{"id":747,"date":"2010-11-02T15:27:18","date_gmt":"2010-11-02T15:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=747"},"modified":"2011-05-18T05:56:21","modified_gmt":"2011-05-18T05:56:21","slug":"in-a-dark-wood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/in-a-dark-wood","title":{"rendered":"In a dark wood"},"content":{"rendered":"

October ended with a Prestige Tour around Druridge Bay<\/a> and Southeast Northumberland.\u00a0 I collected Christine and Mark from Stannington and we headed across to the coast.\u00a0 Flocks of Linnets<\/em><\/strong>. Lapwings<\/em><\/strong> and Grey Partridges<\/em><\/strong> were close to the road and we settled to check one of our regular Otter<\/em><\/strong> sites.\u00a0 All of the assembled Mallard<\/em><\/strong>, Teal<\/em><\/strong>, Wigeon<\/em><\/strong>, Gadwall<\/em><\/strong> and Coot<\/em><\/strong> were concentrated in one area of the pool and clearly nervous about one particular corner.\u00a0 We weren’t fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of any predators, but the behaviour of the waterfowl was typical of the type of indication you get that there’s an Otter<\/em><\/strong> about.\u00a0 Our lunch spot for the day was beside the River Coquet and, along with the Cormorants<\/em><\/strong> and Grey<\/em><\/strong> Herons<\/em><\/strong> that were patrolling the water’s edge, an Atlantic Salmon<\/em><\/strong> provided some spectacular entertainment\u00a0as it\u00a0launched itself vertically out of the water, three times in rapid succession,\u00a0just a few metres away from us.<\/p>\n

As we walked along the River Wansbeck after lunch, via a detour around the north edge of Ashington to enjoy the spectacle of 90+ Waxwings<\/em><\/strong> gorging themselves on Rowan berries, skeins of Pink-footed Geese<\/em><\/strong> passed overhead and, as the sun sank towards the horizon, it was time to seek out the wildlife that occupies that magical time of day.\u00a0 As we settled into position near one of our favourite badger-watching spots there was an incredible commotion from the trees on the other side of the stream.\u00a0 Blackbirds<\/em><\/strong>, Song Thrushes<\/em><\/strong>, Wrens<\/em><\/strong>, Robins<\/em><\/strong> and Magpies<\/em><\/strong> were all alarming loudly.\u00a0 The mobbing was too intense, and too stationary, to be the mild alarm that a Red Fox<\/em><\/strong> or Badger<\/em><\/strong> often triggers and shortly after one Tawny Owl<\/em><\/strong> flew through the trees opposite, a second bird finally got fed up with the mobbing and flew from it’s perch.\u00a0 An unwelcome sighting was a Grey Squirrel<\/em><\/strong>, in a woodland that until recently still held Red Squirrels<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Our first Badger<\/em><\/strong> of the evening was a big adult, trotting across the top of the clearing.\u00a0 Then, after a few minutes of near silence, two Badger<\/em><\/strong> cubs came crashing through the undergrowth.\u00a0 They crossed the stream beneath a fallen tree, paused briefly rising on their haunches like stripy black-and-white meerkats, and then headed uphill behind us.\u00a0 Our fourth Badger<\/em><\/strong> of the evening followed the same route before we headed back to the Landrover and civilisation.<\/p>\n

I dropped Christine and Mark back at Stannington and there was time for one last piece of magic as a Barn Owl<\/em><\/strong> floated lazily from a fence post as I drove back towards the A1.<\/p>\n

Throughout the late autumn and winter we’ll be scheduling most of our trips to finish in darkness.\u00a0 Druridge Bay<\/a> and Lindisfarne<\/a>\u00a0are both excellent locations through the winter, and as darkness descends, so give us a call on 01670 827465 to find out how we can bring that experience to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October ended with a Prestige Tour around Druridge Bay and Southeast Northumberland.\u00a0 I collected Christine and Mark from Stannington and we headed across to the coast.\u00a0 Flocks of Linnets. Lapwings and Grey Partridges were close to the road and we settled to check one of our regular Otter sites.\u00a0 All of the assembled Mallard, Teal, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9,5,139],"tags":[418,286,97,133,270,372,170,283,117,419,123,140,47,171,837,392,847,833,116,145,78,169,180,181],"class_list":["post-747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-druridge","category-northumberland","category-southeast-northumberland","tag-atlantic-salmon","tag-badger","tag-barn-owl","tag-blackbird","tag-coot","tag-cormorant","tag-gadwall","tag-grey-heron","tag-grey-partridge","tag-grey-squirrel","tag-lapwing","tag-linnet","tag-magpie","tag-mallard","tag-otter","tag-pink-footed-geese","tag-red-fox","tag-red-squirrel","tag-robin","tag-song-thrush","tag-tawny-owl","tag-teal","tag-waxwing","tag-wigeon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747","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=747"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":796,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions\/796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}