Thursday 2 August 2012

Pretty rubbish really

The Safari saw precious little on patch 2 early  this morning, a distant Grey Seal bobbing about well to the south and three dozen Oystercatchers on the beach was about the best of it. we were hoping for a fly-by Little Tern and/or Pomerine Skua as both have been reported from the South-side in the past few days, but we failed to see any thing more than a handful of tern sp feeding in the river mouth although the view across the river was crystal clear for a change, the Sefton Ranger's base and adjacent holiday camp/stalag being easily seen with virtually no shimmer this morning.
mid morning we had cause to go outside and passing the wildflower (=punter unfriendly untidy garden) we saw a Meadow Brown, a Large White and Small White as well as a teneral damselfly, probably Blue Tailed Damselfly. Three species off butterflies in the garden at the same time is good going! Shame one wasn't a Grayling.
Then we saw a weird looking bee crawling around the Perennial Cornflower flowers, about the size and shape of a Honey Bee with a similar pattern but with vivid yellow sides to it's abdomen, this yellow colouration may have extended to the ventral surface but we couldn't see that. Back in quickly for the camera - we never saw it again...will look tomorrow though. Anyone got any ideas?
We did take some pictures of a Honey Bee giving a Dandelion a right good going over but they weren't particularly good so you ain't seeing them!
Talking of Dandelions yesterday afternoon we saw there was an excellent show of Rough/Autumn Hawkbit (possibly even something else) on the bank approaching the railway bridge near Base Camp although today we note that the mowers have been out so it may have been destroyed. And talking of destroyed, the reason we were passing by that way was to take Frank to the vets, seems he's ruptured his Cruciate knee ligament and if it doesn't heal quickly or well he's looking at an op...whichever it is his football career is well and truly over, poor old boy.
At lunchtime conditions were good for an hour's watch but the birds and mammals didn't respond. Probably the same Grey Seal was still lurking distantly and there was the same lack of Little Terns and Pomarine Skuas, or any other terns or skuas or any other seabirds for that matter!
Where to next? More of the same, hopefully something of note will magically appear tomorrow.
In the meantime let us know what the mythical species are in your outback.
Did see an ad for these though and thought they look pretty nifty...or will do once the technological glitches have been ironed out, 3D tellies/puter monitors are good quality and readily available and the price has dropped a bit...sorely tempted particularly if they have 'live-view' which would have been really useful for the kiddies the other day.

5 comments:

cliff said...

Your wild garden butterfly count is pretty much identical to what me & the missus saw on a walk from our house to the Crem(nr the main gates) & back via part of the NBPT.

I'd have expected to have seen loads more butterflies than that, where are they all? I've also been keeping my eye on the fantastic displays of buddliea(sp) on offer as I'm driving round working & haven't seen a single butterfly taking advantage of them.

A more exciting find was a hedgehog sat in the grass at the crem having a good scratch - the first hedgehog, other than squished ones, that I've seen for yonks.

Lancs and Lakes Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Butterflies seem to have taken a hammering this summer Cliff.
Quite a few hedgies round here including one rescued off WH Rd the other evening relocated to garden but not seen since.

Cheers

D

cliff said...

An enjoyable spectacle this afternoon/evening has been watching a dozen(+) swifts/swallows, plus a few Black-headed gulls, circling overhead for a couple of hours presumably hoovering up a hatch of some sort of flies/ants?

Lancs and Lakes Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

One of our compost bins is full of ants waiting to fly out, probably went in the warmth this arvo

D

Stuart Price said...

Seawatching. Ha! Always a lack of anything in my bitter experience.........let alone Little Terns being chased ny Pomarine Skuas!

The local gulls here were feasting on flying ants last week too.......