NWDW - the final challenge

Well the final day dawns and I have forgotten to let you know of the best sightings for yesterday. A flock of seven Crossbills flew over Frank and myself on our early morning walk. A patch first for me and the red males looked fine and dandy in the moorning light. Later, after the Watch Frank and I were back in the park when we saw a Fox and ...a UFO! There have been several sightings of unexplained lights in the sky behaving unlike 'ordinary' aircraft.

The fine weather encouraged me to get the moth trap out. But the forecasters got it wrong and I leapt out of bed with a start to the sound of rain rattling on the windows. The trap was sodden but no drowned moths...more of them later.

So on with the watch. The weather had deteriorated as per usual and it was freezing. Very poor for the end of July.

There was nothing really to report, managed to get one of the Junior Rangers on to a couple of Sandwich Terns roosting on the beach before the tide came in. A distant Gannet and a small flock of even more distant Common Scoters was about the lot.

Apparently the best place to be is out to the south of the river at Formby Point. Only a few miles away but loads of seabirds.

We had to console ourselves by whatching the holiday makers trying to enjoy themselves on the Bunji-slingA cavalcade of Mods came by on their scooters, there were so many of them they took over five minutes to pass. The heady scent of 2-stroke fumes lingered over the prom for a good while after they had gone even with the strong onshore wind!
Good to see The stig is versatile, able to ride two wheels as well as four.

After all this excitement there was more to come. The Red arrows flew in from the north to refuel at the local airport as they often do...they even do this in formation. Then WOW a, by our standards at least, very large and dramatic tornado.

That was about it not a Cetacean in sight. But right at the death there in the semi distance bobbing about in the waves was a Grey Seal...at least it was a mammal. Back home it took a couple of hours to overcome the mild exposure from sitting out for over four hours. even with gloves on my fingers were blue.

Back to the moths. A Canary Shouldered Thorn was trying to hide in at the bottom of the trap...not very effectively.Scalloped Oaks are always welcome but not particularly frequent.
The pale form of Common Rustic is far less numerous than the brown/brick coloured morphs.

A new species for the garden in the form of a Dotted Clay...four of them in fact.
A teneral Blue Tailed Damselfly was caught in the kitchen window in an attempt to escape the worst of the weather after thinking it was safe to emerge in yesterday's sunshine.
Where to next, when I've thawed out? National Marine Week starts at the weekend so lots of beachy things to report on I hope.

In the meantime let us know what you've not seen in your watery outback.