We've never put our coat on so fast

The Safari was in the middle of the washing-up this morning when the phone rang. We couldn't answer it but a few minutes later listened to a voicemail from LGB telling us a Risso's Dolphin was heading slowly north past him down at Starr Gate and could well come past Chat Alley where he knew we'd be walking the dog sometime early morning.

We listened to the message at about 09.10 and immediately donned our coat, grabbed our bins and bundled Monty in to the back of the car for the fastest drive to the prom of his life!

It was now nearly 20 past, there was no sign - had we missed it? We kept an eye on the calm sea southwards with a few scans to thw northbut nothing was seen. A small flock of Common Scoters flew past close in, close enough to pick out the paler females with the naked eye - not often that happens here!

Still no sign of any blubber - we thought at least there might have been a Harbour Porpoise out there, we've not seen one for ages and some of the fishermen have been saying they've been catching Whiting, the Porpoises' favourite prey.

A dog walking friend came along and asked what we were looking for and it was while chatting about the news from South Shore that we picked up the Risso's Dolphin coming towards us quite slowly about 3/4 of a mile off North Pier. It surfaced a few times then made a longer dive before coming to the surface again a couple of times, getting nearer all the while. We saw the huge splash of a breach in the corner of our eye and are a bit miffed we missed seeing the animal leap out of the water. But from then on it surfaced much more regularly and now didn't seem so far out maybe only 1/2 a mile and not far beyond the low water mark. It wasn't to hard to spot with the naked eye now, but getting the other dog walkers on to it was difficult as there were no real landmarks (shouldn't that be sea-marks?) to point them towards and sadly neither of them managed to see it. Meanwhile we were getting quite good views in the bins, the blunt head was obvious and the sickle shaped dorsal fin was particularly hooked although it was still to far away to be able to make out the scarring typical of the species. We watched get closer to the yellow buoy but didn't see it pass it, it would have been closer to the shore than the buoy, and we didn't see it again. What a great morning and a huge Thank You to LGB for the head's up. A cetacean Lifer for us...well chuffed indeed.

In other news we've had the stealth-cam deployed in the garden at Base Camp with the hope of getting evidence of some unusual behaviour from fairly normal garden birds.

Here's a selection of the usual garden feeder visitors - apologies for the quality of our aging camera

Blue Tit

Coal Tit

Great Tit

A rather arty Great Tit

A nocturnal visitor, half expected - Long Tailed Field Mouse

What goes down...

...Must come back up

Wasn't expecting this male Sparrowhawk - they rarely come into the garden - - shame he couldn't have looked at the camera

Three Greenfinches - looking nice and calm, normally they're squabbling for the prime spot

And now the two pics we'd hoped for. A couple of years or so ago we got a pic of a Dunnock on this feeder taking sunflower hearts but hadn't seen one doing that since then until a week or so ago when it happened a few mornings in succession but every time we'd dashed off to get the camera it had gone not to return by the time we got back to the kitchen window. So we decided to be sneaky and set up the stealth-cam in the hope of snapping the evidence.

Success - but does anyone else get Dunnocks using this type of feeder clinging on like a Blue Tit?

But better was to come further down the SD card. We were surorised to open one of the images and see a Robin was doing the same, something we've not seen from the kitchen window. Again has anyone else seen Robins using wire feeders?

Isn't wildlife brilliant - a totally unexpected Lifer on one of our Patches and some unusual behaviour from 'ordinary' species in our own garden, doesn't get much better than that and no need to travel to far flung or exotic places...well actually Blackpool promenade is pretty exotic!

Last Monday was a dry, calm and sunny day wit ha bit of a frosty start. We've not had a full day out with Wifey for a while and seeing as how she was on a long weekend we decided to venture into Lakeland for a scenic low level walk. We picked her sister up on the way and headed to the well known beauty spot Tarn Hows between Coniston and Ambleside.

Beauty spot is an apt description, it was glorious up there. Cold and crisp with the frost on the grass lingering all day in shady glens and a bit of snow on the higher mountain tops. 

The bright blue sky and lack of breeze meant some reflection photography was order of the day.

There wasn't too much wildlife to be seen, a couple of female Goldeneyes and a female Goosander on the tarn and the odd Raven and Buzzard passed overhead.

The only slight dampener on the day was we couldn't walk the full circuit of the lake as the furthest third was out of bounds due to some serious tree felling. The Larches had contracted Phytopthera fungus and were having to be felled, 100m around each infected tree, this meant the peace and quiet was non-existent until the workers stopped for lunch then it was noticeable how quiet it was out there with just the 'tseep' of occasional Goldcrests and a Treecreeper in the remaining trees and the 'wacka-chacka' of a passing Fieldfare flock to break the deep silence - not even the few remaining leaves on the deciduous trees made a rustle.

Where the Larches had already been felled it looked devastating but the extra light reaching the woodland floor should allow a much more natural forest of Birch, Rowan, Alder, Holly, Oak and especially Juniper to reclaim their rightful place on the hills now the alien conifers have been much reduced. Although within the walk there were some Belted Galloway cattle, and much worse for any tree seedlings that might try to get established, Herdwick sheep.

There's a few more pics over on our Flickr page.

The hill with the dusting of snow in the distance is Wetherlam. Many years ago when we were in training to climb Mt Kinabalu in Borneo we were up there in much snowier conditions and managed to slip very badly on some sheet ice we were actually doing our best to avoid as we knew it would be tricky not far from the summit. We really thought we'd done a knee ligament in and were seriously considering having to call the Mountain Rescue team out to stretcher us down. Being mid-winter it was already going dark in the valley below us but somehow we managed to hobble/slide down the trails to the car parked at the foot of Coniston Old Man from were we had a horrendously uncomfortable drive back to Base Camp barely being able to press the clutch to change gear, think we only used second and fourth all the way back. A lucky escape!

Yes we did make it to the top of Mt Kinabalu, the conditions and view were much the same as those at the top of Wetherlam or Coniston Old Man most days - cold wet and windy with a view of the inside of a cloud!

Where to next? A bit of a sunset and a Starling murmuration to be a enjoyed means another visit to the prom.

In the meantime let us know who's clinging to the wires in your outback.

A bit of distant festive whiteness

The Safari has had a family and friend filled festive holiday and hopes you have too. On Boxing Day we had a wander up the prom with Wifey and Monty. It wasn't a bad day with little wind and some sunshine so everyone and his or her uncle was out walking off their excesses from the previous day. We didn't see a great lot of wildlife to to be honest we weren't looking too hard. Away on the top of Bowland's highest peak point, Ward's Stone, the afternoon sun was lighting up a little cap of snow, now if it fell on the fell before midnight that would make it a white Christmas in Lancashire.

The following day we were visiting friends just over the Cumbria birder where a walk to the pub gave us lovely views of the Lake District fells showing their good covering of snow on the higher ground.

In the snow; L>R Bow Fell, Pike o' Stickle, Gimmer Crag, Harrison Stickle, Pavey Ark

We think the 'big one' is Red Screes

This morning's early morning dog walk through up a pleasant surprise when we heard a Raven (P1 #43), only the second time we've had them here in 13 1/2 years. Looking round we saw a Carrion Crow and thought we'd made a mistake but then heard the 'cronk' again and looking round behind us watched two soaring in synchronised flight around the top of the water tower - nice!!! 

Later we met up with CR for a spin round Marton Mere. He'd arrived a little before us and had already seen a nice blotchy leucistic male Blackbird. We stopped in the hide affectionately known as Ice Station Zebra, it wasn't too cold today. There were a few Herring Gulls, plenty of Coot and Wigeon but not a lot else. Looking well to our right to see if we could get a glimpse of any more gulls further down the mere and got a surprise view of a Bittern flying across the water into the far corner.

At the Bird Club hide we again scoured the gulls, more Black Headed Gulls and fewer Herring Gulls here but also good numbers of Teal and more yet Wigeon. Best of the rest was a female Mallard lording it over everyone else being Queen of the Castle on the 'goalpost'. That would come into play later too.

Big full crop there!

We continued the circuit seeing not much more than a few more Teal on the way, the embankment and scrub were very quiet apart from a handful of Robins. No sign or sign of any of the Bullfinches. 

Round at Heron Hide the light was horrid but we still had to scan the gulls of which there were more Herring Gulls now. One of them raised up and had a flap in front of the 'goalpost' - oh yes the Iceland Gull (190, MMLNR #89, YBC #167) was there and we got pretty good views through the bins despite the rotten light as it took to a vigorous bathe. But by the time we'd lowered our bins and raised the camera it had drifted a little way and in the dreadful light we couldn't find it in the viewfinder so had to resort to taking a 'scattergun' of shots in the hope it would be there and in focus. It was, but it wasn't.

Something unseen flushed the gulls and many of them moved further down the lake but a good few left, unfortunately the Iceland Gull was with that group. 

From the Viewing Platform we counted at least 225 Wigeon and we knew there were more hidden in the reeds at the far end so probably over 250 were on site, a good number for here. C saw a Little Grebe that we missed but that probably didn't make up for him not seeing the Bittern nor the Iceland Gull.

Back at the car a couple of Magpies were in the tree by the hedge too close for the 600mm but we had to snap away as the opportunity was too good to miss before we headed off back to Base Camp for a brew.

Where to next? Might well get back out to Marton Mere again tomorrow.
In the meantime let us know who's lording up in your outback.

A few more added to the various birding lists

The Safari hasn't seen too much of late and we've not had chance to get the camera out of its bag but that's not to say we've not seen nothing.

Actually it was Wifey who added to her list first with several Rooks (Wifey #50) seen along the side of the motorway on her business trip to London recently. She's also probably seen more Red Kites than we've had hot dinners this year too.

We've been out on Patch 2 for a few minutes most mornings and lunchtimes seeing nothing out of the ordinary apart from three Curlews (P2 #41) a couple of mornings ago. other than those excitement out to sea has been confined to a reasonable count of 159 Sanderlings today and a loose flock of 11 Kittiwakes heading north yesterday, followed by the impressive sight of over 1000 Common Scoters in flight as a flock of them was disturbed by a small boat.

Mornings have been frosty but it's been well worth getting out for the blue skies alone. The snow on the Lake District fells was still there this morning.

Best and deffo the most unexpected sighting of the week was left until this morning. Leaving the front door as usual there didn't seem to be anything amiss, all was as quiet as it gets - too quiet even it's getting far too close to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring round here. But then we heard a cheeky chirruping we rarely hear close to Base Camp, in the small trees. Wow at least three dark shapes, House Sparrows! Great to have them so close to Base Camp...and then one, a handsome male, flew and perched on the gutter on the corner of the house right above us. And we'd just put the camera on the back seat of the car and closed the door dohhhhhhhh. But still House Sparrow (Garden #22) on the garden list is a great addition, we normal only get one or two visits a year and they're in June so we're well chuffed. The one on the gutter disappeared round the back of the house possibly towards the feeders - did it see the House Sparrow nesting terrace on the way??? We didn't see if the others followed it or not. We really hope they come back tomorrow morning!

At work we've set up a small tank with some Frog spawn from the pond at Base Camp for the children to study.

It's only been there 36 hours and already the eggs have grown some shape into miniature tadpoles, it's a lot warmer inside the heated building than in the pond so they're going to develop much faster than their cousins. Once they've metamorphosed almost into Froglets we'll return them. There's plenty more spawn in our pond but the fish will more than likely end up eating it so these will be the survivors.

Where to next? It's the weekend, there's big high tides and we have a cunning plan that involves the estuary.

In the meantime let us know who made a most unexpected and very welcome visit to your outback.

Struggled to get out on safari today

The Safari was up early with Frank, who thankfully seems a lot more chipper-dandy today, yesterday thought he wasn't  going to last the weekend poor old fella, the cheery strains of the local Chiffchaff, must be on territory chiffing and chaffing across the gardens - hope it's found/will find a mate. 

No chance of getting out other than that today but to be honest the overnight weather looked more like a migrant clear out night rather than a migrant dump night. Cloud appeared later in the day which may have brought some more birds within reach.

After Frank had had his breakfast, ancient or not there's no stopping his lust for food, we had a look in the moth trap and were very pleased to find more in there than yesterday morning's pitiful haul. Still no new species but five Hebrew Characters was a definite improvement.

Wifey left to take eh-up muvver to the shops and we pottered around in the garden for a while, sawing some wood and having a little shuffy round to see what was coming up. The path up the garden is a mass of Cowslips - best they've been.

Maybe we should have swept the bits ups before getting the camera out

Lovely to see it spring forth with lush verdantness to think it just a massive sterile concrete slab covered in geotextile this time 12 years ago.

We started a bit of weeding and were soon alerted to a raptor going over by a sudden explosion of noise from the local gulls, they'd been just about silent upto now. Looking up there were two Buzzards (Garden #26) soaring only 100 feet above Base Camp and then they did a talon locking tumble although they didn't quite lock talons. Brilliant - thanks gulls! The bins and camera were grabbed as quick as maybe from indoors but we were too late to get pictoral evidence.

Commotion and cacophony

A few minutes later there was another lesser and shorted burst of squawking when a Sparrowhawk drifted northwards.

Continuing to keep an eye and an ear open we saw our Great Tits going in and out of the House Sparrow nesting terrace - no House Sparrow has ever been near it, less likely to now as the pair that nested in the eaves of the house on the corner of the main road is nowhere to be seen this year, which begs the question will we get them on the garden list this year...maybe not which isn't good.

Over the road the Blue Tit's nest in a crack in the brickwork by the neighbours upstairs window is in use for at least the third year running which was good to see.

The garden was quiet for invertebrates despite the warm sunshine there was a cool breeze whistling through, just a few flyovers from bumble bees, n butterflies and a chunky Drone Fly, Eristalis sp, trying to maintain position in the sunniest spot.

A check of the south facing garage wall for Jumping Spiders and Solitary Bees/Wasps was a big fat negatory.

Here's a short clip of a steepish rocky decent from last Sunday's green laning adventure - best viewed full screen - not sure what YouTube is doing to us. Press escape to return here.

Where to next? Back to Patch 2 and offshore-ish winds could produce seas calm enough to spot cetaceans.

In the meantime let us know who's causing all the commotion in your outback

A day on the upland trails

The Safari and BD set off early in the morning to meet up with a group of fellow green-lane enthusiasts led by CB of UK Land Rover Events at perhaps the bleakest coastal car park we’ve ever been to. So bleak no-one got out to take a pic of the group altogether before setting off, it's usually this time the introductions are made and everyone gets to know each other.

 After a few lovely days summer was over and it was back to the end of February, heavy rain with sleet mixed in blown horizontal by a fierce wind. Some low mist was involved too, just to ruin the views of the scenery.

The first part of our trek was along farm tracks sodden with the rain across empty moorland, being the last vehicle in the group meant lots of hopping in and out and getting rained on for B as he was on gate closing duty so those pesky sheep don't get into the wrong fields.

The sat-nav showed where we were – the middle of nowhere!

Hang on, shouldn't there be some roads on there?

The spring scenery was probably stunning with views up to the higher mountains and out across the sea and Morecambe Bay but the mist and rain prevented us from seeing it.

Nothing too challenging to start with but all that was to change on our next lane when we were told to engage our diff lock…it doesn’t work too well on the Land Rover and it’s a bit of a risk putting it in in case it doesn’t come out so it was with a little trepidation we watched the more capable Defenders bouncing up the rocky steps. There was no turning back so it was onward and upward with fingers crossed. The Disco did us proud and easily waltzed up without much trouble and just enough right boot to keep the momentum going without trying to hurry or race. We got to the top and then discovered not only had we not needed the diff lock we’d forgotten to engage the low ratio gears when we came off the road – the Disco climbed a 40 degree slippery rocky staircase in normal road gears – that auto box is a beaut…but we’ll remember to put them in next time we come off the tarmac otherwise there could be some serious gearbox explosions and/or the risk of getting unextricatably stuck!
All the while we were on the look out for any wildlife we could spot. The mosses were easy, there's a whole garden of them up there in England's 'rain forests'.

For lunch we stopped at the forestry centre where B disappeared for a few minutes just before two Ravens flew right over the car park, a species he's not seen before - a bad dip!

Trendy forest visitor centre

From there we hit a trail known as The Fox a forestry track, one we've driven a few times now but always worth the trip. It was near here that some Red Kites were released a few years ago but the dreadful weather meant we stood little chance of seeing them today.

As the day progressed the weather improved and the scenery started to come out of hiding.

These are the 'stairs' mentioned in the 'Going up the stairs' pic on our sidebar

Where's there's brown Bracken there used to be probably used to be high scrubby forest, denser forest would have been on the bright green fields 1000+ years ago

That's the Safari tying on our broken rock slider - sure we knocked it off on the same boulder last time we were here

 The sun came out a bit too

Decent into Little Langdale

There is some serious conservation work trying to revive the fortunes of upland Juniper which has suffered the ravages of over-grazing by sheep and aging so that there is little fertile seed produced. In areas where it is still vigorous sheep are now being excluded and seedlings frown in the nursery and planted out if there isn't enough natural regeneration. It was a the top line of the scrubby forest long since gone now. Although the landscape looks beautiful to many those with an ecological eye see little but the remnants and scars of a ravaged land.

Unfortunately there is now a Phytopthora fungal disease which has been identified as coming from South America which is attacking them.

This stand looks healthy enough

The tradition of sheep-farming goes back many hundreds of years, probably to the Vikings if not much earlier perhaps even the Bronze Age - it's a long long time since the hills were fully forested with an accompanying suite of animals such as Wolves, Wild Boar, Eurasian Brown Bears, some still linger in the names of the hills and valleys.
Here's a few more trail pics.

Eventually we came out of the forest and on to open fellsides to find the sun had come out and the mist lifted to give us splendiferous views of the higher ground.

The Fairfield horseshoe - we've climbed that many times

Red Screes in the left middle-ground, Ill Bell and Yoke in the distance

With snow Red Screes Froswick, Ill Bell, Yoke and Buck Crag

At the foot of Buck Crag is an old road, Garburn Pass we worked on in the 80s making culverts and putting in drainage so that it was passable to vehicles. Sadly now it is closed to motorised vehicles due to the prejudices of some in the walking fraternity. If they knew how much effort we put in moving rocks up to two tons in weight with just crowbars and muscles.
We'd love to get up close and personal with that part of the world again but it is now beyond our walking capabilities - thanks a bunch Ramblers...NOT...and with getting so many lanes closed you've made honey-pots out of the remainder making you complain even more and some of those are also used by the farming community so will still have vehicles on them anyway. Have you seen the 'motorways' your boots have made across the high tops? They're a bit wider than the trails we've used today,

The Langdale Pikes

Wetherlam

Bowfell? top left with snow

 There's a bit of architectural heritage around these parts too

Old church at High Nibthwaite - think that's where it is

By the size of the windows we reckon 16th or 17th C. And look at the Sedum on the ledge above the window

Elterwater village at the end of our journey

Here's a trek we did a few years ago covering some of the same trails

In wildlife news we've just had a couple of Swallows (Garden #25) go over and weren't sure that we didn't hear a Sand Martin earlier.
Patch 2 has been kind to us with a Yellow Legged Gull (P2 #45) yesterday and the day before and a probable 1st winter Caspian Gull today, it was distant in the dark rainy gloom but we hope we got enough of a description to get it past another CB.

Many thanks to BD for his exceptional pics - far superior to the usual out of focus poorly exposed rubbish you normally see on here - you've been spoiled this week that's for sure.

Where to next? Looking good for some migrants tomorrow

In the meantime let us know who's wobbling about in your outback