Wednesday 12 May 2010

DJ Campbell – Blackpool’s number nine - - TEEN

The Safari watched the match of the season last night!
What a game coulda been 7 – 6 for either team, a really open end to end attacking game. Match report here And a hat trick for our favourite player DJ Campbell, who should have had a fourth but hit the ball a tad too hard and clattered the crossbar, actually he could have had six!
Excellent stuff – Wembley here we come…and the Safari can’t go…doh, doh and double doh.
If they were to win promotion it would be their first season in the top division in 40 years…come on you ‘Pool…
But then where would we sit at the Everton match…oh the dilemmas footy fans have to face…but gotta win at Wembley first.
Patch 1 was pretty hopeless this morning. The Wood Warblers have avoided us like the plague and no sign of any Spotted Flycatchers yet. We were close enough to the Lesser Whitethroat to hear its chortling little warble before its more strident rattle and the regular Blackcap was in full song too. Other than those to all the noise was being made by the residents. A Magpie had raided a Woodpigeon’s nest and was carrying off a chick for its own to devour, no doubt it would be back for the rest unless it had already had them. A pair of Jackdaws heading inland over Base Camp when we got home were a useful Walking Tick(#88)
Patch 2 looked to be pretty pointless as has been the norm these last few days. A couple of distant Gannets sped lazily northwards in the distance and a couple of auks went south. That was about it until we found another Gannet close in which banked, folded its wings and dived, not once but half a dozen times –spectacular – close enough to see the splash with the naked eye. Beyond the Gannet we noticed a large amount of gulls milling about, probably about 60 or 70 of them. Some were diving in their clumsy manner. The Gannet noticed this commotion too, went over to investigate and promptly showed the gulls how diving for fish should be done. All this activity didn’t attract any skuas as we had hoped it might. Two Sandwich Terns were unimpressed and sat quietly on the beach with six Oystercatchers and an empty crisp packet. We had another two Sandwich Terns pass over them heading south and two young male Eiders appeared from round the corner in the estuary and flew northwards past us. We hate to say it but that was the most activity we’ve had on a sea-watching session for a good while. But at least things are looking up.
No lunchtime visit today…doh just when it was starting to pick up…
Where to next? More Patchy stuff we suppose.
In the meantime let us know if there has been excitement in your outback today.

Sorry no pics today

1 comment:

cliff said...

Dave - many thanks for the tip re the location of the Pied Flycatchers. Accompanied by my good lady we had a drive to Abbeystead today, found the car park you referred to but initially couldn't find the tree, although that was because of my failing memory telling me the decaying alder was across the road from the car park rather than across the river - doh. Anyhow, after a nice river(stream)side walk I found the tree in question and managed to photo both Mr & Mrs Pied F, along with(from the very same car park) a Spotted Flycatcher. None of the photos are up to much - I need to return with my big lens & a tripod, but the Pied's are a 1st ever sighting for me & the Spotted a first UK sighting, plus I got my first in the wild sighting of a Tawny Owl at Martin Mere yesterday, so achieved a hat trick to rival that of your favourite strikers yesterday evening - Happy Days

Cliff