Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris

The Safari was out on a windy Patch 1 again this morning. No Peregrines, unless they were round the back out of the wind.

Everyday we pass this disgraceful pile of snotty grass dumped in Magpie Wood. It now covers about 10% of the woodland floor. Gonna kick up a stink about it with our local Councillors next week when we get back to work. We can already guess the excuses - too expensive to take it away, nowhere else to put it, there's too much to put anywhere else....etc etc...Well get it out of the best habitat on the estate is our reaction...trouble is the great unwashed, even - or perhaps especially - the posh clean ones that live here, see bright green cut grass as 'nice' while Brambles, Nettles, Figwort, Foxgloves (poisonous!!!) are untidy weeds!!! The Robins, Dunnocks, Wrens, and Blackbirds that nest in there don't see them as weeds!

There used to be Grass Snakes here until they built the houses on their habitat, but even if they were still around the stinking rotting mass is on the shady side of the wood - well you wouldn't want it up by the road would you - so the snakes probably wouldn't have used it anyway!

In the park the Long Tailed Tits, at least 15 today, gave us the total run-around but at least Frank sat patiently while we edged from tree to tree trying to anticipate the next direction the flock would take - all to no avail.

This was the best we could muster, don't think it's as good as yesterday's even!

Then he saw or got wind of something and was off...

And after running round like a mad thing trying to keep up with a totally barmy Springer Spaniel he plonked himself down and refused to move for 10 minutes.

Unlike yesterday bird life was hard to come by with the exception of the very annoying Long Tailed Tits. So as sort of promised here's a pic of the as yet waterless waterfall/cascade thingy - should be impressive when it's going full pelt.

Then we found this - evidence that either a Tiger or Bear has been living in the park sometime in the not too distant past, the tree is about 50-60 years old and the top of those claw scratches are about 6 foot 2m off the ground....so whatever made them had to be around in the last 1/3 of the tree's life, or the last 15 - 20 years...ooohhhh errrrr hope it's gone now...

Less scary is the cutesy little mammal that left this sign - one was even seen burying the fruits of its labours in the footy field bit of the park...that was until a certain dog got wind of him and made him scamper for high  cover at breakneck speed

Did you guess what it was?...of course you did!

On the way back to Base Camp we spotted a decent fungus growing in a neighbour's lawn...not long after leaving a comment on Dean's blog that we are devoid of interesting mushrooms and toadstools here. Tried to get a pic but leaning over their fence with the camera had the curtains twitching - tomorrow earlier if it's still there and hasn't been blown over in the gale we're having at the mo.

Then we spotted one of greatest bugbears, even more worserer than snotty manky grass cuttings - waste of electricity. No-one home, broad daylight and the not at all necessary anyway ornamental lights are still on - WHY??? Ask them if they want a new Nuclear Power Station building up the road and you can probably guess they'd say NOT BL**DY LIKELY MATE!!! Well turn the flamin things off then!!! And the rants about wind turbines we've seen recently would have you thinking they are the devil's spawn...

At the nature reserve in the afternoon we sat for 2 1/2 hours in the cold windy hide known locally as Ice Station Zebra for an Otter no-show :(

This Blackbird has been hanging around one particular section of Brambles for at least three years.

 On the water were good numbers of Wigeon, at least 25 (good for us at least), occasionally interrupted by Coots causing mayhem.

 Dreadful light though...

Where to next? Not sure about tomorrow but deffo something on the cards for Sunday.

In the meantime let us know what didn't show in your outback.