{"id":4774,"date":"2019-05-01T09:39:41","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T08:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4774"},"modified":"2019-05-01T09:39:42","modified_gmt":"2019-05-01T08:39:42","slug":"calm-otter-safari-30-04-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/northumberland\/druridge\/calm-otter-safari-30-04-19","title":{"rendered":"Calm; Otter Safari 30\/04\/19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Arriving in Newbiggin to collect Marilyn, Lesley, Penny, Dave and Trai ahead of an afternoon and evening around Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland<\/a> the first thing that struck me was just how calm the sea was, and how the mist hanging over it left water and sky linked by an invisible horizon…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We started with a riverside walk, accompanied by the songs of Chaffinch, Blackbird, Blackcap<\/em><\/strong> and Chiffchaff<\/em><\/strong> as a Grey Wagtail<\/em><\/strong> sallied from mid-stream rocks in pursuit of flying insects, a Jay<\/em><\/strong> showed briefly as it flew from one tree to the next and a Grey Heron<\/em><\/strong> flew adeptly between branches overhanging the water. Along a wider stretch of river, Shelduck, Gadwall<\/em><\/strong> and Mallard<\/em><\/strong> were up-ending, a Cormorant<\/em><\/strong> was perched on a dead tree mid-river and a Whitethroat<\/em><\/strong> was song-flighting as the crunchy aggressive warble of a Blackcap<\/em><\/strong> came from deep cover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our picnic spot overlooking the North Sea brought Fulmars<\/em><\/strong> soaring effortlessly along the clifftop, a Tree Sparrow<\/em><\/strong> calling as it passed overhead and a Grey Seal<\/em><\/strong> just offshore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avocets<\/em><\/strong> were feeding, sleeping and squabbling as Dunlin<\/em><\/strong> probed the mud in the shallows, a Lapwing<\/em><\/strong> ran across the mud in short bursts, Black-headed Gulls<\/em><\/strong> engaged in some very noisy display and posturing, Carrion Crows<\/em><\/strong> pursued a female Marsh Harrier<\/em><\/strong> and a Bar-tailed Godwit<\/em><\/strong> slept through it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the approach of dusk a female Marsh Harrier<\/em><\/strong> was heading to roost as Mallard, Gadwall, Tufted Duck<\/em><\/strong> and Teal<\/em><\/strong> remained calm and unflustered on the water below, a Canada Goose<\/em><\/strong> lifted its head above the vegetation surrounding its nest and the incessant reeling of a Grasshopper Warbler<\/em><\/strong> contrasted with the scattergun song of a Sedge Warbler<\/em><\/strong> as sunset, and then dusk were just a darker shade of grey than mid-afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As much as watching wildlife I really enjoy spending time with our clients, and with a range of topics discussed that included Natural England’s general licence controversy, open-casting, wind farms and the good, bad and ugly of wildlife photography the afternoon passed just too quickly \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arriving in Newbiggin to collect Marilyn, Lesley, Penny, Dave and Trai ahead of an afternoon and evening around Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland the first thing that struck me was just how calm the sea was, and how the mist hanging over it left water and sky linked by an invisible horizon… We started with […]<\/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":[40,147,133,461,560,102,268,556,372,288,122,170,228,283,835,256,24,123,171,397,227,189,169,234],"class_list":["post-4774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-druridge","tag-avocet","tag-bar-tailed-godwit","tag-blackbird","tag-blackcap","tag-canada-goose","tag-chaffinch","tag-chiffchaff","tag-common-redshank","tag-cormorant","tag-dunlin","tag-fulmar","tag-gadwall","tag-grasshopper-warbler","tag-grey-heron","tag-grey-seal","tag-grey-wagtail","tag-jay","tag-lapwing","tag-mallard","tag-marsh-harrier","tag-sedge-warbler","tag-shelduck","tag-teal","tag-whitethroat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4774","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=4774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4775,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4774\/revisions\/4775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}