The Safari hasn't been out much over the weekend. No safaris have been undertaken at all. Neither have we managed to get any Christmas shopping in yet and time is pushing on for that m'larky.
On Saturday we managed a quick trip around Patch 1, in the light for a change, but didn't get much until we came out of the park and spotted a Meadow Pipit sat on the ridge tiles of one of the houses on the new estate - it's very unusual to find a grounded one on the patch!
Later we read that there had been a dark bellied Brent Goose on the golf course opposite the park, off patch but what a local tick that would have been! Unusual to as both 100+ strong flocks to the north and south are pale bellied Brents.
We spent much of the afternoon sawing logs. But first had to overcome a bit of Wood Mouse inflicted chainsaw damage. the little devil that lives in the garage has been on a gnawing spree and chewed at this that and the other; one of the others included the filler cap for the chain oil on the saw. How very dare it!
Wanton vandalism - that's what it is!!!
This morning's shorter Patch 1 safari gave us a Great Spotted Woodpecker on the ground, or perhaps on a fallen log, in the Golden Triangle. A Blue Tit on the feeder was a real treat as was a fly over Pied Wagtail, a fair few uncounted Chaffinches too whilst wood cutting (again - gonna be a feature of weekends from now on we think) and we're not a 100% positive we didn't hear the nasal 'chweee' call of a Brambling overhead which would have been a patch tick.
A trip to the shops ended up with a game of ball on the beach, not far from the elusive Purple Sandpiper, which meant that Frank had to go for a swim; at one point he lost sight of his ball and yours truly was almost about to strip off to retrieve it...thankfully Frank saw it and headed off in to the deep to fetch it back...a lucky escape...he's now lying by the fire steaming. There was little of note on the flat calm sea, only a handful of Turnstones flew by and a few gulls looked for titbits from the passing public, although we were optic-less. passing the water tower on the way back to Base Camp we could see one of the Peregrines sitting up on its ledge enjoying the 'warm' afternoon sunshine.
'Pool had an excellent result yesterday afternoon, with their fourth away win of the campaign. they have now won as many away as Man Utd (3rd) and Chelsea (4th) combined. They have scored 24 goals in their 16 games same as Man City (2nd) and lost few games at home than Arsenal (1st). Not only that they no longer have the leakiest defence in the Premiership, now it's joint second leakiest, which in our book is an improvement!
22 points from 16 matches gives us an end of season very healthy 52 points - keep it up boys yer doing good!!!
Where to next? A week of patchy stuff comin your way.
In the meantime let us know the score in your outback.
4 comments:
close with the Brambling Dave, one will turn up soon mate!
PS I hope the pool aren't playing Chelsea anytime soon, gulp! :-)
Christmas shopping, Dave. What`s that ;-)
5th March Warren - revenge will be sweet!
Two beers too many, EBay and a huge c/c bill in the New Year that's what Dean!
Cheers
Davo
Dave - re the GS Woody, do you ever get them in the garden? Despite putting nut feeders out (amongst many other things) we've never had a sniff of one. & re your Pied Waggy sighting, my brother in law had three in the street by his house(also Bispham) on Sunday, we get Grey Waggys but never Pied - & - another thing we rarely get are Chaffinch in the garden. Goldfinch are daily visitors & usually in good numbers, Greenfinch, up until the recent cold weather anyway, daily visitors but usually in ones & twos, but when it comes to Chaffinch we're lucky to get one sighting per year, how very odd??
Oh, & since the cold weather numbers of everything bar House Sparrows & Starlings are well down.
Cliff
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