{"id":4796,"date":"2019-06-24T10:46:19","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T09:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4796"},"modified":"2019-06-24T10:46:20","modified_gmt":"2019-06-24T09:46:20","slug":"gloom-druridge-bay-mini-safari-23-06-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/northumberland\/druridge\/gloom-druridge-bay-mini-safari-23-06-19","title":{"rendered":"Gloom; Druridge Bay mini-Safari 23\/06\/19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The NEWT team had been out for a walk yesterday afternoon, in bright, hot sunshine but by the time I arrived in Newbiggin to collect Gordon, Judy and Mike, for an evening exploring <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, it was a few degrees cooler and no longer sunny&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We started with a riverside walk and with <strong><em>Song Thrushes<\/em><\/strong> singing from the trees around us, and <strong><em>Great Spotted Woodpeckers<\/em><\/strong> posing obligingly for a minute or so as <strong><em>Mallard<\/em><\/strong> ducklings skittered across the water, our attention was drawn to a commotion in the trees on the opposite side of the river.  <strong><em>Jays, Magpies<\/em><\/strong> and <strong><em>Blackbirds<\/em><\/strong> were all hopping around the branches and alarm-calling although we couldn&#8217;t see the source of their annoyance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the gloom getting gloomier we watched <strong><em>Avocets<\/em><\/strong> preening and feeding, a <strong><em>Grey Heron<\/em><\/strong> stalking patiently in shallow water, <strong><em>Lapwings, Curlews<\/em><\/strong> and <strong><em>Black-headed Gulls<\/em><\/strong>, with a 1st summer <strong><em>Mediterranean Gull<\/em><\/strong>, roosting as <strong><em>Reed<\/em><\/strong> and <strong><em>Sedge Warblers<\/em><\/strong> flitted in and out of cover, <strong><em>Reed Buntings<\/em><\/strong> sang their simple songs from the reed tops and a <strong><em>Barn Owl<\/em><\/strong> ghosted along the water&#8217;s edge before settling on a fence post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A <strong><em>Kestrel<\/em><\/strong> hanging almost motionless above the cliff top indicated that the direction of the wind that was starting to bring the first drops of rain was north easterly as <strong><em>Mute Swans<\/em><\/strong> fed in an impressive group, <strong><em>Great Crested Grebes<\/em><\/strong> still managed to radiate elegance in the enveloping gloom of dusk and the staccato laughing cries of <strong><em>Little Grebes<\/em><\/strong> echoed across the water as we headed back to the car and down the coast to Newbiggin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The NEWT team had been out for a walk yesterday afternoon, in bright, hot sunshine but by the time I arrived in Newbiggin to collect Gordon, Judy and Mike, for an evening exploring Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland, it was a few degrees cooler and no longer sunny&#8230; We started with a riverside walk and [&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":[40,97,133,172,488,25,24,123,47,171,193,178,127,267,227,145],"class_list":["post-4796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-druridge","tag-avocet","tag-barn-owl","tag-blackbird","tag-curlew","tag-great-crested-grebe","tag-great-spotted-woodpecker","tag-jay","tag-lapwing","tag-magpie","tag-mallard","tag-mediterranean-gull","tag-mute-swan","tag-reed-bunting","tag-reed-warbler","tag-sedge-warbler","tag-song-thrush"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4796","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=4796"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4797,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4796\/revisions\/4797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}