{"id":4739,"date":"2019-03-01T12:58:55","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T11:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4739"},"modified":"2019-03-01T12:58:57","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T11:58:57","slug":"dabbling-in-duck-id-druridge-bay-safari-28-02-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/northumberland\/druridge\/dabbling-in-duck-id-druridge-bay-safari-28-02-19","title":{"rendered":"Dabbling in duck ID ;-) Druridge Bay Safari 28\/02\/19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I collected Toni and Tom from Newbiggin and we headed off to explore NEWT&#8217;s local patch, <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&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Late winter often features wildfowl expressing their affection, and yesterday was no exception.  Drake <strong><em>Goldeneye<\/em><\/strong> and drake <strong><em>Red-breasted Mergansers<\/em><\/strong> were enthusiastically following ducks around and a violent altercation between two <strong><em>Mute Swans<\/em><\/strong> eventually ended and the victor returned to their mate and a display of mutual affection.  Lots of other birds were just getting on with the important business of feeding; <strong><em>Tufted Duck, Gadwall, Mallard, Pintail, Teal, Wigeon, Shoveler, Shelduck, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose,Whooper Swan<\/em><\/strong> and a rarity, <strong><em>Green-winged Teal <\/em><\/strong>&#8211; which eventually turned side on to us and gave very obliging views of it&#8217;s key ID feature.  A sudden panic, and birds scattering in every direction, heralded the arrival of a female <strong><em>Sparrowhawk<\/em><\/strong> that twisted and turned before grabbing a <strong><em>Redshank<\/em><\/strong> and going down behind a clump of rush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Roe Deer<\/em><\/strong> were grazing among the rushes and our attention turned from wildfowl to waders.  <strong><em>Dunlin<\/em><\/strong> were busying themselves in shallow water, a <strong><em>Ringed Plover<\/em><\/strong> put in a brief appearance and <strong><em>Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank, Lapwing<\/em><\/strong> and <strong><em>Snipe<\/em><\/strong> were all feeding or roosting. 5 Avocets were a reminder that winter&#8217;s over and spring is nudging it&#8217;s way in.  Disclaimer &#8211; don&#8217;t base any decisions on <strong><em>Avocet-<\/em><\/strong>based weather predictions \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a misty dusk began to descend we had an entertaining chat with an angler on the banks of the Wansbeck.  I didn&#8217;t have to translate too much of what he was saying \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I collected Toni and Tom from Newbiggin and we headed off to explore NEWT&#8217;s local patch, Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland&#8230; Late winter often features wildfowl expressing their affection, and yesterday was no exception. Drake Goldeneye and drake Red-breasted Mergansers were enthusiastically following ducks around and a violent altercation between two Mute Swans eventually ended [&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],"tags":[40,560,172,288,170,168,969,190,123,171,178,210,179,188,358,224,66,189,269,204,131,169,130,181],"class_list":["post-4739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-druridge","tag-avocet","tag-canada-goose","tag-curlew","tag-dunlin","tag-gadwall","tag-goldeneye","tag-green-winged-teal","tag-greylag-goose","tag-lapwing","tag-mallard","tag-mute-swan","tag-oystercatcher","tag-pintail","tag-red-breasted-merganser","tag-redshank","tag-ringed-plover","tag-roe-deer","tag-shelduck","tag-shoveler","tag-snipe","tag-sparrowhawk","tag-teal","tag-whooper-swan","tag-wigeon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739","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=4739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4741,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739\/revisions\/4741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}