Thursday 8 September 2011

Xactly what we hadn't hoped for

The Safari was hoping that the blow would keep blowing but when we got up and looked out the branches on the trees were shakling but not really being tossed around as they had been yesterday so we decided to give the seawatch a miss.
With Wifey setting off early for work we had a change of heart and thought we might as well give the last of the rising tide a bit of a go.
Getting the Land Rover down from the drive so that Frank could hop in once parked we spotted this Hawthorn Shield Bug sitting on the tyre...thought it best to move it before it got very very dizzy.

So off we went now a bit more hopeful as the seaward side of the hill was still pretty blustery and there had been a couple of Leach's Petrels seen from our watchpoint yesterday evening.
Nothing...several scans of the sea gave us nothing but a few juvenile gulls playing on the wind. Best spot was two Turnstones roosting high on the rocky cliff, not seen them up there before.
At the height of the tide a Bonxie came past heading south just beyond the low water mark giving excellent views. Visibility this morning varied from dire in the showers to right across the bay and the light was excellent whatever the visiblity. We gave it another hour of seeing nothing, no Manx Shearwaters (They're all inland or in care in a box in AB's kitchen) and certainly none of the Holy Grail of Fylde coast birding, before giving Frank a little walk in the gardens and setting off back over the hill to Base Camp.
We didn't hear the arrival of a txt from AB saying, and we quote; "Get down to Gynn if poss, Sabine's Gull flew SW off Heysham at 9.40", which we read at 10 past 10 back indoors...only one word for it AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH - we'd just come from there.
Wonder if the MARINElife team saw it - there was a survey on the Seatruck vessel today (link is to the last survey at the end of August but some nice pics of the conditions on the bridge) , we'll be doing the one in November.

Later in the afternoon we learnt that the Sabs had stayed put so it wouldn't have come past us had we stayed.
After lunch we started working through another bag of stamps and lo and behold came across a Yellow Wagtail, wonder if there's a stamp in there with a Leach's Petrel on it?


A safari round Patch 1 gave us a Peregrine sitting on the ledge, looked slim so probably the male. A couple of minutes later a raptor was being mobbed by about half a dozen Swallows, as it banked we could see it was the male Peregrine and not one of the usual Sparrowhawks.


In the park We had a Chiffchaff whilst trying to extract a very naughty Frank from the pond! Back on dry land a small flock of tit flitted from one patch of trees to another and one of them was a Goldcrest.


Where to next? Gotta try tomorrow morning's tide but the forecast doesn't look too good for storm blown waifs.
In the meantime let us know what was worth staying out for in your outback

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You`re alright for the weekend, Dave, with gales > severe gales being forecast.

la wildlife said...

Were glad your safe now Dave and looking forward for the next adventures of yours.

Aussie Glen said...

Wheres that Photogeenic Frank? Haven't seen him for some time now...
Azzie Geebee