{"id":4321,"date":"2018-05-19T17:53:44","date_gmt":"2018-05-19T16:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4321"},"modified":"2018-05-19T17:53:44","modified_gmt":"2018-05-19T16:53:44","slug":"yes-this-really-is-southeast-northumberland-otter-safari-18-05-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/northumberland\/druridge\/yes-this-really-is-southeast-northumberland-otter-safari-18-05-18","title":{"rendered":"Yes, this really is southeast Northumberland ;-) Otter Safari 18\/05\/18"},"content":{"rendered":"

In warm but breezy weather I collected Baird and Margaret, and then Jacqui, Paul, Chris and Louise ahead of an afternoon and evening around southeast Northumberland and Druridge Bay<\/a> searching for Otters<\/a>…<\/p>\n

Starting with a woodland walk we could hear Blackbird, Blackcap, Robin, Wren, Woodpigeon, Chiffchaff<\/strong><\/em> and Chaffinch<\/strong><\/em> all singing but the only movement in the rocky streams was gurgling water. Black-headed Gulls<\/strong><\/em> were swarming over the wider rivers, mopping up an obviously substantial hatch of flying insects, and Cormorants<\/strong><\/em> were doing their best to impersonate Otters<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Our picnic stop overlooking the North Sea brought a fantastic wildlife experience; with everyone else enjoying soup, sandwich and carrot cake I was scanning the sea.\u00a0 Common Eider, Guillemot<\/strong><\/em> and Razorbill<\/strong><\/em> were all rafting as Gannets<\/strong><\/em> headed north and then I spotted the concentrated activity of a flock of gulls<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Focusing on the sea below them I soon spotted a couple of dorsal fins breaking the surface…and we had nearly an hour with 9 Bottlenose Dolphins<\/strong><\/em> porpoising, breaching, feeding and generally being very entertaining right in front of us \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Tufted Duck, Mallard, Shoveler, Gadwall<\/strong><\/em> and Great Crested Grebe<\/strong><\/em> all looked stunning in low angled sunlight as Lapwings displayed with their bizarre other-worldly calls and, as the Sun sank towards the northwest a Barn Owl<\/strong><\/em> flew across the road ahead of us.<\/p>\n

Under a beautiful waxing crescent Moon<\/strong><\/em> alongside Venus<\/strong><\/em> in the west, and Arcturus<\/strong><\/em> and Jupiter<\/strong><\/em> visible in the twilight to the southeast, with the giant planet stunning through our telescope, the Swallows, Swifts, House Martins<\/strong><\/em> and Sand Martins<\/strong><\/em> were replaced overhead by Noctule<\/strong><\/em> and pipistrelle<\/strong><\/em> bats as dozens and dozens of Black-headed Gulls<\/strong><\/em> continued feasting on flying insects and a Roe Deer<\/strong><\/em> was in the reeds opposite us.\u00a0 Tufted Ducks, Mallards, Canada Geese<\/strong><\/em> and Greylag Geese<\/strong><\/em> were looking agitated and one flock of gulls seemed to be whirling in a dense tight circle over a narrow bay in the reeds before gradually drifting along still following the reed edge…and the Otter<\/strong><\/em> that was stealthily making it’s way around the pool \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 We watched it for a few minutes before it surfaced right in front of an adult Mute Swan<\/strong><\/em> and decided it was time to beat a hasty retreat into the reeds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In warm but breezy weather I collected Baird and Margaret, and then Jacqui, Paul, Chris and Louise ahead of an afternoon and evening around southeast Northumberland and Druridge Bay searching for Otters… Starting with a woodland walk we could hear Blackbird, Blackcap, Robin, Wren, Woodpigeon, Chiffchaff and Chaffinch all singing but the only movement in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21],"tags":[663,97,271,133,461,330,560,919,102,268,221,372,170,185,488,190,232,703,171,798,178,60,837,292,116,66,218,217,233,182,701,158,421],"class_list":["post-4321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-druridge","category-otter","tag-arcturus","tag-barn-owl","tag-black-headed-gull","tag-blackbird","tag-blackcap","tag-bottlenose-dolphin","tag-canada-goose","tag-cettis-warbler","tag-chaffinch","tag-chiffchaff","tag-common-eider","tag-cormorant","tag-gadwall","tag-gannet","tag-great-crested-grebe","tag-greylag-goose","tag-house-martin","tag-jupiter","tag-mallard","tag-moon","tag-mute-swan","tag-noctule-bat","tag-otter","tag-pipistrelle","tag-robin","tag-roe-deer","tag-sand-martin","tag-swallow","tag-swift","tag-tufted-duck","tag-venus","tag-woodpigeon","tag-wren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4321","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=4321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4323,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4321\/revisions\/4323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}