{"id":527,"date":"2010-05-22T08:36:14","date_gmt":"2010-05-22T08:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=527"},"modified":"2012-04-06T09:38:25","modified_gmt":"2012-04-06T09:38:25","slug":"maximising-our-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/maximising-our-chances","title":{"rendered":"Maximising our chances"},"content":{"rendered":"

So far this year, tracking down Otters<\/em><\/strong> has proved slightly more difficult than it did last year.\u00a0 That’s one of the drawbacks of working with animals \ud83d\ude09\u00a0 They’re generally not predictable.\u00a0 That’s what makes a wildlife tour so much fun though, you just never know what you’re going to experience.<\/p>\n

However, after a brief sighting on Thursday evening, I was happy that we’re still visiting the right\u00a0areas of Northumberland\u00a0to maximise our clients’ chances of connecting with this elusive, graceful predator.\u00a0 I arrived at Newbiggin at 10am yesterday to collect Derek and Jacky for a mini-safari in Druridge Bay.\u00a0 After our usual commentary on the industry and landscape of the area, as we drove towards Cresswell, it was time to settle and be patient.\u00a0 I’d just finished explaining the two types of bird behaviour that usually accompany the appearance of an Otter, when there was a good example of the first; eight Tufted Ducks<\/em><\/strong> scattered from the edge of the pond.\u00a0 Sure enough, it was less than 20 seconds before I spotted the tell-tale dark back breaking the surface and for the next few minutes we watched an adult Otter<\/em><\/strong> as it surfaced, dived and fed, all the while with a flock of Black-headed Gulls<\/em><\/strong> circling above it.\u00a0 After a minute or two without any further sign I was sure it had disappeared into a channel in the reeds, probably going to rest after feeding.\u00a0 The gulls began moving around the pond randomly; clearly they’d lost sight of the Otter<\/em><\/strong> as well.\u00a0 Further entertainmant was provided by 3 Herons<\/em><\/strong> that were following each other around, and a Carrion Crow<\/em><\/strong> that was foolhardy enough to fly over several pairs of nesting Lapwings<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

After the morning seemed to just fly past, I took Derek and Jacky back to Newbiggin and then returned to the office, before heading out in the evening to check another new Otter<\/em><\/strong> site and enjoy some relaxed birdwatching.\u00a0 But that’s another story for another day…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So far this year, tracking down Otters has proved slightly more difficult than it did last year.\u00a0 That’s one of the drawbacks of working with animals \ud83d\ude09\u00a0 They’re generally not predictable.\u00a0 That’s what makes a wildlife tour so much fun though, you just never know what you’re going to experience. However, after a brief sighting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9,5,21],"tags":[823,271,272,236,123,825,837,182],"class_list":["post-527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-druridge","category-northumberland","category-otter","tag-birdwatching","tag-black-headed-gull","tag-carrion-crow","tag-heron","tag-lapwing","tag-northumberland","tag-otter","tag-tufted-duck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527","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=527"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":531,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions\/531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}