Chance of a bit of a catch-up?

The Safari set off for the South-side just after dawn yesterday morning, in fact we were going to cross the river at the southern end of the South-side through the delights of the Mersey Tunnel.

On the way we saw a Brown Hare (mammal #6) in the field at the motorway intersection that usually has a Roe Deer or three, but not today, don't recall ever seeing a hare in this part of the world  before and will report it to the North-west Brown Hare Project later. At the beginning of the third motorway of the morning we had two Jays ((117) fly over us. A single Buzzard was seen still roosting in its overnight spot in a tree close to the carriageway.

We ended up on the Stena Feronia at Birkenhead Docks on our survey for Marine-life. As we entered the bridge with out team-mate we had a superb view of Liverpool's 'Three Graces'...

From left to right they are the Liver Building, adorned by the Liver Birds ie Cormorants or characters in a 1970s sitcom, the Cunard Building (with the Pier Head and Mersey Ferry the Royal Iris beneath) and the Port of Liverpool Building. There is an ambitious plan to redevelop a major part of the derelict docks near this UNESCO World Heritage waterfront but provided they 1) don't affect the fantastic Seaforth Nature Reserve, 2) don't over-power the Three Graces and 3) do build structures that will be iconic in their own right in a hundred years time we can't really see a problem.

The voyage started as the tide rose and we were the only ship going against the flow of traffic coming into the port.

The red tanker is the Hanne Knutsen a full 235m long and 40m wide weighing in at 123,500 tonnes bringing oil from the Norwegian oilfields half way between the Shetland Isles (location of corrupt 'what quota' fishermen) and the Norwegian coast. As we write it has been off-loaded is is back out on a two day sail for another load...you can follow its progress here.

Quite fun was counting the Cormorants and Herring Gulls on and around the buoys marking our route out of the river mouth as we passed at about 20 knots

You did get the fourth one didn't you? We'll have to check our record sheet to make sure we did!

As we exited the river mouth our captain told us that in recent days he had seen up to three seals hauled out on the sandbank on the port side. Time and tide wait for no man, least of all Marine-life surveyors and today the tide had flooded the bank and they were nowhere to be seen.

Once out in the open sea we started to pick up a few small flocks of Kittiwakes, two of which also held Little Gulls which were good to see. Before too long we'd also picked up the first flock of Razorbills (118) too. These ended up being far more numerous than Guillemots.

As the highest peaks of the Isle of Man loomed of the horizon our team-mate called a Harbour Porpoise very close to the bow of the ship - we completely missed it :-( . But the nearer to the Isle of Man the more and more Gannets (119) we began to see, so many that we didn't think they would be back in such numbers this early in the year, a small number of Fulmars (120) also started to grace the record sheet.

Counting the Cormorants (or at this distance they, or some of them, could have been Shags) on Chicken Rock at the southern-most tip of the Isle of Man was still proving challenging...

Did you spot the Great Black Backed Gull?

Leaving the Calf of Man in our wake we pressed on towards Belfast.

With the hills of Eire as a backdrop we watched a distant Gannet being hounded by a Great Skua (121) which must have been successful in its piracy as the Gannet continued on its way but we didn't see the skua after it dropped down towards the surface of the water. Not long before our final sighting of a small flock of auks as we approached the harbour one of the crew told us he'd just seen a Harbour Porpoise from the other side of the bridge. Only a few minutes after that it was too dark to identify identify anything else unless it was right on the bow...time for a well earned hearty supper in the Officers' Mess.

We docked back in Birkenhead at dawn after an on-board sleep-over. Three Buzzards were quickly spotted once we had left the city streets behind (passing very close to the hallowed ground of Goodison Park but we couldn't stop for a photo as we a had a taxi right up our ar*e :-( ).

At the motorway junction where we saw the Brown Hare on the way out there was indeed a Roe Deer (mammal #7) happily grazing just a few yards from the racing traffic.

On our third and final motorway we had another Buzzard sat on a tree but not much further on a sad sight met our eyes, A few hundred yards before the bridge over the canal we saw a dead Barn Owl lying on the hard shoulder. As bad luck would have it there was second dead Barn Owl no more than a few hundred yards on the other side of the bridge too, two in less than a mile isn't good :-(.

Yet another Buzzard was entered into the memory banks as we pulled off the motorway totally confusing Satellite-Annie (not sure why we still had the sat-nav on as once we were out of the confusing dock area we knew our way home) in search of a recent split. A Hooded Crow has been hanging around the fields not far from the Mother-in-law's so we took an early morning detour. Trouble was we only saw one flock of corvids and they were nowhere near the 'usual' place the Hoodie has been seen in so no 'armchair tick' for the Safari today.

Whilst relating our nautical adventures to Wifey we spotted a Long Tailed Field Mouse (mammal #8) shoot out from under the garage door (where it had no doubt been chewing something it shouldn't) and dart into the log pile.

Where to next? A day off recovering from all that standing and concentrating tomorrow so a short safari somewhere could be on the cards - we'll see what's been seen today before making our mind up.

In the meantime let us know if anyone is singing 'Hooray and up she rises' in your outback