Monday 19 July 2010

Well at least the rain has stopped (for now).

The Safari forgot to mention that last Friday (July 16th) was World Snake Day how did we forget that we adore snakes – not that we have much to do with them on our safaris sadly. Would be nice to find an Adder one day and we are working with the BEAT Naturewatch group to discover if there are any Grass Snakes still to be found in town.
Out on patch 1 with Frank and noted a bit of Blackbird activity with two being seen going over at height and another on a roof in an area we don’t normally come across them. In the park itself we could only find another five. Little else doing but a small family party off Long Tailed Tits was good to see. On the way back we had a pleasant surprise; sitting on the usual ledge on the water tower was our old friend, the Peregrine – long time no see and glad to have him/her back.
Patch 2 was quiet although a heavy strandline on the falling tide was giving the gulls rich pickings. Lots of juvenile Herring Gulls about but despite there being around three dozen adult Black Headed Gulls there were no juveniles. A pair of Great Black Backs stole the best of what the others were finding but there were hardly any Lesser Black Backs.
Out at sea a Cormorant came and went in the space of five minutes while three Sandwich Terns were further offshore, these moved on quickly too – are there no fish along our bit of coast this year? Two Dunlins winging south provided the most excitement of the morning’s short watch.
Lunchtime’s even shorter watch gave us the added bonus of five Sandwich Terns with three still fishing out at sea.
Where to next? Somewhere where we can get the camera out please.
In the meantime let us know if it hasd stopped raining in your outback yet.
Announcing a hosepipe ban is a surefire way of breaking a drought!!!

4 comments:

Warren Baker said...

still no rain here Dave - just hot, hot ,hot. which I dont enjoy!

Craig said...

Hi Dave...Peregrine i hear (read) you say, now if i can just drag myself away from the hawk family for a while mmmmm.
Glad its back.
Hope your hand is ok now.

best wishes
Craig

Craig said...

Hi Dave...around 7pm i saw TWO Peregrines on water tower.
After a few minutes she took off and went around the water tower and kept going in a circle over the houses and then off into the distance.
The male stayed perched up.
All those times of trying to see it and i finally see two at once. (made my day)
Thanks to you for posting about it.


best wishes,
Craig

Amila Kanchana said...

So it'll be safe to keep some hopes to see some photos soon from you guys?