{"id":4709,"date":"2019-02-24T11:28:05","date_gmt":"2019-02-24T10:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4709"},"modified":"2019-02-24T11:28:06","modified_gmt":"2019-02-24T10:28:06","slug":"spring-has-sprung-otter-mini-safari-23-02-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/northumberland\/druridge\/spring-has-sprung-otter-mini-safari-23-02-19","title":{"rendered":"Spring has sprung? Otter mini-Safari 23\/02\/19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After a break from Safaris and blogging, after I was diagnosed with a rare illness last year and had surgery in early January, it was great to be back out in the field with clients yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I collected Paul and Jennifer, Paul and Kirsty and Alastair and Jess from Newbiggin and we set off for a few hours around <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Druridge Bay (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/experiences\/tour\/12\" target=\"_blank\">Druridge Bay<\/a> and southeast Northumberland.  With temperatures in double figures, <strong><em>Robins<\/em><\/strong>, <strong><em>Chaffinches<\/em><\/strong> and <strong><em>Dunnocks<\/em><\/strong> were singing and a noisy flock of <strong><em>Long-tailed Tits<\/em><\/strong> moved through the riverside vegetation.  <strong><em>Goldeneye, Gadwall, Mallard, Little Grebe<\/em><\/strong> and <strong><em>Cormorant<\/em><\/strong> were on the water and a <strong><em>Little Egret<\/em><\/strong> was stalking along the edge of a rapidly filling tidal channel.  <strong><em>Grey Herons<\/em><\/strong> were nest-building and you could be forgiven for forgetting that it&#8217;s still winter here&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As daylight faded small flocks of <strong><em>Starling<\/em><\/strong> were heading to roost, a <strong><em>Roe Deer<\/em><\/strong> was close to the water&#8217;s edge and <strong><em>Whooper Swans<\/em><\/strong> noisily heralded their arrival.  A pair of <strong><em>Canada Geese<\/em><\/strong> were looking alert and agitated then <strong><em>Mallard, Teal, Wigeon, Goldeneye, Tufted Duck<\/em><\/strong> and the <strong><em>geese<\/em><\/strong> took off in a panic.  From the direction they scattered we could tell where the source of their consternation was&#8230;hidden from view by a reedbed in front of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As darkness began to exert it&#8217;s grip on the eastern sky hundreds of <strong><em>Pink-footed Geese<\/em><\/strong> arrived at their nighttime roost, still coming in from all directions when they were only visible as a dark speckling against a leaden grey sky and we headed back to Newbiggin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a break from Safaris and blogging, after I was diagnosed with a rare illness last year and had surgery in early January, it was great to be back out in the field with clients yesterday. I collected Paul and Jennifer, Paul and Kirsty and Alastair and Jess from Newbiggin and we set off for [&hellip;]<\/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":[560,102,372,159,170,168,283,243,360,121,171,129,116,66,161,169,182,130,181],"class_list":["post-4709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-druridge","category-southeast-northumberland","tag-canada-goose","tag-chaffinch","tag-cormorant","tag-dunnock","tag-gadwall","tag-goldeneye","tag-grey-heron","tag-little-egret","tag-little-grebe","tag-long-tailed-tit","tag-mallard","tag-pink-footed-goose","tag-robin","tag-roe-deer","tag-starling","tag-teal","tag-tufted-duck","tag-whooper-swan","tag-wigeon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4709","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=4709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4711,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4709\/revisions\/4711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}