Sunday 20 July 2008

How many bats? - updated

None! The safari didn't manage to get to the Stanley Park Bat night due to an unexpected emergency. So we don't don't yet know how they got on, pretty well I imagine it was a reasonable evening. One in which, at Base Camp, there was a Swallowtail moth, a species I don't get in the trap all that often. Not that the trap has been out often this summer, once only in fact.

21/07/08 Hold the front page - news is that there were Bats all over the park! Excellent views were had by all who came along - brilliant!

That afternoon at Base Camp I found another seemingly rare species for this year on the Marjoram, a Small Tortoiseshell. I've seen very few so far this year but this
specimen was very fresh and hopefully will be the vanguard of a good summer for them. They are certainly due one, being a tad scarce in recent months.



Our unexpected emergency took us to a far flung corner of the county - Liverpool. We returned to Base Camp via a circuitous route in to the Burscough area of west Lancashire and there we had a very pleasant surprise. On the edge of a horse paddock grazing at the side of the road was a young male Fallow Deer, with his little antlers in velvet. Mid afternoon, broad daylight, as bold as!

Further down the road and almost back at Base Camp we found a Brown Hare sitting in a field near Singleton enjoying a bit of evening sunshine, and I don't blame it, it has been thin on the ground so far this summer. Anyway the Hare has been duly recorded - see link on right hand side of page to record any you find in Lancashire, it's a really easy web site to follow.

Where to next? Not sure about the weather for the coming week but if it's windy then you can be sure of some obsessing about Storm Petrels. But rumour has it sunshine and warmth are coming this week so more butterflying could well be on the cards.

In the meantime let us know what you've found in your 'outback'.

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