They're under starter's orders...and they're off

The Safari crawled home at a few minutes before 03.00 last night and before retiring took Frank for a last  visit to the grassy verge - the Leopard Slug we saw was easily the earliest record of this species in our entire life! What;s one of those doing out a few minutes after midnight on January 1st? - they should be fast asleep under a rock until at least early March...but the car's thermometer did read a 'scorching' 10C on the short drive home, it should be 2C at that time of the morning in an 'average' January.

By the time we were up in the morning it was seriously lashing it down so we decided not to venture out listing. Trying to peer through the rain soaked windows into the garden at Base Camp wasn't easy either, we could just about make out the blurry forms of Chaffinches, Blue Tits and Great Tits visiting the feeder.

11 on the list by 11.00 at that rate we should have 8784 on the list by 31/12/2012...or maybe not!

Where to next? back later if the weather improves...watch this space.

Targets for 2012 include...

• 200 birds for year in UK/BI again
• 110 birds at Marton Mere LNR and it's immediate environs - upped by 10% from 100 as we thought that might be a little too easy.
• Another new-to-us bird on Patch 1
• Storm Petrel and two other UK/BI lifers
• An English Adder 
• Grass Snake in the Fylde

In the meantime let us know the expected hit rate in your outback.

PS - Have you read you gas and electricity meters yet today? Yes? - good; no? - do it now while you think on...keep a record of your usage and use the info to get the best deal from the suppliers - if you're reading this you're obviously online so choose an online tariff as they are invariably cheaper.