Saturday 20 November 2010

Sort of slow

The Safari was lucky enough to get out onto Patch 1 during the hours of daylight today. Not a lot to report. There are a few trees down after the storms last week, one of which is a nice dry dead pine which we have our eye on. We did find the Sparrowhawk's nest now that the leaves have dropped - almost right over the path high up in a substantial fork in a Willow tree.
One of the Peregrines was sat on a different ledge from their usual favoured ones. No sign of any Waxwings on the Patch but almost all the berries have disappeared already so there will be little to attract them down if they do ever fly over...unless of course they've been during the week and scoffed the lot while we were at work - somehow we doubt it!
An old tree stump was covered in Stag's Horn fungi - this one was easily the largest and the only pic we took that was anything like in focus.

We mentioned the dead pine before as at Base Camp we are swapping the inefficient, lose-all-the -heat-up-the-lumb, open fire with a wood burner. The works are in the early stages but it's flipping cold sat here with the room's main source of heating out of commission just as the temperatures are set to tumble to Arctic lows...brrr
Where to next? A more distant safari northwards tomorrow and a bit of hiking around the woods and countryside, not sure exactly where so don't know what might be seen...anything is possible after the promised pub lunch!
In the meantime let us know how much heat you need at your Base Camp.

2 comments:

Monika said...

Is the stag's horn fungus the part that looks like a branch sticking up from the stump?

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Yep that's the chap, lack at the base with white tips - sorry it's not quite in focus. It's almost an inch (2.5cm)tall.

Cheers
Davo