It’s all been a bit quiet this week

The Safari has only been able to do the usual stints at Patch 2 this week and very little else other than hearing a couple of Goldcrests around Base Camp, which could easily have been the same one twice if it’s hanging around the area.

Out at sea the wind has been picking up all week. Earlier it was like a glass carpet and we had a Grey Seal and at least 1000 Common Scoters. As the wind increased there were a few Gannets moving around, a few Eiders flying towards the estuary and Red Throated Divers have started to appear in small numbers generally moving south as you’d expect at this time of year. A very close Guillemot was nice but our best sighting was of an initially unseen Great Skua lifting off the sea to mug a passing Great Black Backed Gull of its last meal. We didn’t think the gull put up enough of a fight especially once the skua had grabbed its tail. Impressive to watch considering the reputation of Great Black Backed Gulls and the not inconsiderable size difference, obviously Great Black Backed Gulls are just bullies and don’t like being picked on themselves.

We played host to a woggle of cubs the other evening and gave them a task no other Cub pack has ever done, certainly not in this country. We got them to make some additions to our Bug Hotel to get it ready for hibernating insects in the winter – nothing unusual about that…but we’d been to the zoo earlier and collected a large bag of Elephant droppings. After the initial squeals of horror, disgust and even delight from some of the Cubs we gave them a thick pair of gloves and got each of them to carefully place a couple of dollops. There can’t be many Bug Hotels resting on a cushion of that!

During the proceedings it was quite breezy one of the cubs managed to fumble a lump of the waste product and lots of the outer edge broke off when we were speaking to them and we got a mouthful of the stuff - not something you'd find in flavourtown!
While at the zoo our friend LS had a couple of her friends visiting and had arranged for them to feed the Giraffes so we got to pass the carrots to them and sneakily give a few to the Giraffes ourselves, what awesome, intriguing and  beautiful creatures they are. Sickening to think that some psychopaths think it’s fun to travel to Africa (mostly from America it would seem - what's wrong with you guys???) to shoot them then pose smiling with the crumpled corpse on Facebook.
Warm sun at the back at work where it is sheltered from the cool onshore wind brought out a few insects, the several late flowering Dandelions providing a welcome source of nectar for the Drone Flies that are still on the wing and a huge queen Red Tailed Bumble Bee was bumbling around on the sunny side of the front hedge. 

You can't fail to have noticed there's one or two Crane Flies around at the moment., apparently there may be as many as 3000 of the fluttery long-legged things for every man woman and child in the country. If you've read articles from those masters of natural history knowledge and writing the Daily Fail and Torygraph it's fly-a-geddon and WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE...better get rid of all nature before it gets us starting with Badgers, Wild Boar, Foxes, Hen Harriers - sign the petition please, there's way way more than 20,000 people affected by the effects of driven grouse shooting not just birders who enjoy Hen Harriers wafting over the local marshes in the winter or the high moors in the summer, you like paying higher than necesary water bills and insurance premiums due to their 'habitat management'? - gulls and bees.

A new plant has appeared at work which has Tansy-like leaves and also yellow flowers (we think – we didn’t come across it until it was going over) but those long seed-heads are throwing us off the scent. It’s only a short little thing too. We're hoping those clever iSpotters will be able to shed some light on it's ID. They have and they tell me it's an invasive North American plant, Ragweed.

Back at Base Camp we spotted a Silver Y nestled half in bright sunshine and half in the shade between the laths on the back gates.

Mothy might well go on tonight.

Where to next? Tomorrow is the end of an era – we pick up a replacement for the Land Rover, a decidedly dull and boring hatchback.

In the meantime let us know who's prodigious numbers have taken over your outback

Wet and wild weekend

The Safari hopes this wasn't one of Robbies, could have been; the ones released at the gigs in Manchester were red and yellow and the winds have been easterly all week until the last few hours when they have strengthened to 25mph Sou-westerlies. we spotted it yesterday morning and it now residing safely at the bottom of a bin.

We put the mothy out last night, the weather was turning but we decided to take the risk. The cooler cloudier conditions brought a few Swifts down and we watched three scything round the rooftops  screaming as they went when we took frank out - one dived in to the usual roost under the eaves of the house on the corner of the main road - doesn't even slow down to do this - what a sight!

The mothy gave us the best catch of the year so far - a massive eight whole English moths!

We could see this Angle Shades as we approached the trap but we also knew it had rained a bit in the night.

 What a little beauty...all today's pics are from phone-cam.

Four Heart & Darts made up half of the catch but a new arrival was this Treble Lines.

Heart & Dart face on

and a Silver Y, apparently there was a massive invasion of this species down south earlier in the week.

Just one micro today, a female Light Brown Apple Moth.

Our egg-boxes in the bottom of the trap were soggy and had to be chucked in the compost bin :-(

We emptied the trap which was doubling as a rain gauge

The rest of the morning was spent doing household jobs so the duff weather didn't matter too much. This afternoon though we didn't fancy going out so decided to watch Orca-cam for a while - it was foggy over there :-(

Where to next? Anything could happen tomorrow - a seawatch on the rising tide perhaps.
In the meantime let us know what's flooded out in your outback.

Never seen so much

The Safari got to Patch 2 a few minutes earlier than usual this morning – it wasn't really worth the rush; not a lot doing Grey Seal and small flock of 12 Dunlins shooting past. The trawler was still working and had attracted a large mob of gulls but nothing more exciting was with them.

A break from the desk saw us drift outside in the sunshine to look at the wildflower (ignorantly known to the public as 'weeds') area where we saw a Tree Bee! By the time we legged inside for the camera it had gone...not having a lot of luck with them :-( But yet another new site for this spreading species.

We were due a meeting with the new Fylde BeachCare Project Officer and she found us camera in hand lurking in the flower bed. A few snaps later and we’d digitally bagged one of the several Silver Y’s, but there was no sign of the Tree Bee, 

Note the tongue on this one that almost got away.

and a lunchtime trip to iSpot revealed two new species for the Fylde, the hoverfly Broad Centurion (Chloromyia formosa)

 And the ‘Thick Headed’ Fly  (Sicus ferrugineus)

Not the best of pics..but hey ho...

At lunchtime the big tide combined with plenty of water coming down the river meant there was more driftwood than we’ve ever seen before – some looked like seals, some like an Otter, some like Basking Sharks, some like a porpoises, a few looked like submarines’ periscopes and one even looked like a Narwhal!  A few had resting terns on board and two were smothered in lost fishing nets. A couple of Small Tortoiseshells flitted around the planted area near the Mirror Ball.

Another look for the Tree Bees was unsuccessful although now the ripening Dandelion and other Compositae seeds had attracted a few Goldfinches and House Sparrows. We keep checking the large flocks of starlings that probe the lawns just in case a juvenile (or even an adult) Rose Coloured Starling is hiding in their midst...they never are...not yet anyway.

Later in the afternoon we had a visit from our local RSPB officer (and fellow blogger)  who’d not had a shuffy round the Solaris Centre before so we had a look in the garden and saw another Broad Centurion but no Tree Bees...by eck they’re teasers! And you can’t beat a bit of Tommy Bolin...why did he have to die so young?

Where to next? More patch 2 mularky.

In the meantime let us know what's new to you in your outback