Yet more grey

The Safari didn’t see anything on the way to work this morning but at least it wasn’t raining.

Things didn’t get much better when we got to Patch 2. A bit of another grey-out was relieved by three sailing boats. A flock of about 30 Common Scoters passed behind them and over the water’s edge we had three Sandwich Terns and a Common Tern making their way up the coast together.

The sea was choppy with a few white horses; out there we saw just two Gannets and another Sandwich Tern, this one coming in towards us from distance.

On the broad expanse of sand were a good number of Herring Gulls but making all the noise – and a sound we’ve not heard down there for a while were a few Black Headed Gulls, a lone Oystercatcher walked purposefully along the strandline looking for unopened shells...not one of our more thrilling safaris it has to be said!

Lunchtime was very different. A large shoal of fish had arrived and attracted a huge number of large gulls and a not inconsiderable number of Gannets. The shoal was spread out so wasn’t making a tight bait ball. Try as we might we couldn’t find any Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Manx Shearwaters, and with all the kerfuffle going on we might have expected to see a skua muscling in on the action. And no cetaceans either.

A few days ago, when we twitched the Mandarin, we spotted a plant we didn't recognise growing at the bottom of a post where the masses feed the ducks.We took a couple of snaps and forgot about it...until this morning when we found the pics on the SD card. So without further ado we stuck em on iSpot and got the answer back an hour or so later...Flippin Nora...a) Northern Yellow Cress b) never heard of it c) hardly surprising we've only gone and found the 6th record for northern Lancashire and only present in the vice county since 2003.

Wow! Unexpected!!!

Where to next? School visit tomorrow so there could be anything scavenged out of our various habitats.

In the meantime let us know what's being well fertilised at the bottom of posts in your outback.