Well that was unexpected

The Safari had a wander out east with GB the other morning. Before we met him off the tram we took Monty for a quick stretch up the prom where, while he was having a merry old sniff, we spied these two interesting clouds which we guess were hailstone cells but we're no meteorological wizard not by a long chalk.

GB's tram arrived on time and Monty gave him his usual over-exuberant welcome. Once in the car we started chatting and one of the first thing he mentioned were the weird clouds he'd seen from the tram.

Half an hour later we turned in to the car park at the River Brock and very atmospheric it was too. Just before we reached the last turn before the car park gate a Jay flew over the car and a second was already perched in the roadside tree it flew too...still not got them on our Photo Challenge but that seemed like a good omen. A Buzzard also cruised the field possibly what flushed the Jay...not the best place to be a Buzzard hope it stays safe and well away from any gamekeepers.

While we were putting our boots on we could hear a Nuthatch calling from somewhere around the feeders and then a second in the trees behind us.

By the time we were shod a bit of a mist had settled over the river looking all picturesque where the sun was shining through the trees.

Further round in the sunlight we found one shaft picking out an epiphytic fern quite high up on a tree bole.

The woods were livelier with birds than they often are, GB picking put a Goldcrest with a second one a couple of spindly trees further back. A Treecreeper was spotted too. But more was to come; down by the old mill we heard a sort of familiar but very seldom heard monotone rattle, and then a few seconds later there it went again...this time it really did sound like a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker calling from the tall trees on the other side of the river. WOW!!!! But could we see it up there, sadly not. We've never heard (or seen) one there before but 20 odd years ago there were a few sightings by Bird Club members in the woods a mile or so further up stream. It's a while since we've visited those woods and decided to have a peek today. Blimey the road/track has deteriorated since we were last there and was impassible to the 'normal' car we have now, the old Discovery wouldn't have had any problems - it looks like this...or did several years ago when we filmed it but you don't really get the full impression of how steep the drop to the river and climb out are

It was an interesting reverse out today as we couldn't get down the lane as far as the turning round space. The woods look much as they always did but what they look like to our eyes and what they are really like to the various species that inhabit it now, is it better, worse, same???

Round the corner is Beacon Fell where GB treated us to a coffee while we sat out close to the feeder they have there. It was busy with Blue, Great and Coal Tits with a Robin hanging around and a couple of Chaffinches coming in and out. 

The sun was still out and creating harsh lighting conditions at the feeder where the benches aren't in the best place for photographers but are great for all other folk just sat out on the benches having tea and a bun.

Blue Tit

Coal Tit

Great Tit

A great way to sit and watch and shoot for as long as it takes to drink a cuppa...Time to go and get some pies in! one the way to the pies we were on another single track road when two vans appeared coming the other direction as we reached a tight corner...good job we'd had that bit of reversing practice coming out of the woods earlier.

Pies successfully scoffed we headed back to Fleetwood to take GB home passing the Marine Lake on the way to see if there were any Red Breasted Mergansers on there, GB, Fleetwood born n bred, has never seen them on there and doesn't believe they actually exist! Once again he was right there weren't any; but there were three Goldeneyes close to the roadside, a male, a first winter male and a female. While we were searching for the mythical mergansers a Black Headed Gull with a yellow Darvik ring unfortunately we weren't able to get a read of it as the letters were round the rong side of the leg and then a passer-by came along and it flew off and although we waited a while it dodn't return...shoulda saved some pie crusts!

In other news the big lens is back but we don't know if the workshop has been able to resolve the intermittent problem it was having, they cleaned up all the contacts and tightened up all the screws but it didn't misbehave for them...will it for us tomorrow - hope not and we hope that's the last of the problem too.

Where to next? The Marton Mere Otter has been seen daily so we'll try a wander round there early doors tomorrow...with the big lens.

In the meantime let us know who's rattling away in your outback.

Getting cross over crossbills and some terrible toll tunnel trauma on a twitch

The Safari has been out n about enjoying the autumn colours, the hot summer is probably responsible for the vivid show everyone (hopefully everyone) is enjoying this season. 

Before we tell you of our adventures we've some info about the nasal saddled Pochard we told you about last time.  We submitted the data in the Colour Ringing website and as is often not the case the ringing scheme got back to us almost by return of post.

As you can see it's not been tagged that long but our sighting is the only one away from its assumed breeding area, or at least summering area.

If it hangs around at MartIn Mere all winter it's going to be reported a lot more butr it may leave then where will it turn up and will anyone see it and if they do will they report it? Please do if you do!

We've had a couple of visits to MartOn Mere - confusingly similar names. Mostly trying to dodge rain showers and totally failing to get any pics of the quite numerous but extraordinarily flighty Redwings, couldn't find any owls of any description either, although to be fair there's still quite a lot of leafery on the trees making spotting anything in the scrub nigh on impossible.

There are quite a few Water Rails on site at the mo and quite often they scurry between the islands of reeds in front of the Fylde Bird Club Hide, they don't hang around and rarely give any indication they're going to break cover so as soon as you spot one it's press that shutter button time and hope for the best before they reach the dense cover on the other side of the gap!

Along the embankment the light was much better even if there weren't many birds to be seen. The view's not bad though.

The scrub didn't give us any photo opportunities either so we decided to go 'round the back' on the Heron's Reach path to see if we could see any winter thrushes - we didn't and still haven't seen any Fieldfares round these parts but reports of them in oour area are now beginning to filter  through to us so there are some around now. The trees provided us with a gorgeous colour palette.

Later in the week we went up to Beacon Fell with JH and GB. We'd seen reports of large numbers of Crossbills at another site not too far to the south and the vis miggers have been seen odd birds, normally there are none, passing them at their coastal watch points so we thought the coniferous forest up in the Country Park had to be worth a try.

But walking round it became obvious that the woods were devoid of birds with barely a tweet heard. Can't believe we heard no Coal Tits, Goldcrests or Siskins. The only 'lively' area, and that wasn't THAT lively, was the tiny feeding station by the Visitor Centre and cafe where we sat outside with a brew. Small numbers of Blue and Great Tits and Chaffinches were coming and going, a couple of Coal Tits smash n grabbed as they do and a Blackbird came and went but star of the show was this posing Robin.

We haven't been on a 'proper' twitch for yonks preferring these days to drive no more than an hour to a site to do some birding and other wildlife spotting. Can't really remember when our last more distant twitch was. But that changed on Friday when we made the decision to go and see the Pied Wheatear that had been present on the north Wirral coast for a couple of days, just over an hour's drive away.

We picked up GB and set off. We had no problems negotiating the fairly busy Friday morning motorway and then being taken a rather odd route through Liverpool to reach the Mersey Tunnel but it was when we reached said tunnel that we had a bit of a serious blip. We followed a car in to the booth area and it went straight through but when we pulled up we saw there was nowhere to put our cash - we'd followed a car going through a pre-paid or contactless line - dohh they didn't have those last time we came this way so we ended up having to reverse out upsetting the line of vehicles behind us - thankfully not that many! Wonder if a brown envelope will end up on our doorstep in a few days with a citation, as the Yanks call them, in it - certainly hope not! But our calamities didn't end there, once through the booth and out on the open road we hit the gas to make up for lost time only to realise we'd passed two speed cameras at at least 10 mph over their limits - sincerely hope they weren't armed and dangerous!!!

Panics over the rest of the journey was thankfully uneventful. But where exactly was the bird? Not hard to find just look for the small crowd of birders assembled a little way down  the promenade.

The bird itself wasn't hard to find either, it was sat up on the seawall just six feet in front of the throng.

Time for a few photos of the Pied Wheatear, (192, PYLC 185 - Challenge target reached!) a British Isles Lifer for us - the last ones we saw were way back in the dim and distant late 1970s when we spent a summer working on a variety of ecological projects in Israel. Unless of course it gets re-identified as a, Eastern Black Eared Wheatear which could be a possibility, in which case we've seen them more recently, in Greece 2012.

Not the best light on our visit but we were lucky as it was its last day there, not being seen the following day.

We were giving Monty a stretch of the legs on the little green on the other side of the road when we noticed the group of birders moving our way down the prom. Looking towards where they were looking we saw the Pied Wheatear was sat on the sea wall directly behind our car. Never had a twitch quite like that before!

Not a bad looker for an immature bird. Unfortunately as GB had to back home for an appointment we couldn't stay too long or visit any other local sites, it really was a 'Tick n Run' twitch.

Today was a family day and a walk up the River Brock at the popular picnic spot. The threatened rain never showed up but the sky didn't really clear either so we although we thoroughly enjoyed the autumn spectacle we didn't see the colours quite at their most vivid.

Monty's not bothered about autumn colour, evenif he could see them - he's much happier with a river and a ball.

A beautiful afternoon out.

Where to next? Dunno yet but we'll be out on safari somewhere at least locally next week.

In the meantime let us know who's got all the colours of the rainbow in your outback.