkably loud ‘tsooeest’ call before diving back into cover.\u00a0 Then it appeared at the top of a bush and just sat there, offering great views.\u00a0 Yellow-browed Warbler<\/strong><\/em> is one of the real gems of east coast birding in the autumn and this little treasure eventually performed well for all of us.<\/p>\n

With the mist making dusk even gloomier than usual, Grey Herons<\/strong><\/em> and a Little Egret<\/strong><\/em> flew by a noisy roost of ‘chacking’ Jackdaws<\/strong><\/em> as Soprano Pipistrelles<\/strong><\/em> hunted the leeward edge of a riverside tree and we listened to their calls with our bat detector before heading back towards the bright lights of Whitley Bay \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I collected Richard and Liz from Whitley Bay and we headed north along the coast for an afternoon and evening around Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland… After a few breezy weeks, we’d got something different to contend with; dense, patchy fog all along the coast.\u00a0 I don’t mind that too much though, it’s usually manageable, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[461,118,372,172,170,488,283,382,123,243,360,72,171,915,210,336,358,224,116,269,913,131,402,161,169,125,182,181,403],"class_list":["post-4093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-druridge","tag-blackcap","tag-brambling","tag-cormorant","tag-curlew","tag-gadwall","tag-great-crested-grebe","tag-grey-heron","tag-jackdaw","tag-lapwing","tag-little-egret","tag-little-grebe","tag-little-owl","tag-mallard","tag-nettle-tap","tag-oystercatcher","tag-red-admiral","tag-redshank","tag-ringed-plover","tag-robin","tag-shoveler","tag-soprano-pipistrelle","tag-sparrowhawk","tag-speckled-wood","tag-starling","tag-teal","tag-tree-sparrow","tag-tufted-duck","tag-wigeon","tag-yellow-browed-warbler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4093","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=4093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4095,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4093\/revisions\/4095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}