Friday 8 May 2015

It's a party

The Safari won't go into the politics of the last couple of days other than to say we're now extremely worried about the future of our Ancient woodlands, Badgers, Bats, Beavers, Buzzards, Foxes, Goshawks, Hen Harriers, Lynx, Red Kites Peregrines, Wild Boar, and almost any other wildlife you might care to mention.
We got back to Base Camp on a sunny afternoon the other day to find the Apple blossom opening and a pair of Greenfinches on the feeder, all looked rosy.
The following morning we were able to get out on Patch 2 but there was nowt about it was deathly quiet out on the sea apart from a tight bunch of about 50 Sandwich Terns resting upon the beach far too far away to be able to count the legs and divide by two to get a proper count. 
At lunchtime it was even worse out there and we soon gave up but sunshine on the flowerbed had us reaching for the camera to see if there was anything snapable. There was as it happened, we disturbed our first Cinnabar moth of the year while unsuccessfully chasing a Red Tailed Bumble Bee round the Dandelions.
We tried to get an open wing shot as it fluttered against the windows but it didn't settle. It was then we looked down to see where it had dropped to that we noticed a few solitary bees flying around, actually when we looked closer there were more than just a few there were quite a lot. We also thought they may be wasps rather than bees too, they didn't look anything like the little bees we saw last week. They had a definite penchant for the colour yellow. 
We took a lot of pics...
The liked the Dandelions even more than the Cowslips
There was some sort of party going on in the Dandelion flowers
Egg laying?
Once back at Base Camp we saw a bee had fallen into a tub of water by the kitchen door and had drowned. A slight movement told us it was still alive so we fished it out and put in the sun to dry out while we went inside to get some sugary water to give it a boost. Don't give bumble bees honey to revive them it's too sticky for them to lap up easily.
It was in a right mess and took ages to come round before it started cleaning itself.
Today, yet again we weren't able to get out first thing and had to wait until lunchtime. It was another quiet scene but the first bird we saw was new for the year, a Common Tern (153, P2 #52), before we saw a small number of more distant Sandwich Terns. This was the first day we've been over on Patch 2 without - we repeat WITHOUT - a coat but we could see rather inclement weather approaching and retreated back inside quickly. Within minutes rain was bouncing off the office windows and several hours later it hasn't stopped yet.
Where to next? A wet weekend beckons and we're not at all sure if we'll be able to get out much, really need to go tot he nature reserve and find something!
In the meantime let us know who's partying in your outback



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