Purple patch then porpoise pathos

The Safari has finally got round to updating our Header pic after almost a year - how lazy of us!

Solemn family business took us south of the river a couple of days ago. The journey back held two options, a) bunk in at Marshside RSPB reserve for a walk down to Nels Hide or b) keep moving to avoid the dreaded 'schools out' traffic around Preston and drop in at Singleton church. We chose the latter as Monty was asleep in the back of the car and not sitting up looking like he needed a toilet stop as we passed Marshside.

A butterfly hunter was already in the churchyard when we arrived but the usual question, 'seen owt?' was answered in the negative. Not the best news but the Oak tree is large although only 58 years old and the sun was shining more strongly on the far side so we had a wander into the newer half of the graveyard. Good decision - within five minutes of looking at the top of the canopy a dark movement much lower down caught our eye and Bingo we were on to a Lifer butterfly Purple Hairstreak.We called the other watcher over and we both enjoyed pretty good binocular views of at least three of them fluttering around a small gap in the lower canopy. Really difficult to get a pic of at 600mm as it was like looking down a pea-shooter absolutely no field of view to speak of so finding the right group of four or five leaves was tricky and then the mixture of bright light on reflective surfaces and dark shadows played havoc with the metering. But we persevered changing settings every time we were able to get on a butterfly and with the magic of processing managed to get a couple of half decent pics for you in the end.

The butterflies themselves must reflect a huge amount of UV as they were horrendously over-exposed and the pics above took a lot of processing to get any colour detail at all.

There seems to be a little bit of a glut of Purple and White Letter Hairstreaks happening at the mo with small colonies of both turning up in new places every few days. Whether they are genuinely new colonies or just because there's more watchers watching and checking different sites other than the known hotspots is perhaps hard to tell but they could be moving around in response to the hot dry weather we've had for the last few weeks. We've even had what was probably a White Letter Hairstreak tazz through the garden at Base Camp and yesterday a small dark bronzy butterfly caught our attention as it fluttered along the cliffs, difficult to keep track of with the bins but deffo not a skipper, which we don't see along here nor was it a Common Blue which despite the profusion of Birds Foot Trefoil foodplant or a Small Copper which we very seldom see along the cliffs and from the flight jizz we reckon it was one of the hairstreaks unfortunately we lost sight of it when it dropped into some long vegetation we had hoped it would settle to nectar on one of the taller Ragwort flowerheads where we could get a proper look at it.

It was while we were trying to refind the butterfly we spotted someone's dog sniffing at something large on the beach, training our bins that way we saw it was a stranded and deceased Harbour Porpoise so down we went for a closer look.

It hadn't been dead long and maybe live stranded on the previous tide and been washed out and back in again. Both cheeks had been eaten away they seem to be the first bit the scavengers go for but that looks like a lot more damage than the not so many gulls on the beach could cause in a short space of time unless they'd been perched on it while it was at sea but we don't see any poop splashes although they could have washed off we suppose. It was collected and was in good enough condition to be sent for a post-mortem for the UK Strandings Scheme.

Other finds on the beach recently have included an awesome undamaged Cuttlefish 'bone'. now what we'd really like would be to find a live one, they're obviously out there somehere.

Not so good a find was this long strand of Wireweed, an invasive species from the Pacific Ocean; we've seen more since trapped on the chains along the slipways down to the beach - must be a bit of a nightmare at where-ever it comes from.

Back at Base Camp the moth trap has been producing small but varied catches. This one is Agriphila straminella, a common 'micro' moth but one that doesn't visit Base Camp very often.

We've got a few more moth pics but we'll share those with you next time...might be even more by then too.

Where to next? another trip out to look for/at the Purple Hairstreaks and maybe a river wander too, if there's any water to call it a river!

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

Skies full of geese

The Safari took the trail north over the border last week. As is usual for our longer journeys we kept a tally of the raptors we saw, it wasn't the best of days for raptors to be on the wing and that was reflected in the numbers seen, Buzzards 3 (of which we missed one) versus Kestrels 1. Dead things amounted to just one Fox (apart from a few Woodpigeons and numerous Pheasants recently released to be shot). Is there no wildlife left in the north of England, surely we'd expect more than that to end up squished along a 150 mile route?

A comfort stop for Monty by the river in Dumfries town centre had us missing an opportunity to get a snap of a Goosander although it would have had to have been a phone-pic as the cameras were packed well down in the back of the car. Three Red Admirals basking on a tree trunk enjoying the warm sunshine was nice to see, we disturbed a fourth from the grass as we walked Monty too.

Arriving at our cottage once unpacked it was time for a quick scan of the calm sea with the binoculars, a Harbour Porpoise was seen almost straight away not far offshore, great stuff!

Sunday 

Our first early morning Monty walk along the beach gave us a small number of Siskins at the top of a pine tree in a neighbouring garden, no chance of any pics for our Photo Challenge in the semi-dark at that time of the morning.

Then it was off for an hour or so before breakfast to the RSPB reserve Mersehead, a wetland and saltmarsh reserve of big skies on the narrow plain twixt the mountains and the sea.

The hedges along the path to the first hide were alive with birds, with every step there was a whirring of wings as the birds moved along the hedge in front of us before doubling back to a favoured spot on the far side of the thick bushes. There were Reed Buntings and Robins galore, Song Thrushes, Greenfinches, Dunnocks, Wrens, Linnets and a Chiffchaff. every foot along the grassy edge to the path, on both sides, had the imprint of a Badger's snout where they had been grubbing up worms overnight. It's a shame the same can't be said for all the other local hedgerows. Red from the multitude of berries was the dominant colour rather than the white of the shattered and splintered twigs and branches left behind by the farmers' flails on the other hedges leaving little food or shelter in this windswept landscape.

Surely it can't take much of a change for farmers across the land to produce hedges full of food like this

Linnets

We heard Goldcrests deep in the hedges, Skylark, Rooks (which seem to rarely get a mention by the Safari these days) and Carrion Crows on the recently cut field and a Buzzard on a post.

Rook (left) and Carrion Crow (right)

Rook

Along the short woodland walk to the next hide a scurry in the grass down by our feet was either a shrew or a vole, it was lost in the undergrowth before we'd got any more than 'mammal' on it! Red Campion was still in flower and shafts of light coming through thee every dwindling canopy illuminated an area of Hawthorn leaves where a cluster of hoverflies were indulging in a mating ritual a bit like Strictly Come Dancing on an invertebrate scale.

Pink Footed Geese called as they flew overhead and on the wetland in the distance there was a flock of Grey Lag Geese and a few Canada Geese

Pink Footed Geese high up and possibly just fresh in from Iceland

But where were the site's speciality the Barnacle Geese? Oh here they are...among the very first arrivals of the autumn!

Coming in from the north over the mountains, their dog-like yapping calls soon filled the air...marvelous! Barnacle Geese (177, YBC #153)
Back along the hedgerow with only minutes to spare before having to return to Temporary Base Camp we noted Yellowhammers, Tree Sparrows and lots of Chaffinches, Robins and Blackbirds.

There were even House Sparrows in the hedge and around the barns and farmhouse, it was like stepping back to an earlier time in our youth when there was still 'bioabundance' in our countryside.

Insects were represented by Red Admirals feeding on Ivy flowers, no Ivy Bees up this far north yet but we were told they've reached the Fylde so that'll be one to look out for next week.

On the short drive back we saw a Jay and a Bullfinch fly across the road in front of us.
The tide was coming in as we arrived flushing Meadow Pipits of the beach and a couple of Ravens were passing overhead.

As we scanned the sea there were no Harbour Porpoises but there was a Red Throated Diver sheltering in the little bay in the lee of the rocks. It might have recently 'overlanded' from the east coast as it spent well over an hour just sitting preening and shaking itself down.

Further out on the sea there wasn't anything more than three Great Crested Grebes and more and more flights of Barnacle Geese overhead. A walk along the beach a little later saw Monty's nose finding a Harbour Porpoise vertebra.

Apologies for the out of focusness and/or camera shake

Where to next? We'll tell you about the rest of the week tomorrow.
In the meantime let us know who's just arrived in your outback.

Well would you believe it!

The Safari took Frank out before we set off to work and watched a rather large and quite unexpected at that early hour of the morning White Tailed Bumble Bee buzz over our head and down the hill.

We went to work along the prom as usual and was very pleased to see that the sea was a lot flatter than we feared was going to be the case.

The advertising of the Dolphin Watch had worked well and we had a fair crowd all eager to see a dolphin or two.

We hadn't long to wait as DB scanned for the gull flock and almost immediately shouted "Dolphin!" We didn't see it, in fact we didn't see much at all for the first half of the watch as we were making sure the others were clued up and and knew what they were looking for and what seabirds were about - not many as it happened unlike earlier in the morning on the rising tide when SD had counted roughly 1500 Cormorants!

We're not sure how many people saw the Bottle Nosed Dolphin but it rolled a couple of times and the same or a different animal was seen briefly again about half an hour later and a couple of miles further north.

A little later a Harbour Porpoise was spotted very close in, so close it was over what would be the bottom end of the beach at low tide. Again it was hard to get folk on to but fortunately it seemed to be going up and down just behind the surf-line and most of the watchers got a glimpse of its small rolls.

Not a lot of birds were out there, a fair few gulls, a flock of five Shelducks went south, half a dozen Great Crested Grebes, a handful of Red Throated Divers and an unIDd auk. Not many Common Scoters today but a close flock acted as a useful marker in a sea otherwise devoid of 'landmarks'.

In the afternoon we went to the nature reserve on a mission but didn't stay too long and saw not a great deal. A nice flock of Long Tailed Tits, weird to think that when we started working there they almost unknown there. Thrushes were well represented with a lot of Blackbirds, some Redwings, good numbers of Fieldfares passing through and a solitary Song Thrush.

We didn't have much of a look on the water but noted a small number of Wigeon and couldn't find the female Pintail we'd been told about. A comedy moment was relived when we watched a Little Grebe fly half the length of the mere - last time we saw that a gale was howling and the poor bird was being blown ar*e over breakfast across the waves.

Mission over we called it a day before the Starlings had even thought about gathering - Base Camp beckoned.

Where to next? While the Whiting feeding Harbour Porpoise still be about tomorrow? Will the now distant bait shoal still have its Bottle Nosed Dolphin(s)?

In the meantime let us know what's doing the fishing in your outback.

Two new to 'science'

The Safari saw the sea was almost flat calm this morning and could hardly wait to get the scope out. Unfortunately there wasn't much doing, a distant Grey Seal and a dozen Gannets was all we could muster.

At lunchtime we must have had the best part of a 100 whale and dolphin watching helpers most of them children too small to see over the wall. A/the Grey Seal was no much closer, only yards from the wall,  but playing hard to get by only popping up for seconds before disappearing beneath the tiny waves for long minutes at a time. Distantly we had about 150 Common Scoters but they too were hard to get the multitudes on to.

All the while Sandwich Terns mooched about some quite close in but these probably looked too much like 'seagulls' to be 'interesting', a few Common Terns were in the mix too.

We managed to wangle a pic of yesterday's dead Harbour Porpoise off AB's phone but the injury marks are inconclusive, the large square graze in front of the dorsal fin could have been made as the carcass rubbed on the sand as it washed in...always sad to see them like this though.

After the watch we had a quick lunch while the hordes descended on to the beach. This is jut some of them...

 And some more...we've never had to entertain so many before!

All those eyes nets were bound to find something interesting...and they did.

A nice but small Compass Jellyfish.

After hundreds of Brown Shrimps, several Common Prawns and a few Sand Gobies were identified the less numerous species came to light, tiny 'new born' Blennies, the smallest Green Shore Crabs you ever did see and a Lion's Mane Jellyfish.

And then the biggies appeared, first up a Chiton, apparently there were a fair number in one pot - never seen one before and told Monika a while ago we didn't get them on our shoreline = ooopps!!! Being an American hers was far larger than ours!

Which species? One for iSpot we think!

Then in one of the trays we saw a little white thing like a piece of white plastic but it was swimming. We're pretty sure it's an Isopod; another for iSpot!

This is how it swam round, like a folded upside-down paper dart, flicking out those paddle-like legs.

A fascinating day on the beach was topped by the discovery of Gammerid type shrimps, very similar to the freshwater shrimps that swim on their sides and not at all like the Brown Shrimps.

All this new stuff was due to the fact we were looking in a slightly different place along the wall, the tide had left runnels too deep for the small children to cross in our usual places - thanks very much Mr Tide you've played a blinder!

Where to next? More flat calm sea we hope.

In the meantime let us know what's waiting to be discovered in your outback.

Not something we wanted to hear at all

The Safari took Frank around Patch 1 yesterday late afternoon. To our surprise, and Frank’s great joy, a Fox was sniffing around on the rough grass of the Butterfly Zone...not for long though!!! Poor Frank had no chance of catching up with it as soon showed him a very clean pair of heals and vanished before his very nose into the Bramble thicket...well you’ve never seen a Labrador do so much sniffing and scent marking after that, a full ten minutes worth of back and forth following his nose! Nothing else of note was seen or heard there.

Patch 2 this morning on the rising tide gave us about 500 or so Common Scoters on the very choppy sea but no sign of yesterday’s Velvet Scoters or Harbour Porpoises :-(

On a much smaller theme we did see two Sea Slaters, one tucked up in a crevice where we rest the scope and the other trundling across the promenade walkway – have to say it’s quite a while since we’ve seen one on the seawall...always nice to make a re-acquaintance.

Once back in the office we had an email from the Rangers with some very sad and disheartening news. Some time yesterday the Waste Services team were called out to dead animal on the roadside by the big park, only a few yards from where we were photographing the Herons on their nests the other day...one of the Otters from the nature reserve had been killed by a car as it tried to cross the road.

The corpse was taken to the deep freeze and will be sent for a post mortem, the animal was an adult male so perhaps it has already mated with our female...fingers crossed. Otters don’t have a breeding ‘season’ as such.

A few minutes before lunchtime the Posty delivered a rather large package. Hidden in the depths of the bubble wrap were two goodies...a super-macro conversion lens and at the other end of the scale a 2.2X teleconverter. A quick play with the macro indoors – that ‘M’ is actually 2mm tall 

Ultrat-macro with new lens

 Super-macro straight off camera

 'Normal' camera

– then it was out onto a very grey and dingy sea wall to see how the teleconverter would fare...nothing else for it but to wind it up to full whammy and blast away at some gulls; they are all a minimum of 30 yards away. The melee at the water’s edge pics are about 70 yards away. All pics are hand held...looks like another bean-bag like the one we have for the scope will need to be made to make sure there’s a bit less wobble in the pics.

Black Headed Gull

 Herring Gull

 Redshank - a  bit blurry but they were running around all over the shop

A random melee of feeding gulls formed at the surf, these were a long way off! Keep your eye on the one bottom left as it moves across the group.

Any ideas yet?

Looks to us like a 2nd winter (3CY) Yellow Legged Gull we've fluked on to there...Nerd Forum will no doubt give us the answer later.

Not sure about the BiF shots, did them on rapid fire mode but can’t quite seem to get the focus just right ...bit of sunshine giving a faster shutter speed and smaller aperture might help there.

Herring Gull with a full belly giving the 'long call'

 Lesser Black Back Gull also with a full tummy

Then the rain started so it was a quick dash back inside before all this new-fangled equipment got wet.

Where to next? No matter where we get to, although it’s hardly likely to be anywhere other than the patches, it’ll be cold, wet and very windy.

In the meantime let us know what runs the risk crossing the roads in your outback.