Oddball bat

The Safari was out helping LW at the zoo with her Grab that Gap project this morning. She needed some help identifying the plants that had come up in a small piece of the garden that has been set aside for native wildlife. A grand total of 47 species were recorded including a several bumble bees and hoverflies feeding at the flowers and a Great Spotted Woodpecker flying over us. Our reward for helping out was a nice cuppa and a rather unusual bat. It had been found wet and bedraggled crawling  on a footpath before the zoo opened and was rescued otherwise it would likely been trodden on by the throngs of visitors. It was taken in to care and looked after all day and night but eventually died. But just look at it. how mad is that! A pied winged bat, is it a Daubenton's Bat with that white ventral fur or is that part of the leucism too?

It;s currently in the garage at Base Camp drying out, could do with it in a warm airing cupboard but it doesn't smell too good. We've put a gauze 'tent' around it to stop any flies laying their eggs on it and the resulting maggots eating it to nothing. Hopefully the tragus in the ears won't deform too much as it mummifies and we can get a good close up pic (with a peg on our nose!) to aid/confirm identification.

A gloomy luchtime shuffy round Patch 1 wit hMonty had us looking for any grounded migrant birds which may have been about, bit late in the day we know but you've gotta try! No birds were found but we did come across three lots of Parasol Mushrooms along the woodland trail we've not wandered down for a few weeks. Well worth the detour  today!

We'll have another look tomorrow if we can to see if the top one has fully opened, it looks like it's going to be a big dobber but wouldn't be surprised if some numbnut had splodged them thinking they were deadly poisonous.

On our second visit of the day we couldn't find anything out of the ordinary but Monty did...he went sniffing about in the undergrowth and came out with another dog's lost ball and must have put his beak through big spider's web somewhere along the line.

The Posty arrived yesterday wit ha parcel for us from our Extreme Photographer. Inside the plain brown card wrapping were a couple of field guides that'll get some serious use next season...Cheers Bud!

And a soirree with friends D & PH had this beauty opened in front of our very wide eyes - we do like a bit of cake!

Apart from the bright yellow puffa jacket that looks like us to a tee!!! The both Monty and the nature reserve look pretty authentic too! But how did it taste? - - as good as it looks - - yummo double yummo

Where to next? Tempted by the cake we might do a long early morning on the nature reserve in the morning.
In the meantime let us know who looks good enough to eat in your outback.

Brilliant bats and miserable moths on World Environment Day

The Safari wanted a worthy wildlife encounter for for our #30DaysWild on World Environment Day, we had a bit of a wait but got two in the end although we did struggle for a pic.

Patch 2 was dire over the low tide in the morning and the cold wind meant we didn't stop out long. But it was all change on the rising tide at lunchtime - by eck was it different! It was still windy but the tide wasn't high enough up the wall yet that it splashed over. We set the scope up and had a scan, a sailing yacht was moored out by the Gut Buoy and in front of it two Manx Shearwaters careened southwards at speed. Scanning north to see if any more were following we picked up a couple of Sandwich Terns heading our way and a flock of very close auks came into the field of view and landed on the water - five Guillemots, we never get close flocks like this. So we had a look where they'd dropped in from...a feeding frenzy was going on!!! At least 20 Gannets and more Common Terns were fishing like mad only a couple of hundred yards off the end of the sea wall, never seen Gannets that close before. They were fishing over the beach, the water was so shallow they were dropping into it from less than 10 feet up with not enough time to fold their wings properly. We stood and watched in awe, if only they'd been right in front of us we could have got some fantastic video. We never saw them come up with any fish, it was very choppy in the strong wind and if the fish weren't too big they'd be swallowed underwater anyway - Whiting???? watching the Common Terns we couldn't pick out any Arctic Terns - still need them for the Patch list - but far better was a diminutive Little Tern (P2 #55) that had a brief spell at fishing before moving on northwards past us - by far the best Little Tern views we've had on Patch 2. This was beginning to be like being in the middle of a David Attenborough documentary, we stood there lapping up the spectacle for the best part of half an hour and it was still going on when we had to head back to the desk. Work really is the bane of the birding classes but those few minutes rank amongst the best wildlife spectacles we've witnessed on Patch 2...and not a mammal in sight!

Still struggling for a pic the walk back along the corridor had us looking through the windows at our wild area being blown around like Billyo in the cruel cold wind. But we did see the sun catch the Cranesbills and wow how intensely blue did they look - camera time!

Looks like it's smiling and sticking it tongue out at us

In the evening we were at a Bioblitz on the estuary with the moth trap and bat detector. We set up the trap in a glade between the trees where there was a bit of shelter from the fierce cold wind and away for the other trap near the visitor centre so as the two lamps wouldn't be in competition. Day gave way to dusk and a few moths began to flutter through the nearby long grass. We netted one, a nice male Common Swift. Only minutes later there were hundreds, this was going to be a good night -  despite the wind. A bat fluttered overhead, then another one, time for the bat detector. We made a bat attracting 'fly' out of a long stalk of grass turned the detector on and held the 'fly' up. Well the next two hours was bat heaven. With the light from the moth trap behind us we had spectacular views of the bats as the circled the 'fly' some even tried to wrench it from our hand - never had it work so well in the at least 25 years we've been employing this trick. in simple terms we were awestruck - how many times did we gasp or saw wooowwww out loud, our grin was as wide as the river on very a full tide. no chance of any pics in the dark although one of our fellow bioblitzers tried a bit of video on her phone but it was too dark. Almost all were Pipistrelles, certainly the ones investigating our 'fly' were, Our detector isn't sophisticated to distinguish the calls of Soprano Pipistrelles but we're sure we did get some feint connects with Brown Long Eared Bats and one of the first we saw looked Noctule-big as it disappeared round the top of the tall trees above, shame we didn't get a better/longer look at it.

The moths however were worse than poor. Those Common Swifts were just about all that was about. while batting we'd been keeping an eye on the sheets around the trap but the only things fluttering across it were bits of leaves torn from the trees. A few Flame Shoulders appeared at almost packing up time as did a couple of other species yet to be identified which we potted for identification in the morning but it was hard work. As we were leaving we chatted to the other moth trappers to find they had exactly the same experience - virtually no moths. They were running their trap off the visitor centre mains electricity rather than a genny like we'd done so were able to keep it running over night hopefully they'll have caught a reasonable selection of species to show all the visitors in the morning.

On a slightly different note we had superb views of the International Space Station as it passed over looking down on our amazing mothless planet. From their lofty position 230 miles up they get the best overview of the world there is and they see what should be obvious to all of us but certainly doesn't seem to be - there is only one Earth, there is no Planet B - we've got to take far better care of the one we've got not just on World Environment Day but every day, that's today, tomorrow and all the other tomorrows yet to come until the sun explodes.

Where to next? Back at the bioblitz to lead a kiddies mini-beast safari - can tell you now it's gonna be good and there'll be lots of #30DaysWild fun to be had.

In the meantime let us know who's spying on your outback from above

Back on dry land

The Safari had a nautical adventure yesterday. An early start saw us in the port of Birkenhead across the river from it's bigger and more illustrious sibling Liverpool. Bang on time our ferry departed its berth and we started our seabird and mammal survey from the bridge of the ship once the captain had maneuvered the vessel in to the middle of the river and pointed it towards the open sea. There are often Harbour Porpoises to be seen in the river but sadly not today.

Once out of the shelter of land the open sea was rough. The conditions not really conducive to finding sea mammals but a selection of seabirds made the most of the wind Kittiwakes and other gulls were careening this way and that and wasn't long before we saw our first Gannet (118) of the year. This part of the Irish Sea is crawling with Common Scoters but the ferry's route must be just outside of their favoured areas as we only saw two parties of three.

Rain showers obscured our view out of the windows with monotonous regularity, a few small parties of mixed Guillemots and Razorbills were seen but nothing liked the huge autumn flocks which contain all the juveniles and of course many will have perished in the storms. A Fulmar (119) cruised past, the first of several.

As we approached Belfast the sky broke in a series of sunny spells and hefty hail showers giving us epic  dramatic skies to enjoy.

As the water narrows towards Belfast harbour there is the hope of Black Guillemots and today was no exception with three of the little stunners seen (120). A good flock of Common Scoters were here to and deep in the harbour a pair of 'normal' Guillemots nearly got run over by the boat. By now it was nearly dark and this pic was taken at just 1/20th of a second so a long way off sharp.

The only mammal we saw was after our survey had finished and the boat was turning to reverse onto its berth. Facing back the way we'd come we saw a dark shape in the water which was one of the harbour's regular Harbour (aka Common) Seals.

Today we had a lazy chilling day after all the concentrating yesterday but we did have a good reason for waiting in. Our Extreme Photographer had told  us he had something for us...a new bat box....and he'd be round later in th afternoon to help fit it.

Great stuff, we're well chuffed - all we need now are some bats.

While the ladder was out he had a look at our Swift box before they return for Africa but it looks like it might be on its last legs. A Great Tit has been roosting in there and left the gaff in a bit of mess - squatters ehh a real menace!

Where to next? Back to our land-lubbing Patch 2 version of sewatching tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know who's been sneaking in where they shouldn't in your outback

Like a bat out of...

The Safari got a couple of crackin pics of an unknown species of bat emerging from its roost. Not sure what species, one that is found in the forests of Poland.

Shame that in the last one the bat is fuzzy but bear in mind they were taken in pitch darkness and there wasn't the opportunity to bring something in to the forest to set the camera up on in the right place to nail the shot. A valiant effort and two out of three ain't bad...if you'll excuse the pun.

The first Cuttlefish bone we've heard about in seven years of beaching was found by one of our Family Learning group today, they are slightly more numerous on the next beach to the south with maybe as many as two or three finds a year. Eggs have also been found on the legs of a couple of the piers in previous years so give us a few warm calm days and we might get the snorkels out.

Just hope it's not come from someone's Budgie cage and somehow found its way into a drain and thence in to the sea.

An undamaged Sea Potato (aka Sea Heart) was a super find as they are so fragile. You can easily see the relationship of sea urchins to starfish in the pattern of the five 'arms'.

A very quick walk last night round Patch 1 gave us a Buddleia bush full of butterflies including a rather rare this year Red Admiral which would stay still enough to for a pic in the windy conditions. We were luckier with  a couple of Peacocks.

Where to next? A bit of gardening mayhem then a sneaky safari in the afternoon.

In the meantime let us know what's newly discovered in your outback.

Cruel sunshine

The Safari enjoyed a lovely day out in the field today - we even went back to the North Blackpool Pond Trail to see what it looks like when it's not raining! As if nearly 18 hours there yesterday weren't enough!

Last night the bats were star of the show with probably three species, Pipistrelle, Soprano Pipistrelle and Daubenton's Bats being abroad; we had our best views of Daub's for a long time. 

Many years ago someone, forget who...sorry if it was you..., showed us how to strip the flower-head off a long piece of grass and hold it high for the bats to investigate...well last night they investigated to the best of their ability - one of them grabbed the end and nearly dragged it out of our grasp!!! Utterly, utterly magical!!!

The official tally stands at 324 (we did eventually find a Toad although it hit the list well after Great Crested Newt) and we've managed to add a few more including the Bracket Fungus which DB spotted in the hole under the root-plate of a fallen tree. not a new species for the Fylde but a whole new Genus! Ganoderma sp. 

We've still got several awaiting identification on iSpot so the total might reach 350. If only the weather had been like it was today, the butterflies and damselfies were out on our short visit. 

As was this bizarre big eyed fly, now IDd as Empis tessellata..another new record for the Fylde.

We had only gone to have a quick look at the Bee Orchids and see if any Common Broomrape was showing. The Bee Orchids took a little finding at first being small and mostly still in bud.

 Perseverance was rewarded.

 Little beauts!!!

Didn't expect one to be upside-down though.

No sign of the Common Broomrape but there is plenty of Common Centuary just about to flower.

Then we nipped round to the nature reserve to have a look at the marsh orchids there, could Northern Marsh Orchid or perhaps a hybrid.

On the way we got side tracked at the wetlands by some fine patches of Ragged Robin and the show of Creeping and Meadow Buttercups was simply stunning; a glorious golden carpet - wonder how many of the other thousands of people walking past that way stopped and stared like wot we did.

Extensive stands of Cow Parsley were similarly eye-catching. 

But today was an orchid day and orchids we had to have...

Plenty of damselflies about too but in the warm weather they were very mobile chasing each other about all over the shop making getting pics tricky. We got just one half decent shot of a Common Blue Damselfly.

All in all a great day on safari.

Where to next? We'll no doubt be able to get out somewhere tomorrow providing we haven't over-exerted Frank today.

In the meantime let us know what's adding a dash of colour to your outback.

Sum mor moffs

The Safari's first job today was to empty a rather dewy moth trap. Same usual suspects but a few more individuals today; namely...

a single Early Grey, seven Hebrew Characters, 4 Common Quakers, a couple of Clouded Drabs and new for the year and no doubt first of many, a Light Brown Apple Moth.

Clouded Drab, same individual.

 Light Brown Apple Moth, first attempt with the manual focus on the new camera.

After the trap was ransacked we had an hour in the somewhat cold garden waiting for some vis mig...we got a little bit! Three birds in the hour, one didn't call so remained unknown, the last one was a Meadow Pipit, the middle one going over was Lesser Redpoll (136; 27) - result.

More chores were order of the rest of the day, so no chance of any more safaris on our long weekend, but Barbara the wood-house is now brim full and ready for next winter!

We kept an eye on the sky and an ear on the gulls but nothing went over today.

Another swim for Frank in the sea saw us paddling...jeeeeezzz that water is still flippin freezin!!! Not only was it freezin but flat calm too - couldn't see any fins or noses breaking the surface but we didn't have our bins with us.

Just now we've had a Pipistrelle bat wizz through the garden while we putting the dinner dishes in the sink.

Where to next? Patch 2 vis back in action tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know what bounced over your outback without calling.