“What’s in yer pond mister?”

The Safari has nothing to report form Patch 1 or R’ouzel Puddle, a tent pitched near here was an unusual migrant species and perhaps surprisingly not moved on.

Patch 2 gave us little but a Grey Seal and a few Cormorants. We watched an indeterminate raptor head northwards some way offshore – Osprey/Marsh Harrier/ Buzzard/Honey Buzzard type thingy, take your pick – but only got silhouetted rear end views probably showing some white/pale on the underside. As we followed this desperately trying to get something on it a diver passed it coming towards us from out by the wind farms. A chunky looking thing but still a bit hazy at the range it was at to get any detail on it, chances are it was a Black Throated Diver but almost equally it could have been a Great Northern, didn’t seem to be any smaller than the Cormorants knocking about. A Great Crested Grebe was about the best of the positively IDd stuff.

All the while there was a steady stream of Swallows going north, some well out to sea others over the beach.

Mid-morning our school group arrived and armed with nets pots and eagle eyes they hunted mini-beasts and gave the pond a right good seeing to. Just minutes before they turned up we were lucky enough to catch a real rarity for them, a butterfly in the work’s garden is something of a novelty but we successfully potted a nice fresh Small White. 

As we were telling them all about it the local gulls and pigeons went up en masse and then a little further down the beach another gang of gulls appeared above the houses circling and making a racket but we didn’t connect with the probable raptor that upset them...good timing though as it helped explain the wonders and mysteries of migration to the class.

They did better; hunting down all manner of creepies and crawlies – nothing seemed escape their sharp eyes – they even came back with miniscule Springtails on the end of their fingers! Millipedes in particular weren’t safe, hundred s of the tiny little things were dragged kickin and screamin out of the woodchip – closer inspection revealed at least two species. The generally larger blacker one is White-legged Snake Millipede. 

A Woodlouse and a miniature version were found along with a similar looking Pillbug and a chunky looking spider.

Not so chunky was this Rove Beetle seen here wrestling with a grain of sand that has got stuck to its head.

One young lady found a large Garden Snail and got rather attached to it, or it got rather attached to her...she called it Cornelius and carried ‘him’ round for ages.

The final diggings in the soil under the woodchip gave us a beetle larva which we think belongs to a ground Beetle of some species or other...but we could very easily be wrong....we were wrong those clever iSpotters think it's possibly Heart & Dart moth caterpillar

The pond produced the usual Wandering, Keeled Ramshorn, Common Ramshorn and Great Pond Snails. A few front swimming, Corixid, Waterboatmen were caught but the bigger backswimming Notonecta was seen but somehow avoided capture.

A very recently emerged damselfly was recued from the water and placed gently on a reed to dry out...it still hadn’t fully unfurled its wings...probably a Blue Tailed Damselfly...lucky animal with that lot around, anything could have happened to it but it did eventually manage to fly off. 

A small number of damselfly nymphs were caught as was a single Water Hog Louse, not seen one of those in there for ages.

Final catch of the day made everyone go ooohhhh was a large male 3-spined Stickleback still with the vestifges of his breeding colours – he had been breeding as we did find a few tiny fry...OOhhhhhh NNooooooooo!!!

Nothing of any note or interest was seen on our brief and now chilly, with the wind swung round to the north, Patch 2 lunchtime safari.

Where to next? On the beach tomorrow with another school group...well it is that time of year!

In the meantime let us know what’s be dragged from the depths in your outback.