Lifer escapes?

The Safari was brave/foolish* enough to venture onto the seawall as the sun rose up over the houses opposite this morning. The tide was falling but the sea was still a maelstrom of white foam after another very stormy night.

As the clouds cleared to the north we could see much more snow had fallen on the Lake District hills overnight. In fact the westernmost fell, Black Combe, could easily have been renamed White Combe.

Out at sea we could only see a small proportion of the Common Scoters that were probably present...they are tough cookies. When he was (much) younger one of our brothers used to have a thing for a ludicrous which-would-win-in-a-fight scenario eg Tiger v Walrus, Elephant v Killer Whale...etc etc well we know which would win...Common Scoters v anything you care to name...c’mon if you think your hard enough!!!!! 

A cargo ship was sunk not far away from here last week when a 'huge' wave broke the ship in two with the tragic loss of five crew members and still the scoters sit out this storm and the next and the next...until winter is over in their ‘survival’ suits of greasy black feathers and nothing to eat but a few very gritty seashells. Some of the breakers out on the horizon must have been about 15 feet (5m) high!

Not a lot else was about but scanning southwards we spotted a distant gull with a very distinctive pattern as it careened through the troughs away from us it wouldn’t give us a another good view until it finally swooped up and dived down never to be seen again...could it have been one of those elusive Sabine’s Gulls or was it just a 1^st winter Kittiwake? We’ll never know; the law of averages would say Kittiwake, Sod’s law would say Sabine’s Gull.

Unfortunately we weren’t able to get out there at lunchtime but a visit to another office had us finding two good clumps of Sulphur Tuft fungus on a lawn and both Primrose and Cowslip in flower in a small patch of Public Open Space that has recently been planted with a few trees and sown with a wildflower mix.

Where to next? Can only really be more from Patch 2.

In the meantime let us know what missed be identified in your outback

*delete as appropriate