Winter bait ball

The Safari wasn't able to get to Patch 2 this morning but waiting for the tram - the Land Rover is in dock - we noticed that the tops of the northern fells had had a dusted with snow overnight. 

Just before dinnertime we got a txt from DC that there was a possible Velvet Scoter on the other side of the wall, rarely has lunch been chomped so quickly. He'd had to go back to work before we could get out to meet him. Look as we might we couldn't find it despite him saying it wasn't too distant. It was choppy put there though.

All was far from lost as a flock of six Shelducks (81; P2 #26) flew past, two more followed close behind while a few minutes later one, probably a different one, flew back the other way a fair distant out.

While watching the Shelducks we realised we hadn't added the Blackbird (P2 #24) or the Dunnocks (P2 #25) we saw at work yesterday to the tally sheet.

Also while watching the Shelducks we spotted a few gulls wheeling around looking interested in something in the distance. They were all Great Black Back Gulls, nine of them to start with but numbers quickly built up. Before long there were over 20 and some Herring Gulls to as well as a couple of Kittiwakes. All this attention caught the eye of a small flock of Cormorants which joined the melee. By now there were nearly 100 gulls and more Cormorants were coming in all the time and a couple of Red Throated Divers were in the mix too - there must have been some serious fish just below the surface but we didn't spot any of the mammals we hoped might be there too.

More scanning of the nearer Common Scoters didn't produce the odd one out but if it's there tomorrow we might catch up with it.

Not a photography sort of a day today.

Where to next? More of the Patch 2 same is all we'll be to do tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know who's milling round what in great numbers in your outback.

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.