{"id":4308,"date":"2018-05-02T14:47:44","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T13:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4308"},"modified":"2018-05-02T14:47:44","modified_gmt":"2018-05-02T13:47:44","slug":"mediterranean-druridge-bay-bespoke-birdwatching-30-04-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/northumberland\/druridge\/mediterranean-druridge-bay-bespoke-birdwatching-30-04-18","title":{"rendered":"Mediterranean; Druridge Bay Bespoke Birdwatching 30\/04\/18"},"content":{"rendered":"

I collected Pete and Jan from Embleton for their 11th day out with NEWT, and our intended destination was the Cheviot Valleys<\/a>.\u00a0 That isn’t where we headed though as the howling northerly wind would have made several hours on exposed moorland quite unpleasant so, after a quick chat, we decided to head down the coast to Druridge Bay<\/a>…<\/p>\n

Our first stop produced probably the bird of the day as a Dipper<\/strong><\/em> sat obligingly on a small rock.\u00a0 Occasionally stretching it’s wings it did little more than turn around, and burst explosively into song when any other Dippers<\/strong><\/em> flew along, before eventually flying up into a nest hole.\u00a0 The scratchy warble of Blackcaps<\/strong><\/em> came from deep cover, a Great Spotted Woodpecker<\/strong><\/em> drummed briefly, Chiffchaffs<\/strong><\/em> were singing their eponymous song, Nuthatches<\/strong><\/em> were delivering their entire repertoire of calls and a Treecreeper<\/strong><\/em> – incredibly the first I’ve seen this year – shuffled furtively up an ivy-clad trunk.<\/p>\n

Lunch overlooking the North Sea produced Fulmars<\/strong><\/em> soaring effortlessly on stiff wings and lines of Gannets<\/strong><\/em> heading north into the wind.\u00a0 The next couple of hours could have been set somewhere much further south, and warmer, with only the wind-chill reminding us that we were in Northumberland.\u00a0 Glossy Ibis, Spoonbill<\/strong><\/em> and Little Egret<\/strong><\/em> were alongside Garganey<\/strong><\/em> and a Channel Wagtail<\/strong><\/em> feeding on a marshy field as Sand Martins<\/strong><\/em> and Swallows<\/strong><\/em> gathered insects overhead and, after we’d left the ibis<\/strong><\/em> behind we saw it again as it flew north past us.\u00a0 Brief songbursts from Sedge<\/strong><\/em> and Willow Warblers<\/strong><\/em> were mixed in with another scratchy warble as Common Whitethroats<\/strong><\/em> advertised their presence, another first of the year for myself and NEWT, and the insect-plundering hordes over the coastal pools included a couple of Common Swifts<\/strong><\/em> – as sure a sign as any that the summer is here \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I collected Pete and Jan from Embleton for their 11th day out with NEWT, and our intended destination was the Cheviot Valleys.\u00a0 That isn’t where we headed though as the howling northerly wind would have made several hours on exposed moorland quite unpleasant so, after a quick chat, we decided to head down the coast […]<\/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":[461,889,268,763,593,257,122,185,212,934,25,243,300,218,227,398,217,338,213],"class_list":["post-4308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-druridge","tag-blackcap","tag-channel-wagtail","tag-chiffchaff","tag-common-swift","tag-common-whitethroat","tag-dipper","tag-fulmar","tag-gannet","tag-garganey","tag-glossy-ibis","tag-great-spotted-woodpecker","tag-little-egret","tag-nuthatch","tag-sand-martin","tag-sedge-warbler","tag-spoonbill","tag-swallow","tag-treecreeper","tag-willow-warbler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4308","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=4308"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4312,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4308\/revisions\/4312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}