One week in

The Safari has been out n about in the gloom this week hitting off the new year's wildlife lists. our mammal list at the end of the week stands at a massive two, the ubiquitous Grey Squirrel being first on to the page in the notebook, seen at just about every site we've been to with more than one tree but the other species was more of a surprise so early in the year a Harbour Porpoise quite close in on the morning of the 3rd just breaking the surface of a flat calm grey sea a couple of times before disappearing. As soon as we reached the top of the cliff on Monty's dog walk we felt the sea looked 'porpoisy' and it only took us a couple of minutes scanning to find it, at first we were looking too far out!

The mammal tally will surely grow but we're back in the bird photo challenge with Monika and her friends from Washington state and other places so we've been concentrating on getting a few birds submitted to the SD card - the dingy grey January days haven't produced the best of pics but some of the more dodgy ones can be replaced at a later date hopefully. So far we've managed 34 species out of 78 recorded. It should be 35 but for some reason we didn't lift the camera when a Barn Owl flew within a few yards of us at Hesketh Out Marsh RSPB reserve the other afternoon - in broad daylight (such as it was) as well. Think we were just so engrossed and mesmerised watching it in the bins that there was no thought of the camera. That sounds like good old fashioned bird watching! The memories are etched into our mind and we'll fondly recall the trip out with our Southside friends for many years to come - who needs an SD  card?

The general rule for the Challenge is to photograph as many species as possible and hopefully more than everyone else...that's not going to happen in our case as others in the group live in more ornithologically diverse areas than we do and others have trips abroad or at least to different biomes within their continent lined up. But then the challenge is also to beat your previous year's tally so we have a target of 180 species, and/or achieve a higher strike rate, % species photographed out of your total year list. The aim is also to get better or different photos from your previous attempts. And then this year Monika has come up with a new rule - No 'hand of man' so no birds on feeders, wires, fence posts in the backgound, buildings, birds sporting rings etc etc etc - - just to make it a tad more trickier.

Here's a selection of what we've managed so far

Female Blackbird at Marton Mere - in the sunshine!!!

Water Rail at Marton Mere - sunny but in the shade - - this one nearly caught us out lucky to have captured one so early in the year

Mute Swan over Lawson's Wetland - different to our previous year's efforts as it's in the air not on the water

Moorhen at Marton Mere

Teal at Marton Mere

Wood Pigeon at Lawson's Wetland - and that was the last we saw of the sunshine for the rest of the week

Herring Gull paddling for worms close to Base Camp

Starlings approaching North Pier to roost - a tiny portion of an enormous flock joining the guestimated 20000 already present - but sadly no murmurations again

A chilly morning in Stanley Park gave us five Ring Necked Parakeets - the other one is out of frame by several yards

There's been a nasty bloom of the invasive alien Azolla in the park lake which is showing no sign of abating but this pair of Shovelers don't seem to be bothered by it

Great Tits in Stanley Park

Mugged by a Robin in Stanley Park

Canada Goose in Stanley Park

Black Headed Gull in Stanley Park

Tufted Duck in Stanley Park

As mentioned early we'd met up with our Southside friends, the original plan was to join them at a flock of Waxwings in Liverpool but news on the way was that they'd had no joy despite extensive searching and attracting the attention of the local Boys in Blue so they'd decide to make tracks to Southport where we diverted to en-route and met them at Marshide RSPB reserve. 

They arrived only minutes before we did and had lined up a nice Merlin for us.

A little too distant in the grotty light but it's on a post so can't count for our new rules challenge

Fortunately AB spotted another raptor, which turned out to be another Merlin, sat on a lump of driftwood - which does count - on the marsh across the road - - unfortunately it was about ten times further away.

Rubbish pic but at least it counts - one to replaced ASAP!

Pintail at Marshside RSPB

After a goody shuffy round Marshside we decamped to the other RSPB reserve Hesketh Out Marsh a few miles away after the gang had scoffed in to a very tasty portions of chips n gravy/curry from the Chinese chippy opposite Booths in Hesketh Bank - mucho recommended by all - - we'd brought pies and cheese n ham butties with us so didn't partake of chips - - they did look and smell temptingly good though.

At HOM the light was horrendous and the pools mostly devoid of birds, apparently earlier in the morning, when the tide was in, there'd been a good selection of waders and waterfowl to perise and enjoy. We could only manage a few Redshank, Lapwings and distant Black Tailed Godwits. And the flock of Wigeon which holds the American Wigeon somehow didn't give up its interloper despite others having seen it that day, we've even seen pics of it taken from where we ere stood...dohhhhh...and then the aforementioned Barn Owl happened. But hey-ho who needs pics when there's good fun going on and good birds to be seen, even if there were no Bewick's Swans in the two flocks of Whooper Swans we scanned - we;d seen one earlier at Marshide but it was a long way off and spent all the time we were there fast asleep so not much more than a slightly smaller white blob than the sleeping Mute Swan sitting next to it.

Earlier in the week we dipped the Snow Buntings at Starr Gate and nearly did again today. We were on our last walk up along the beach to the Christmas Tree some one has 'planted' on the edge of the dunes - we'd done the walk three times already - when one of the other two birders looking for them called us over. Success - he'd found them in a deep blow-out in the high dunes when they flew past him on to the strandline on the beach. Quite close to the Chtristmas tree we were going to turn back at - phewwwwww!

The three of us enjoyed close views as they picked out seeds from among the Mason Worm casts and bits of dried seaweed. The other two birders left and after a few more minuted the birds flew well out on to the beach where they continued to find seeds on another but much reduced strandline.

Snow Bunting at Starr Gate today bringing our PYLC 2019 tally to 34 - Really pleased they've come back for another winter - are they the same birds as last year???

 While walking upu and down the beach as usual we kept our eyes peeled for anything of note in the strandlines. Lots and lots and lots of Mason Worm casts and not a lot else but it did strike us that there were more Mermaid's Purses than we normally see and that all those were Thornback Ray egg-cases, no Lesser Spotted Catshark cases at all, or at leaset none that we spotted. And then we came across this cluster where a little depression in the sand had made a shallow pool that they'd got trapped in, never seen anything like this concentration of them before, there's two dozen in the pic and others out of shot top and bottom.

Apologies for the blurry bit - rain on the phone-cam lens we guess

That's the wonder of wildlife, you never know what you're going to find. Yes we struck lucky with the Snow Buntings, our target for the day but we nearly missed out on them and yet we had no idea when we left Base Camp we'd see that cluster of mermaid's purses, the like of which we've never seen before - isn't nature great!

Where to next? A safari up north with CR tomorrow, not sure exactly where yet but hopefully the natiral world will provide some goodies and some surprises. 

In the meantime let us know who's all clustered up in your outback

We're still in the planning stage of the YouTube Vlog, trying to work out logistics of bins, scopes, cameras, phones etc etc and the format it's going to take so please 'bear with' as they say in the telly.

A week of wild wet n windy safaris

The Safari has been busy 'enjoying' the wintry weather as storm after storm lashes our coast. We've had a day out with CR and then LCV came to stay for the best part of last week so we've been out every day far and wide in search of the commonplace and the exotic for our 2018 Year Bird Photo Challenge with varying degrees of success. We've had a sunny frosty day or two but mostly dull days with strong gales and heavy showers.

A crisp day at Marton Mere gave us some good views across the mostly frozen mere

Teal

But the feeding station is in deep shade

Dunnock

Chaffinch

From there we headed south on to the beach at Starr Gate to try to find the Snow Buntings, it didn't take long they were only a few yards away along the beach as we dropped off the dunes. Carefully walking past them out further down the beach we were able to watch them at a safe distance and work out what they were doing. Then by getting in front of them all we had to do was to sit quietly and wait for them to approach - which they did - - down to no more than six feet at one point, far to vlose for the long lens could almost have got a decent pic with the phone they were that close but that would have meant moving to reach into a pocket and probably flushing them.

The following day was our safari out with C to Mere Sands Wood and Martin Mere WWT. At MSW we waited at the feeding station enjoying great views of a Brown Rat and a multitude of Robins but alas no Willow Tits.

The first hide overlooking the pools gave us a cracking but distant drake Goosander and a very close Canada Goose, which does actually have two functioning legs.

We moved round to the next hide to try to get better views of the Goosander, passing on the way a very close Treecreeper doing what it says on the tin and a Jay taking seeds left on the path by a previous passer-by, C managed a through the twigs shot but we weren't able to raise the camera before it flew off. A huge shattered Oak tree looks like it's going to provide of multitude of niches for a multitude of species from tiny microbes to bigger things like bats n owls. 

At the hide the Goosander had gone the opposite way and further in t the edge under the bank so was in an even worse place for a pic. There was a good selection of dabbling ducks closer but not quite close enough and the light was still on the poor side of grotty but we fired away anyhow. Duff pics can always be replaced with better ones later on in our challenge should the opportunity present itself.

Shovelers

Drake Gadwall

Drake Teal

With no sign of the hoped for Kingfisher we moved on and then had the best sighting of the week when we heard a commotion in the tree tops just behind us. Two Great Spotted Woodpeckers were having a right go at each other flying around the uppermost twigs calling loudly when two more joined the fray. Then all of a sudden all went quiet and they evaporated into the tangle of branches. 

The next hide gave us cracking close views of a Little Grebe that was catching small fish, possibly juvenile Rudd or Perch from the red fins we saw. Trouble is it was so close as to be just behind the narrow fringe of reeds outside the hide window.

With not a lot doing at the hide we had another shuffy at the feeding station.

Great Tit

The Coal Tits were smash and grab artists as as wary as a wary thing from Warysville, Arizona, never staying more than a milli-second at the table before flying off especially if they saw or heard a hint of something untoward like a camera being slightly moved...or can they hear the ultrasonic focusing motor???

Shoulda bumped the ISO up wadge to get a better shutter speed although it was already getting towards high enough!

Still no Willow Tits so we left this lovely little reserve and headed round the corner to the much bigger Martin Mere.

Here there were plenty of subjects for the Year Bird Challenge to point the camera at.

Drake Pochard

Jackdaw

Black Tailed Godwit

Whooper Swans

Wigeon

Ruff

Pintail

A flock of distant Woodpigeons going to roost

Buzzard

Drake Reed bunting

Cormorant

Misty late afternoon Lapwings

Shelduck

Kestrel

Sleepy Black Tailed godwit

Buzzard with prey in the dark

Gadwall

Kestrel on a Mole hill

Lapwing

Lapwings in flight

Pintail

Juvenile Whooper Swan

Whooper Swans

Wigeon

All good stuff apart from our inability to get any pics of the numerous Tree Sparrows and the no show of the site's only Brambling. We also saw an ultra brief Kingfisher that C missed this time. 

A breezy walk with Monty up the coast and came across one of the Stonechats, we also saw a large flock of Linnets but Monty was being a nightmare as he wasn't able to see over the seawall and getting impatient and uppity so we missed getting any pics of them.

The next day LCV came to stay for the week and we had a great time driving around a selection of local sites.  We tried for the Snow Buntings a couple of times but with no avail although we did get totally sand blasted in the wicked wind. We had no luck with Purple Sandpipers either.

Oystercatcher

Pied Wagtail

Red Breasted Mergansers

Ringed Plover

Sanderling

Knot asleep

Turnstones and a few other bits n bobs

Bewick's Swan & Whooper Swans

Dunlin

Twite

Twite again

Curlew

A hail stone dodging visit to the awesome Lunt Meadows with LCV and meeting JG there was a pic free affair - didn't want yet another camera to die due to water incursion on a rain sodden day but it did give us no sign of the Red Kite that's been hanging around but that was almost bettered by the fantastic sight of two (one v v v brief indeedy) Roe Deer only 2 1/2 miles from our childhood front door; we couldn't have imagined seeing one of those when out birding those fields on our bike in the mid 1970s. So somethings wildlife have changed for the better over the last 40 odd years.
So where does all that digital malarky leave us. 

Well so far we've managed to reach the giddy heights of 95 species on our year list with a late Mediterranean Gull along the prom yesterday afternoon. 

Of those 95 we've got photographs of just 64, although we've had plenty of opportunities to get pics of several more species we've declined waiting to get a 'particular' shot of them.
Our garden at Base Camp has had just 12 species and Patch 1 is hardly faring any better with only 17 but with lighter mornings coming soon that tally should start to grow a little more quickly. The first Song Thrush since last summer was a nice early morning find the other day.
Our Marton Mere list is looking healthier at 48 species not quite half our hoped for 100 for the year.
Where to next? No doubt there'll be more shenanigans on safari next week but where?
In the meantime let us know who's doing well to avoid the lens in your outback.