The annual safari to the east coast - Day 2

The Safari lay in bed listen to the wind rushing through the tree tops outside the window as the fierst glimmers of dawn came through the curtains. Not what we wanted to hear, that south westerly was still blowing far too strong, nothing, or very little, would have left Scandinavia headed in our direction over night.

After a hearty breakfast we copped for Rooks, Stock Doves and Collared Doves in and around our temporary Base Camp for our Trip List, before setting off back to the point. Where to stop first? Being on the north side of the gas works we had to pass Vicar's Lane...and run the gauntlet of being snooped on by various police vehicles. Well it would rude not to stop wouldn't it...and there'd been a Firecrest there the previous morning. As soon as we got out of the car we bumped into a mobile flock of Long Tailed Tits, a good start...what would be with them??? The answer was lots of Blue Tits, several Great Tits, quite a few Goldcrests and some Chiffchaffs. It wasn't long before the first of the police vehicles came by to check us out, they soon saw we were harmless birders more interested in the bushes than the massive industrial complex behind us, although IH did point his bins in that direction when a couple of Meadow Pipits came in off the sea and landed on the top of the inner security fence...risky move...by IH not the Meadow Pipits. Along the lane we also had our first Blackbirds of the trip bar the one that flew in front of the car as dawn was breaking yesterday, there were about a dozen very mobile birds in the trees lining the lane. Also in there were several Robins and a few Wrens, again almost unbelievably our firsts of the trip. Overhead and around the corner bushes were small numbers of Chaffinches and Greenfinches and a Blackcap. We spotted a lovely Lesser Whitethroat but on closer inspection it turned out to be one of those caterpillar nests in the back of the bush...dohhh worrra numpty!

Failing to find anything out of the ordinary we hit the road down to the point stopping at the Canal Scrape first. As soon as we entered the hide we were put on to a very well hidden Snipe

and an even more well hidden Jack Snipe.

About a dozen Little Egrets graced the pool. While most of trhe others left for the saltmarsh one landed right by the Jack Snipe and spooked it into even deeper cover. Eventually the egret stalked off and the Jack Snipe plucked up enough courage to have a little preen and then a mooch about in their typical bobbing 'sewing machine' fashion, but it never managed to break cover no matter how much the collective bodies in the hide willed it  to.

There was a small patch of unobscured mud just to the left of this pi.c but our little friend simply refused to venture out on to it.

The Little Grebe was still on the pool, the Moorhen numbers had gone up by 50% since yesterday to three and we heard a Water Rail - yep it was quiet! Apart from the two noisy Cetti's Warblers either side of the path to the hide.

Exhausting the possiblities and looking at the weather wit hsome likely rain coming our way it was off to the seawatching hide, at least there we would be sheltered for an hour or so. It turned out to be a good move. Yesterday we'd been told of Bottlenose Dolphins passing by early morning, and they had done the same today. Would we or wouldn't we stike it lucky? A couple of Grey Seals weren't too far out.

But other than those there wasn't much to look at, The same(?) close Red Throated Divers as yesterday and several passing south mostly singles, a few Guillemots and fewer Razorbills bobbed about on the choppy sea while passing over them were more Sandwich and Common Terns. A birder came into the hide and told us we'd missed the best bird of the morning, an Osprey had flown south behind us half an hour earlier. Steadfastly we stared at the sea picking up a flock of 12 incoming Wigeon, a distant small flock of Common Scoters, a couple of Great Crested Grebes heading south together, and a few juvenile Gannets which were good to see given the appaling losses the species has suffered to Avian Flu over the last couple of breeding seasons. Small bird-wise nothing much at all was on the move a few Swallows tazzed past the window and a couple ofr more flocks of Goldfinches which we assumed were local birds doing a curcuit but given the Observatory log reported 2914 passing through for the day maybe they weren't locals after all!

While staring out to sea hoping for a big flock of ducks or perhaps a Great Northern Diver or a skua or two (of different species please) to come trundling by we thought we saw a 'wrong' big splash in the corner of our eye way out towards the turbines, we scanned the area for several minutes and saw nothing, so 'just' a weird wave-slap or something? No it was better than that - a few minutes later a large black shape made a big splash in our scope, not another Grey Seal this one had a dorsdal fin...a huge bull Bottlenose Dolphin! LCV was able to fire off a few shots as it powered its way hastily northwards.

The next thing that happened was even more bizarre, remember the mystery hirundine from yesterday evening - well news broke of a Nightjar up by the pub - SCRAMBLE - GO- GO- GO!!! Was the lad from yesterday right with his 'tentative' ID, a lucky guess, sold his soul, or just pure coincidence??? Anyway we legged it to the car threw the gear in a hurtled up the road...only to find it had gone between the finder finding it and going to get a radio to put the news out. In the grotty weather we throughth it wouldn't have gone far. Time to put LCV's rinky-dink Thermal Imaging gizmo to work again (especially as it hadn't been needed to find the Jack Snipe at the Canal Scrape). No joy from using either the bins nor the Thermal Imager, our bins found a late nesting Woodpigeon

and LCV's Thermal Imager fund a well secreted Robin in the 'Nightjar' bush and another nestingWoodpigeon over the road in the pub carpark trees. 

With no sign of the rarity the small croud soon dispersed leaving a couple of hard core locals to try to find it and we'd hope they'd break positive news later.In the meantime we headed back to the wetlands for another look at the waders and waterfowl. The sleepy American Wigeon was still there but no sign of the reported drake Mandadrin. Still plenty of Mediterranean Gulls loafing about but there were fewer waders than our previous visit as the tide was out so the mudflats were open for business. We did get good views of Bar tailed Godwits, feeding with a single Black Tailed Godwit though.

It was then someone came into the hide and asked if 'those' Glossy Ibis had landed here...heads shook all round no-one had seen them, then we leaned out of the window a little and looked further to the right and lo and behold there was one at the end of the unseen from where we were sat, others in the hide wouldn't have seen it either as there was a bund of grass in the way. "You mean like this one" we said. the hide's side windows were immediatly opened and there was a bit of a scrum to get the best position.

"There should be three" was heard and a few moments later the other two stalked into view. Something spooked them and they took to the air but only for a fly round the pool landing shortly after in a much better place for all to enjoy them.

After a few minutes preening they were in the air again and this time continued their journey to where-ever. The question remains, was yesterday's singleton one of these three or were these new birds. 

We moved on to the big Beacon Pond over the back where there was still no sign of the Mandarin, a 'Murder of (Carrion) Crows' kept IH amused and the three of us each managed a maximum count of 13 Little Grebes.

The birder stood next to us picked out the American Wigeon and this time it was actively feeding on submerged waterweed not snoozing as it does on th wetland pool. It moved around with a small pack of Wigeon eventually coming reasonably close on this large lake.

Best of the rest wered a couple of Gadwall, a few Grey and Ringed Plovers, several Dunlin a Cormorant and a few Mute Swans. The adjacent rough field held a family of Stonechats as we wandered back to the wetland hide. A Buzzard popped up from behind the bank to our left, the first of the trip, the gull roost held even more Mediterranean Gulls but the oft reported at mid-day Caspian Gull failed to put in an appearance for us despite extensive searching through the larger gulls. 

With it being quiet we didn't stay long but changed tthings up a bit with a drive up the road to look in the fields. Sometimes the Golden Plover flock hangs out here and at the mo there is an American Golden Plover with them, usually they are far to far out on the mudflats to stand a chance of picking it out. They weren't in the fields though, probably because the mudflats were available. There were a handful of Mallards the usual 'Serengeti's' worth of Roe Deer and two big flocks of geese, one fresh in Pink Footed Geese the other presumably resident Grey Lag Geese with a handful of Canada Geese thrown in for good measure.

Next up it was down to the seawatching hide to get out of the still strong wind. While passing the little pond in the village LCV ground the car to a halt saying theres's a Sparrowhawk in there. A few yards reverse and sure enough there was a Sparrowhawk sitting low down on a branch over the water. A good spot from the driver's seat.

The sea was quiet, as is often the case in the afternoon. However there were bits n bobs of interest. An unusually pale headed skua with hefty white wing flashes came past close in that caused a bit of exitement. IH called Arctic Skua, we though Great Skua but photos proved IH to be right. Deffo an odd looking individual and worthy of a second look and a check. Common Terns passed southwrds in dribs n drabs, while further out a few adult Gannets, mostly heading north, were good to see. A Heron flapped lazily in-off, we don't normally think of Herons as being migratory so where had this one set off from? A much more typical migrant heading towards us from well out was a single Redshank, as were three then five Teal. Another unexpected sighting was of half a dozen swimmers, all but one brave lad wet-suited up.

two or three Grey Seals were present, they can be hard to count as they move a fair way under water, was the one that was over there the same as the one that's popped its head up over here? Without a good look at their patterns it can be hard to know just how many you're seeing. Small flocks of Common Scoters moved about in the distance and a single Feral Pigeon came in-off - a genuine migrant or a lost/slow Racing Pigeon??? An Oystercatcher flew past which was bizarrely the first of the trip, normally they hit the notebook within the first hour or so of arriving.

It was now late and time for the beer n some grub.

After last night's mammal-fest on the drive back to our digs the theme continued when a Short Tailed Vole scurried across the road in the beam of our headlights. It would be safe tonight as we saw no Barn Owls again, the strong wing keeping them tucked up in their barns.

 

Where to next? Would the wind drop and the migrants arrive on our third day?

 

In the meantime let us know who's lurking furtively round ponds in your outback.

Migration begins with a trickle

The Safari took a group out onto the the beach to explore the rockpools last week - by eck it was chilly but a good time was had by all as we were all wrapped up. We made the (deliberate) mistake of putting our arm in to the freezing water to pull out a Beadlet Anemone to show the youngsters - now that was seriously cold! The things we do for science/education eh!

We put it in one of our trays but sadly it hadn't opened its tentacles out before it was time to leave. 

A good time was had by all!

Searching the runnels

Here's a few of the shells they found in the runnels and on the beach

Later in the week we went back around Herons' Reach and managed a very fleeting glimpse of the Kingfisher and had great views of the two Water Rails on the defrosting pond. We nearly got a pic of them together but a a couple of loose dogs put paid to that; as we were holding on to Monty (to stop him getting near the pond) they rushed towards him he dodged out of their way and we went down like a sack of spuds lucky not to break a collar bone or land on the camera and damage that, thankfully neither us nor the camera came up worse for wear other than covered in mud but not an apology or an 'are you alright?' from the woman with the dogs who saw the whole thing unfold just an 'oh they're friendly they're only having fun'. Fun it certainly wasn't and expensive it could have been! And the Water Rails were flushed deep in to cover not to come out in the 10 more minutes or so we waited for them - Feckin dog walkers

The following day a bit of an improvement in the weather saw us visit Marton Mere for the first time in a while. The sun had brought Song Thrushes out in to song and a little later we watched one listening for worms in the grass.

There was a reasonable number of gulls on the water but no sign of the local Iceland Gull amongst them, has it discovered somewhere else to bathe, a flooded field perhaps?

The 'fritillary meadow' was scrutinised and we found a couple of Cowslips in flower but there didn't seem to be as many as in previous years. We also spotted the first shoots of the Snakeshead Fritillaries and one clump even had a small flowerbud beginning to form - spring won't long now folks. The team there need to get the fence fixed before a football gets kicked over the meadow and the plants get squished by said ball or booted feet retrieving it.

The rest of our visit was fairly quiet. The volunteers were working on the island and we had hoped they might flush a Bittern or a Jack Snipe, neither appeared as the dragged the last of the cut reeds out of the scrape to prepare it for the spring  wader passage. 

A Buzzard soared high to the north east over the fields and lifted three pairs of Lapwings up to see it on its way. Hope they have a good season in those fields this year but it so much depends on what farming activities are going to happen and the timing of them, all to often the eggs and or chicks get rolled, mown or ploughed and only a tiny handful survive and even any predation sees the remainder off as there aren;t enough adults left on territory to help with the defence. When we first started birding there were three times as many in the fields as there are now - a sad loss and very much a part of that thing that is the reduction in Bioadundance rather than Biodiversity.

The scrub areas were quiet but a sudden movement in the 'Paddock' had us look closely to see what it was - a nightmarishly back lit Stonechat 

Signs of the first bits of migration, we've not seen one on the reserve since the start of the winter and this part of the reserve isn't normally favoured by them, in fact we've not seen one here for at least 20 years!

Later, getting towards the car the Buzzard or another appeared overhead.

This time it was pursued relentlessly by a small number of crows who pushed it off their patch and out to the south east over town.

Back at Base camp a Coal Tit (Garden #17) as a new visitor to the feeders for the year. Possibly a refugee from the recently 'tidied' (= ecologically devastated) park on Patch 1. We really hope the White Letter Hairstreaks will be OK and the extensive tree felling hasn't included any Elms nor altered the micro-climate unfavourably for the overwintering eggs or opened up the canopy to enable any passing Elm Bark Beetles to find the trees and kill them. We'll have to wait until the summer to find out what if any the consequences have been for our favourite colony of rare butterflies. Fingers crossed it might actually have enhanced it...we're not holding our breath though.

Short but very important family business south of the river was order of the day yesterday but it did give us the opportunity to take CR on a bit a twitch and a run around Memory Lane.

We started off hurtling down the motorway network to a peviously unheard of Country Park on the outskirts of Liverpool with a most un-scouse sounding name, Stadt Moers CP. Here a couple of Hawfinches have been fairly regularly seen in the SE corner of the park. After our Sizergh Castle debacle last time out we were hopeful although the most recent news we had of them was almost a week old and it had snowed heavily since them, never the less we were feeling optimistic and the weather was mild, no need for a hat!

The locals were extremely friendly and helpful setting us off on the right paths and once on the bottom field a birder was already there - good stuff. He told us he'd not seen 'anything yet' but warned there were a lot of Greenfinches in the area and indeed there were. We don't think we've seen so many of them on one place for a long time. 

Two hours later and almost all the other finches in the book spotted including a pair of unphotographable Lesser Redpolls (115) but not a Hawfinch in sight.

The supporting cast included plenty of Great Tits, Blue Tits, Robins, Dunnocks and Song Thrushes, a flock of about 10 Redwings, a flock of Long Tailed Tits, a Jay and a soaring Buzzard or two. 

This area was the first place we saw Buzzards once the persecution of them had waned enough for them to spread for their core areas in the mountains. We used to look forward to a drive down the much less busy then motorway with our birding mates hoping we might see one way back when. 

We even saw the 'double-decker' Airbus A300-600 Super Transporter (nicknamed the Beluga, and everyone’s favorite, ridiculous, aircraft) approaching Liverpool airport - now why didn't we take a pic?

From there were headed to our old birding stomping ground at the coast at Crosby. Black Headed Gulls and Carrion Crows came to bread thrown copiously in the car park and Skylarks sang above us in the dunes, one even landed close by and posed very nicely for us (YLPC #93).

Out on the beach the tide was on the way in but still a fairly long way out but was beginning to push the waders from the further mudflats closer inshore, including a nice Grey Plover (116. YLPC #94).

CR saw a flit in the grass and this time it wasn't a Skylark but a grounded Meadow Pipit (YLPC #95).

We saw several Stonechats but couldn't approach them closely enough for a pic but there was no sign of any of the secretly hoped for early Wheatears, other birders we spoke to also hadn't come across any although like us they thought they might given the mild conditions and the wind direction. 

The tide inexorably kept coming in as it does forcing the waders ever closer but still not quite close enough, lots of Dunlin and Redshank but only one Ringed Plover and a fair few of the star of the show, the Bar Tailed Godwits, some getting into their brick red summer plumage (117, YLPC #96).

Making our way back tot the car park we came across a couple of Stonechats close to the path, one of which was very confiding at last.

We finished the afternoon at the usually excellent Lunt Meadows but it had far too much water on it today and was rather quiet. We looked for Grey Partridge on the fields as we got close, none but a day-flying Woodcock was a good spot, shame it wasn't still flying when we reached the reserve.The selection of waterfowl was less than usual and the numbers of each of the species much reduced too. There was no sign of the regularish Red Kite just a couple of Buzzards. The fields on the far side of the river held masses of Lapwings and a few lingering Pink Footed Geese along with huge numbers of Common Gulls.

The earlier sunshine had now gone and ever thickening cloud was rolling in dropping the light intensity so we were hopeful for the appearance of the Short Eared Owls. Other birders with big cameras began to arrive but by now we had to leave so if they did come out we missed them.  While we waited in vain for them we heard a Cetti's Warbler briefly and saw yet more Stonechats, there does seem to be a lot of them about this last week or so, we even had one on Chat Alley when out with Monty the other day.
A quick peak in the barn round the corner didn't give us the Little Owl before we hit the motorway and headed back to Base Camp after a good a day in the field.

This morning while out with Monty it was Meadow Pipits all the way, deffo the best day of migration so far for them. At least 10 were seen including one coming in off the sea and a flock of four going north along the cliff edge, and others being only heard...it's getting closer folks!

Where to next? we have a secret plan for early next week, lets hope the weather is good enough for us to carry it out and there's success rather than our seemingly interminable Hawfinch-like failure.

In the meantime let us know who's on the move in your outback.

Wading around in the downpours

The Safari was on family duties on the South-side yesterday. The drive over was awful with horrendous heavy rain showers but by the time we got to the beach car park there were tiny patches of blue sky to be seen. 

We wandered down the track towards the receding tide which was allowing the first waders to land for their post-roost 'breakfast'. The front runners were a small flock of Dunlin (77). 

The light was really weird as the tide receded further and the wind turbines a couple of miles offshore disappeared into one of the blackest clouds we've ever seen. We reckoned we had long enough to take a few snaps of some Bar Tailed Godwits (78) that had come in and frightened off the Dunlins.

With the first spots of rain we ran with Monty back to the car and got in before the heavens opened. As we were running we saw the pigeons and gulls go up of the Coastguards building, then a Peregrine tazzed past us, another one wanting to dodge the advancing rain. 

The rainstorm lasted about half an hour and once it was over the light was still quiet weird.
By now the tide was quite well down and the birds further away. Although some of them were a lot bigger than the Dunlins we saw earlier. One of the reasons the birds were further away was this numbnut who flushed them all by walking right along the water's edge oblivious to the flushing birds in front of him. Thankfully a large runnel prevented him reaching the best feeding area where there were several Curlews, a lot of Bar Tailed Godwits and some Ringed Plovers along with Dunlin and Grey Plovers.

Curlew

Others were much nearer not needing the deep wet mud near the water's edge, there were lots of Grey Plovers (79) higher up the beach and in range of the lens.

Time was up and our family duties beckoned but we did see some too distant to photograph Knot (80) now far out on the tide-line as we walked back to the car. 

One thing is for sure, handling a large, heavy and fairly expensive camera/lens combo in one hand and a 5 1/2 month old eager-beaver meeter-greeter of a puppy in the other isn't easy and disaster could strike at any second.

This morning we did our stint on the Big Garden Birdwatch. It was a bit dire really. We through some bread on the garage roof to attract any passing gulls. Unfortunately a Herring Gull was already passing and his calls attracted another four, they'd made off with all the bread within a second of us starting the hour's countdown. 

A pair of courting Woodpigeons on the pergola were joined by an interloping third. The local pair of Magpies dropped in to snaffle up some sunny seeds we'd scattered on the ground. Also paired up were the two Great Tits that visited once, taking just one sunny seed each. A Robin and a Dunnock completed our meagre list although during a trip to the recycling bin in the yard Goldfinches were heard they didn't show themselves in the garden until far too late in the afternoon.

Taken through dirty double glazed kitchen window at high ISO

Before the Goldfinches we'd been out again with the risky camera/puppy combo. This time we went closer to Base Camp and hit Chat Alley. We knew the tide would be up and hoped to find some Purple Sandpipers in the roost. As we approached we saw a couple of birders with a scope set up about a third of the way along the old boating pool. This wasn't good news a it meant the roost was on the back wall and not close to the footpath where it often is. Better news was they'd found a Purple Sandpiper (81) but it was the only one present today, sometimes there are two or three. In the 20 minutes or so we chatted and watched it didn't move a muscle.

Of course it's the arrowed one, it's the odd one out and we did say there was only one of them today.

The Goldfinches brought our total for the Photo Challenge to 57 although the front runners are now nipping past the ton. Good on them!

Where to next? We have some plans afoot for the day ahead and the week ahead.

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

More from sunny Sardinia

The Safari was up at the crack of dawn on our holidays, in good time to see the sun come up most days

The area we wandered around was a field, recently with cattle, adjacent to the hotel for about an hour or so before breakfast. There are a number of criss-crossing tracks various used by our self, fishermen driving to the rocks, German joggers and locals going to work. Our room is circled, just to the south of the field. A dry stone wall separated the open field from the coastal scrub belonging to the hotel where the sea-watching platforms were situated.

That early in the morning the light often wasn't good for photography and we got caught on the hop with the camera still set for afternoon sunshine on a couple of occasions, most notably when a Bar Tailed Godwit flew over us one morning...fancy flying 2 1/2 hours to find one of these when we've not seen one at Patch 2 yet this year - bonkers! 

And on another day an Osprey was the first bird we saw .

 Other early morning migrants seen only once included a Common Sandpiper, a Wheatear

a Grey Plover, which was heard the following day at the beach on the other side of the peninsula, a Peregrine Falcon that stooped at the Feral Pigeons on the mediaeval tower and a loose flock of about 40 Marsh Harriers, there may have been one or two other species in there too; for some reason we just stood and gawped at this spectacle without even thinking about raising the camera!

This time of day was when the birds were most active and the Sardinian Warblers fractionally less skulky than later in the day but still nigh on impossible to get a pic of.

The field held a large flock of very twitchy Linnets

and several Cirl Buntings

which had had a good breeding season judging by the huge number of juveniles around.

Also present daily were a couple of Blackbirds and a pair of Stonechats which were incredibly flighty not letting us approach any closer than about 25 - 30 yards. We saw a Fan Tailed Warbler (aka Zitting Cisticola - we remember when that was going to be the big new thing down South along with Serin but it never happened - - or hasn't happened yet!) on no more than three mornings.

Highly processed from near darkness!

On two days we saw a flit or two of what was probably either a Dartford Warbler or a Marmora's Warbler but glimpses were too brief, the light too bad and the scrub too dense to have any chance of a certain ID.

In 'town' and around the hotel there was a flock of sparrows which again were very flightly and it wasn't until almost the very end of our stay we got a confirmatory photo that they were in fact Spanish Sparrows.

The Spotless Starlings proved evasive to the end!

Of course being surrounded by the sea and with a small marina and fishing harbour there were Yellow Legged Gulls around although not as many as we might have expected.

Sadly there were no Audouin's Gulls around although perhaps we should have spent more time looking at the larger port of Palau when we were there sight-seeing.

Out to sea we regularly saw numbers of Scopoli's Shearwaters; inevitably the biggest numbers and one day a flock of at least 200 on the days we didn't take the scope! The morning of the large flock there were huge splashes breaking the sea surface and although we saw nothing were probably being made by big Bluefin Tuna rather than dolphins. That was the day we were most likely to have seen Yelkouan Shearwaters too but without the scope the action was too far away to have been able to pick one out, we didn't see anything like one on any other day.

Both Cormorant and Shag were present on the rocks and one afternoon we were able to watch one chasing a shoal of fish under water while we were snorkeling, unfortunately it was a bit too far away in stirred up murky water to warrant using the underwater video-cam. We got some other fishy footage in calmer conditions we'll post on a later date.

After breakfast it was time for sight-seeing, snorkeling or hitting the pool/beach depending on the wind followed by cold beers and hot pizzas. Then later in the afternoon there was time for a bit of hunting down some invertebrates which we'll show you tomorrow.

Today it was back to earth with a bump. We had a walk down Chat Alley just as the rain started and an hour and two miles later we got back wetter than when we'd got out of the shower before setting off! And all for just three Wheatears, a Meadow Pipit and a Grey Wagtail! 

Where to next? Tales of wonderous insects and other endothermic beasties from far flung lands.

In the meantime let us know how wet you can get in your outback.