We’re in one of our busier periods at the moment;\u00a0 two trips on Thursday, two on Friday and then we’ll be out again tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Thursday’s two mini-safaris featured some of our old favourites; Little Owl<\/em><\/strong> is one of the best crowd-pleasers that there is, Dunlin, Greenshank, Common Sandpiper, Grey Heron<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 and summer-plumaged Knot<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 all went down very well and some attractive insects added a touch of glitter – Common Darter, Blue-tailed Damselfly, Small Copper, Red Admiral<\/em><\/strong> and Dark Green Fritillary<\/em><\/strong> are all easily overlooked (well maybe not Red Admiral<\/em><\/strong>), but quite stunning if you take the time to search for them and then look closely.\u00a0 After finishing Thursday’s first trip, and dropping Kevin, Angela and Georgia back at Newbiggin, I\u00a0went back to the office, dealt with a few e-mails, packed the head torches and bat detectors ready for the evening and then headed back out for the day’s second tour of Druridge Bay and Southeast Northumberland.\u00a0 Then the heavens opened.\u00a0 With windscreen wipers barely able to provide a clear view, traffic was crawling.\u00a0 I was considering the unthinkable – cancelling a trip.\u00a0 The rain eased and I collected Andy and family.\u00a0 The trip list was very similar to the morning and then I thought it might be worthwhile to have a quick look at the sea.<\/p>\n Now, seawatching is an obsessive pastime but it isn’t for everyone; I’m certain that long periods staring at the sea, hoping that something exciting will appear, don’t make for good client experiences.\u00a0 So we don’t do it…very often.\u00a0 The sea had been flat calm during the day and there was only a gentle breeze.\u00a0 Ideal conditions for searching for cetaceans, in fact.\u00a0 The number of e-mails, texts and ‘phone calls I’d had during the week was the clincher.\u00a0 I knew that cetaceans sightings were increasing and\u00a0viewing conditions were just right…surely the right time to take clients for a seawatch.\u00a0 Gannets<\/em><\/strong> were passing by and we all scanned the sea.\u00a0 Quickly I picked up 2 dolphins away to the south.\u00a0 Then another 2, then 3 including 2 calves.\u00a0 Through binoculars I had little doubt that these were White-beaked Dolphins<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 A quick look through the ‘scope revealed all of the relevant ID features; tall falcate dorsal fin, white flanks arcing up behind the dorsal to form a pale saddle.\u00a0 As everyone managed to see the dolphins, I scanned slowly to estimate how many dolphins there were.\u00a0 At least 25 individual animals were found, and the pod was spread out over at least 6 square miles of the North Sea!\u00a0 Another birder arrived and we managed to get him on to the dolphins as well.\u00a0 It’s almost impossible to describe just how extraordinary such a sighting is.\u00a0 Normally the best opportunities arise when you’re on an organised pelagic trip<\/a>.\u00a0 We’ve got 4 more of these this year; and with only one place remaining on September 18th,\u00a0two places on September 4th and\u00a0four places on August 12th, get in touch now on 01670 827465 to join us and experience the best pelagic wildlife and birdwatching opportunities available on the east coast.\u00a0 August 12th will be a groundbreaking trip; we’re heading out to the Farne Deeps and reports from anglers and researchers suggest that the area could produce sightings of some spectacular wildlife.\u00a0 Minke Whale, White-beaked Dolphin, Common Dolphin <\/em><\/strong>and Killer Whale<\/em><\/strong> have all been found previously.<\/p>\n After the dolphins we had another of the species that always\u00a0captivates our clients as a Barn Owl<\/em><\/strong> allowed a prolonged period of observation as it hunted along the coastal dunes.\u00a0 As darkness descended and we headed back to our starting point the raindrops began to speckle the windscreen of the Landy again.<\/p>\n The highlights of Friday’s first trip were\u00a0Red Squirrel <\/em><\/strong>and\u00a0Little Owl <\/em><\/strong>(for Kate and Lucy) and a very unexpected Green Sandpiper<\/em><\/strong> (for me).<\/p>\n The evening pelagic took place with some extraordinary glowering skies to the north.\u00a0 As the swell began to develop, we were treated to very close views of Gannet <\/em><\/strong>and Fulmar<\/em><\/strong> before returning to Royal Quays in the dark, but the abiding memory of the last week is the extraordinary spectacle of a little-known cetacean, hunting, leaping and playing in the seas off Northumberland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We’re in one of our busier periods at the moment;\u00a0 two trips on Thursday, two on Friday and then we’ll be out again tomorrow. Thursday’s two mini-safaris featured some of our old favourites; Little Owl is one of the best crowd-pleasers that there is, Dunlin, Greenshank, Common Sandpiper, Grey Heron\u00a0 and summer-plumaged Knot\u00a0 all went […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9,105,5,139],"tags":[97,290,335,195,214,331,288,122,185,333,332,283,337,334,72,309,336,833,291,841],"class_list":["post-652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-druridge","category-north-sea","category-northumberland","category-southeast-northumberland","tag-barn-owl","tag-blue-tailed-damselfly","tag-common-darter","tag-common-dolphin","tag-common-sandpiper","tag-dark-green-fritillary","tag-dunlin","tag-fulmar","tag-gannet","tag-green-sandpiper","tag-greenshank","tag-grey-heron","tag-killer-whale","tag-knot","tag-little-owl","tag-minke-whale","tag-red-admiral","tag-red-squirrel","tag-small-copper","tag-white-beaked-dolphin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652","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=652"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1025,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652\/revisions\/1025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}