Damnable weather!

The safari has been out and about but with the cold wet and windy stuff we are suffering at the moment there hasn't been a great lot to write home about.

A trip in to the hills over the holiday weekend saw us struggle to find Willow Warblers it was that bad! Small numbers of the residents, mainly Robins, Chaffinch and Blackbirds but very little else obvious. Plenty of spring lambs on the moorland road but where are all the Lapwings and Curlews, just a handful of each when not too many years ago each field would have had several pairs of Lapwings and the 'bubbling' of Curlews would be heard all day long. One thing we ddid notice was the huge amount of Japanese Knotweed - how the he*(&(*&(ll are we going to get rid of that - if only the Victorians had left it well alone back in Japan. Its the stuff of nightmares, and having had some experience of trying to control it, the harder you hit it the faster it grows back...and it has been known to grow through the footings of houses/roads etc. From this particular thicket of it we heard the barking of a Roe Deer. A mile or so further on we had the briefest of glimpses of the rear end of another as it crashed through the undergrowth away from us. Not our best ever sighting...but sadly that was about as good as it got. very wet and muddy for very little reward.

It was that bad the camera only came out for snaps of Frank in the Bluebells - absolutely no wildlife worth taking the lens cap off for!!!!!

Today, after a quick in and out shopping mission, Frank and I very briefly visited a small coastal nature reserve - or should that be dog walking paradise - no nature there, even on a rough day like today - it was infested with our four-footed friends...even Frank...but at least he is either restrticted on a lead or controlled (just) by command...so what was there? A pair of fed up hissing Mute Swans, a few skimming Swallows, a lone Sedge Warbler and a Skylark or two trying to make themselves heard above the noise of the nearby rubbish dump and howling wind.

Hope the weekend is a little warmer, drier, less windy and more productive.

Where to next? Might have to be sea watching some good tides coming up....

In the meantime let us know what's missing from your wild outback.