Half time assessment of tactics

The Safari learnt of yet more Tree Bees in town this morning...and at a site we visited yesterday...how many more are lurking un-noticed around the place. They seem to have hit the Fylde coast in veritable swarms this season. Nice pics again from the finder PL.

After our hour and a half’s lack of success at Patch 1’s Butterfly Zone our Extreme Photographer went a bit later after visiting base Camp and found three, CRUEL!

And a cracking pair of Leptopterna dolabrata which posed perfectly for him

This morning nothing was on R’Ouzel Puddle and little was at on the sea at Patch 2. In the distant river mouth we could see a number of terns fishing, probably Common Terns from the colony at the docks up river. It took a while for us to find four Gannets and we soon gave up and headed for a brew.

Lunchtime was even worse. By now the visibility had gone and a steady heavy drizzle set in. We couldn’t see the estuary and found only one nearby Common Tern. Somehow from the turbid water it managed to snatch a Sprat or some such small fish from the just beneath the surface without actually diving in and set off in the general direction of the docks.

We’re sure Cesare Prandelli had a team tactics talk at half time last night, not that it did the Italians any good. Shame they had a post substitutions injury that reduced them to 10 men...doubt he would have seen that twist of fate coming especially as it was one of the substitutes who had to leave the field injured.

Where is all this football waffle going?...Well June has been and gone so now we are in the second half of the year and we may need to refresh our tactics.

The current position in our various ‘bird lists’ is as follows

World –  193

UK –176

Patch 1 –36

Patch 2 –75

Base Camp – 34

Marton Mere LNR – 88

The official position is that we are being well and truly stuffed in our ‘Year List Challenge’ by Monika whose list stands at whopping210.

We need a change of tactic, but what? Spend (even) more money on fuel and twitch more or just hope that some good stuff turns up locally at times when we can get there. Or develop a Plan C. Or even Plan D; just accept that we’re going to get beaten...no chance!

The autumn will be starting soon and who knows what will turn up where.

Where to next? Gotta be better on Patch 2 tomorrow - or will there just be yet more rain.

In the meantime let us know if you need a Plan B,C or even D for your outback.