National Whale & Dolphin Watch 2016 so far

The Safari has been doing an hour's watch midweek during lunchtime for National Whale and Dolphin Watch but without success. Indeed we've probably had negative success when we recovered another dead baby Harbour Porpoise which is now awaiting a post-mortem. Today we learned of another youngster dead on the beach 'one day last week' which was found on the tide-line to the south of us along the toe of the dunes - what's going on with them? There does seem to be an awful lot washing up. Best of the rest has been daily Grey Seals, two today but always distant and not so easy to get the generally inexperienced at using telescopes volunteers on to them. Eventually everyone got at least a few seconds look at it/them. Thursday morning also provided a decent birding session when at least 20 Sandwich Terns and 10 Common Terns were fishing quite close to the wall. It's a pity it was so dull as they were probably just in range of the lens. Today bird excitement was limited to a brief build up of Gannets at a small bait ball just this side of the horizon to the south west early in the watch. There were never more than 20 and they soon either dispersed or drifted back over the horizon...it didn't amount to much at all and that was about it bird-wise for the next three and a half hours. Apart from the rather strange sighting of a pair of Common Scoters coming over the road from inland and landing on the sea just behind the surf - never seen that before!

Here's some pics from our trip north of the border to the capital of Bonny Scotland last weekend.

Edinburgh Castle with flaming torches

Late 16th century building skills - engineered onto the solid basalt rock The original 12th C castle was destroyed during a siege in 1570s

We were there to enjoy what may or may not have been Runrig's last UK gig after 43 years on the road. If it was the last it was an absolute cracker to end with and we can say "we were there", if it wasn't we'll have to go back!

Bruce - Canadian from Nova Scotia...New Scotland; so we suppose that's OK then

Here's Wifey's pics of the Greyfriar's Bobby pub we found by accident after the gig. What a dedicated doggy he was.

Oh and on the drive up we saw a real choo-choo train with smoke and all!!! Chooowwooooo. In Lancashire too! Showing our train-spotting 'knowledge' it might have been a Black 5.

After watching no whales or dolphins this morning we took the camera into the garden at Base Camp this arvo but there wasn't really that much to point it at.

A Small White butterfly was fluttering around Wifey's Nasturtiums so we went to have a look for any eggs finding some tiny already hatched caterpillars had started muching holes in the leaves - they'll be defoliated before too long!

Also lurking on the underside of the leaves were a few Blackfly, but with Aphids a few can very soon become very many!

The big one in the middle is exuding a drop of honeydew from its backside

On the upper surface of a nearby leaf an rather nicely marked dipteran fly of a totally unknown species was taking in the afternoon sun during a welcome break in the clouds. It's possibly a parasitic Tachinidae maybe Dexiosoma sp??????

Far easier to identify was this 'Batman' hoverfly, Myathropa florea. It's a whopper and an excellent wasp mimic.

Even easier to ID were the Red Tailed Bumble Bees  on the Thyme flowers. Plenty of Honey Bees on there too.

Where to next? The last throw of the Whale and Dolphin dice tomorrow. This time we're up at the start of Chat Alley - wonder  if there'll be any migrant birds on the cliffs below our watch point.
In the meantime let us know who's playing hard to get in your outback.

Always a good day when you learn something new about nature

The Safari was a bit disappointed to find so little in the moth trap this morning after recent double whammy NFGs, just 10 individuals, almost half of those were Heart & Darts, of only six species. Riband Wave was the only one new for the year.

Mid-afternoon we were able to meet up with BD to have a look for White Letter Hairstreak butterflies on Patch 1, they'd been reported from a reserve in the nest town so while it was 'early' for them it was worth a look. We heard two Chiffchaffs in the main area of the park and had a look at the bottom lake but other than lots of litter, Duckweed and lots of Poecilobothrus nobilitatus flies dancing there was nothing there. At the butterfly zone there were several Large Skippers and a few Meadow Browns, the first we've seen this year, and a couple of very fresh smart looking Speckled Woods. The butterflies were mostly inactive hiding away as the sunshine turned minute by minute to more cloudy conditions.

With no sign of the White Letter Hairstreaks and the top of their favourite tree being shaken round quite madly by the increasing wind we decided to have a look at what else was on offer then wander down to the rough field.
BD pointed out something we've never heard of before, Sycamore Leaf Aphids spread themselves remarkably evenly across the underside of the leaf, usually we think of aphids as all bunched together at the tip of a plant.

Flitting around the grass nearby and generally refusing to stay still was this colourful Sawfly, Tenthredo sp?

We also found a bee that had made a grave mistake!

Not much nectar there mate!

It had probably got caught out by the sudden much cooler, cloudier and windier weather. 

Down at the far end of tthe field BD showed us something else we've not seen bef ore or certainly not noticed if we have seen it before. After looking at a few Yellow Meadow Ants' nests, one of which was huge, maybe about 3 feet (1m) across, he found some Ragwort plants being sucked by aphids white Black Ants in attendance milking them for their honeydew. A closer look revealed the ants had build their nest around the base of the plant, all the better to defend their 'herd'.

The whole base of the plant is completely encrusted with the ants nest

He also found us the first of this year's Grasshoppers and we showed him the local plant specialty Ploughman's Spikenard although it'll be another week before it comes into flower. As in previous years it was sad and upsetting to see wheelbarrow loads of garden rubbish tipped here, as usual mostly all over the big patch of Birds-foot Trefoil smothering most of it so not so many Common Blue butterflies this year - Yet another reason why basic education about the natural history, ecological relationships and what can be found in your local area is so vital.

With no butterflies on the wing now we walked back through the park to the car as a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew past us, the first sighting we've had here since their nesting tree was felled. It flew across the field and landed in the trees at the edge of the park where a Sparrowhawk immediately attacked it and it was lucky to escape - an amazing sequence of events to witness. Going through the wooded edge of the field BD spotted some weird looking fungi growing out of an old felled tree stump.

Later identified by the world famous and font of all knowledge woodland and beyond AB @HesistantWeasel - well if he isn't world famous he should be - as emerging Dead Mens Fingers. The Council's budget cuts have made it necessary to do much less grass cutting and the lower area of the park is no longer a cutting priority and has been left - it looks great, lots of different colours and textures of grass flowing like waves in the gentle breeze under the trees. There were even some kids enjoying playing in it!

Mostly Yorkshire Fog

Just needs a more flowers to make it that little bit more exciting, but after decades of being scalping twice a week through the summer there's probably precious few taller species left in the turf.

From Patch 1 we drove a couple of minutes up the road to a site we've only visited a couple of times before. It has - or at least had - Common Lizards but the area they were last seen in is now perhaps too well vegetated, if they are still there hopefully they'll have been able to move somewhere more suitable. Seeing the Common Lizards would have brilliant but they weren't what we were hoping for, that was something altogether rarer and harder to find and probably hasn't been at this site for tens of the best part of a hundred years - well you can dream! What we were after was a Grass Snake! Earlier in the week PT had told us one had been seen at a pond near here and the lad that found it had somehow tried to drown it??? That pond is very isolated so was the ID good, where had it come from, how many are there, are they anywhere else nearby - questions questions. Apparently the ID was correct but the other questions still stand...was it a pet someone had released - where do you get and how could you keep a pet Grass Snake, maybe they didn't like the smell? Anyway we didn't find it, the weather was against us as it stayed cold and cloudy and the sun didn't come out to encourage any that might be there to bask. The pond had a family of Coots and a family of Moorhens as well as a sinister looking Heron - not good news for any nearby Grass Snakes! It was the longest of long shots and of course we were unsuccessful, but it's a site that warrants closer and more regular inspection. 

In the grassy area we found a Meadow Brown that was far more accommodating than those at Patch 1.

And a Nursery Web Spider 

By the pond as we walked through the bankside vegetation we disturbed many Blue Tailed Damselflies and some bright blue ones all of which that stayed still long enough to ID were Azure Damselflies.

From there we went the couple of hundred yards to where the Grass Snake was seen and had a quick look round but the most exciting thing to be seen in the pond was a bicycle wheel.
All good things come to an end as did our time and we turned for Base Camp after a very enjoyable coupla-three hours out on safari not seeing what we hoped we'd see but seeing other wondrous stuff instead.

Where to next? We'll be out n about on safari somewhere tomorrow - but where, that the $64,000 question and probably weather dependent.

In the meantime let us know who's not slithering around in your outback.

 

Doesn't feel like summer yet

The Safari had a bit of a quiet day in the garden at Base Camp yesterday. It was warmish but there was a chilly and rather brisk northerly wind blowing too many clouds scudding across the blue.

The few successes we had were our first juvenile Greenfinch of the year being fed by dad. He was a stunner in the morning sun, shone like an emerald he did and also fluttered like a youngster when feeding his little one, surely it's supposed to be the other way round. They didn't stay long enough for us to get the new Tamron out and he wasn't the ringed male we'd like to get a read off either.

The pair of Jackdaws out in a brief early morning visit and weren't sen again all day. Nothing much happened until the irregular male House Sparrow came in mid-afternoon for his two or three seeds - he doesn't stay long enough to scoff any more than this!

The intermittent sunshine and strong gusty wind meant the invertebrates weren't so active although we did see the Ruby Tailed Wasp inspecting the same hole it got tangled up in  the day before so it must have been able to extract itself from the tangle of web. Either that or it's another one doing thee same circuit and inspecting the very same holes. The 'two wasp theory'?

There weren't many opportunities for pics, these are the best we could come up with.

Arty Aqueligia flower - did you spot the aphid?

Blue Tailed Damselfly on a leaf

Blue Tailed Damselfly on a twig

Zebra Spider with prey - still can't get ?him to face the light, this pic he's facing down at a steep angle and we've rotated him to horizontal

The other evening Wifey took us out for a drive over the nearby farmland.

Barley field at dusk

Why did she take us there you might well ask. Well ask away - just beyond the bare patch at the entrance to the field and off a little way to the right a Quail was reported as calling. We stepped out of the car to the jangling keys song of Corn Buntings (162) and walked the few yards to the other birders already in position listening for the distinctive Wet-my-lips call. It wasn't long before we heard it infuriatingly close, infuriatingly because we just knew we weren't going to be able to see it in the depths of the crop. Never mind, Quail (163) is now on the list and what a cracking sound they make too, they must have been so common just 50 or 60 years ago before the mega-mechanisation of farming and all the sprays that go with it, now they are a full blown twitch. A couple of passing cars stopped on the lane to ask what we were looking for. After the last one had driven off we heard the Quail calling from the other side of the road, was it a different one (the two bird theory) or did we miss the original one scarper across the lane while we were distracted - maybe it tunneled its way across! We never did hear it call from the Barley field again so we guess the two bird theory is out of the window.

One of the other birders, another BD, put us on to a covey of at least three Grey Partridges (164) feeding across the far side of next field along. These too are getting harder and harder to come across locally, what a shame they were so common as to be almost ignored in the farmland close to where we grew up as a young naturalist.

Wifey dipped these but did add Corn Bunting, of which she got great views despite the gathering dusk, and she really liked the "Smack-my-lips" of the Quail taking her to 104 for the year.

Today was another warm but very windy day and again nothing much was happening at Base Camp until we got a late afternoon surprise, a Coal Tit came to the feeders, possibly our first ever June record - will have to check. 

1st pic with the Tamron 150-600mm lens - in gloom of the shrubbery but backlit by strong sunshine

It then returned and fed a juvenile tiny bits of suet from the feeder. My word they are cute!

Where to next? We've got LCV and family over to stay for a couple of days - wonder if he can be tempted into a bit of Quailing? And his young lad has an impotant job to do - set the moth trap up.

In the meantime let us know who's hiding in the Barley in your outback.