It's never a bad day when...

The Safari's  morning commute to work along the Prom had us practically drooling with anticipation. The sea was flat calm there was light hazy cloud but good light so no shadows – we were itching to get out on to the wall especially after a conversation last night with the folk from Liverpool Bay Marine Life Trust.

We were right to itch too. It only took us a matter of seconds to find a big bull Grey Seal close to the wall a little way to the south. Through the scope there was a bit of haze out on the horizon that we couldn’t see from the driving seat but it wasn’t that bad. While looking at the seal we say a large splash out on the horizon and then another with a dark shape. Focusing out there we soon got on a couple of Bottlenosed Dolphins half breaching in several feeding rolls – get in!  Can’t start the day better than that! Actually we did we found a third a little way away behind the others. Would have been better had they been a bit nearer but you can’t have everything.  After a few pretty good views they disappeared. There may have been more than three but that’s all we got at one time. Once they’d gone we went back to look at that nearby Grey Seal and found another four bobbing around behind him.  There weren’t many Common Terns from the dockland colony out fishing and we thought the dolphin feeding frenzy might have attracted the attention of the 10 or so Gannets that were cruising around.  Three Manx Shearwaters wheeled over the top of the dolphins, it’s not often we see them that far into the river mouth but they didn’t stick around.
A flock of nine Shelducks came past and made their way into the river, after they'd gone by it all went a bit quiet so we called it a day and headed back to the office for a celebratory cuppa.
Still it was only a few hours til lunchtime...which duly arrived but by now the tide was well out and the sea was somewhat disappointingly as dead as the proverbial Dodo so off we went round the work's garden in search of some #30DaysWild inspiration. There was an interloping school group on the back field - cheeky so-n-so's coming in to our garden from outside the borough without booking a session with Yours Truly, who do they think they are? Anyway they were having some fun and games in the sunshine before getting the bus back to school in the 'hinterlands'. A couple of the girls were making Daisy chains, something we don't see many kids do these days, in fact many kids don't know that Daisy is the name of the little white flowers with the yellow centres. They've all heard of them but wouldn't be able to point one out which is quite frightening and worrying! These two wee lasses did and made good use of the plethora of material available.

A little later an unexpected trip to the outside store had us walking past the wild garden where we spotted a Cinnabar moth flying around. We dashed back inside found a glass in which to catch it and went to get the camera aka phone.

It's wings are a bit wonky but it could fly alright.
#30DaysWild is all about interacting with nature so we gently put it on our finger and got a proper interacting with nature shot - aren't they stunners.

We wondered if it had not long emerged in the morning sun and perhaps had been disturbed before its wings had fully opening and stiffened.
A pretty good day but then any day with dolphins is a good day unless you're swimming with them in a captive environment like a hotel pool on your hols then it's very much not a good day - if you don't know why watch a film called The Cove to find out how they get to your hotel pool and never ever swim with them again.
Where to next? It's the weekend and we have a couple of local target species to aim for.
In the meantime let us know who's just too colourful for your outback

June 8th is World Ocean Day

The Safari really hopes that perpetrators of the despicable deeds in Ireland we featured yesterday get their come-uppance today...or at least very soon! Human greed is a terrible thing and those seal murdering fishermen might perhaps look to their own previous fishing exploits to explain the lack of fish they’re experiencing now – do they not realise one net-full is probably more fish than a couple of seals could eat in a lifetime?

Apparently a fisherman in that area recently brought in 80 boxes (not sure how what weight of fish is in a box and there must have been some horrific by-catch using a bottom trawl for all those fish) of Monkfish, many had been ‘damaged’ by seals. Hang on a mo isn’t Monkfish on the MSC list as barely sustainable.  No problem that we strip the seas clear of life then fill it back up with plastic, sewage, radioactive particles and chemicals – out of sight out of mind and we can always blame some innocent species or other.

Maybe there is a little hope as today is World Oceans Day, which you all knew – right? Hopefully(?) it will raise awareness of the state of the worlds seas and the creatures that live in and depend on them and that includes us.

Before we go on to today’s news yesterday’s mystery seaweed was identified as Channelled Wrack (Pelvetia canaliculata), so called because the fronds curl up and show a groove along them which we noted under a magnifying glass this morning. Another species not officially recorded from our stretch of coastline. Must have a check to see if we can find it growing in situ on the seawall as a new colonist if not it’ll have been washed in from somewhere else.

This morning we drove down the hill and on reaching the prom saw that the sea was like a mirror with a dark and brooding clouds hanging low across the horizon suggesting near to middle visibility was going to be A1 but towards the horizon it would fade to a grey-out. We could hardly wait to get to work and get the scope out. On the way we passed R’ouzel Puddle where a new species for the ‘site’ was poking around the litter – a Black Headed Gull, interesting as there aren’t too many of them being seen at the moment as they are on their breeding grounds; not far away but obviously far enough hence the recent dearth of sightings on the beach.

Nice to start with a ‘new’ species but better was to come...

The sea was glassy and as flat as an ice-rink, a Great Black Backed Gull sat at least two miles away never once disappeared behind a wavelet or swell. Visibility was as perfect as predicted. We scanned and saw very very little...somewhat disappointing. Scanning again we first found one Grey Seal then another...not bad.

A few Cormorants fished close behind the low water surf but we didn’t see yesterday’s Great Crested Grebe and there were no terns.

We continued to scan and from the very edge of the field of view saw a dark shape and a bit of a splash in the distance that didn’t look at all Cormoranty. Nothing came up as we concentrated on the spot so we scanned a little left and right and JACKPOT a dorsal fin of a Bottle Nosed Dolphin broke the surface then another..and another...ohhhh boyyyyyyyyyy what a ressssuuullllttttttt on World Oceans Day too!!!

We watched as long as we could and finally decided there were at least six of them. They fished actively breaching on several occasions – this was a GOOD morning. They moved southwards and scanning in front of them we caught sight of a Harbour Porpoise fin rolling in to the shallow depths...two cetacean species in one day – someone somewhere was smiling on us!

A few gulls congregated over the feeding dolphins and eventually some Sandwich Terns came by but bird of the session was a winter plumaged Red Throated Diver going north.

Realising the dolphins were probably going to stick around we dashed back to the office for the camera...

We watched in awe for as long as we could but eventually had to tear ourselves away and go back to the office :-(

Lunchtime obviously couldn’t come round fast enough but would they still be about??? The stars of the show were nowhere to be seen when we got out but a brisk onshore wind had picked up with the rising tide and it was now quite choppy out there.

We soon picked up a flock of Manx Shearwaters and couple of minutes later another small flock...the tally for the watch ended at 81 north and five (double counted?) south. In between Manxie flocks were single Gannets, ten in all all going north. Two distant Swifts were an unusual find way out to sea, whereas a pair of Eiders going south were far less unusual.

Close inshore about eight Sandwich Terns and four Common Terns plunged in to the shallows over what was the beach earlier this morning – we never saw one come out of the water with a fish though.

Our final sighting of the watch was an auk sp; we had resolved to stay out until we’d got 100 Manxies in the notebook but they seem to dry up after the five southbound ones had gone through.

So nothing over –exciting at lunchtime but we can’t grumble, not after the earlier safari!

Where to next? A trip to the wilds of the far north of Safari-land may be on the cards tomorrow – not wildlifing but supporting our Rob on one of his cross country runs...no doubt there’ll be something of interest provided the weather holds out.

In the meantime let us know what’s got the juices flowing in your outback.

Might be back in a bit with a bit of video if we can suss out how to edit a few short clips together...

Bait ball…but distant

The Safari heard a weird call sort of a cough and a grunt, quite loud, from something unknown as we left Base Camp this morning, a bit like someone clearing their throat. Looking up all we saw was the glare from the street light – a mystery we first though of Woodcock but it was nothing like any Woodcock we’ve heard before. Any one any ideas what we could try listening to on Xeno-canto.

Patch 2 only held 45 Oystercatchers and a few gulls both of which increased gradually as the tide fell. Looking beyond our southern border the light was superb but the decent number of gulls in the gentle surf didn’t include the nature reserve’s Iceland Gull – we have still no idea where that lives when it’s not at the reserve.

Not much was out to sea other than the usual Common Scoters. Scanning along the horizon we found a gaggle of gulls swooping and diving over what was probably a bait ball. Unfortunately the sea was far too choppy to be able to tell if any cetaceans were about. There’s a chance there might have been a decent sized pod of Bottle Nosed Dolphins was filmed not far away off the Isle of Man only a couple of days ago.   
Lucky guys...Hopefully we’ll bump in to them when we do our cetacean ferry survey at the end of next month (might do this one later in the year if we get the chance)

A couple of Red Throated Divers provided the only other interest as we strained our eyes down the scope for the hint of a dark back jumping above the white horses.

Little had changed by lunchtime. The tide had retreated further and left a couple of strandlines which a reasonable number of gulls and Oystercatchers rummaged through – nothing outstanding in their midst this time; not really enough gulls to pull in one of the influx of white-wingers.

The sea was still pretty choppy but with the good light we estimated well over 1000 Common Scoters, with just two Red Throated Divers and a single Great Crested Grebe seen over the water. There was no sign of the bait ball and nothing other than scoters was moving out towards the horizon.

Where to next? A day’s meeting out of town tomorrow with perhaps the opportunity to go stargazing t work in the evening as part of the BBC’s Stargazing LIVE events  - weather permitting of course...at the mo it looks like it’s gonna be more like cloudgazing than stargazing but there’s a chance Saturday night might be OK if Friday is a washout – indoor activities will be available in case of rain....and on Saturday too,,,just in case...

In the meantime let us know what you’ve been gazing at in your outback.

Enjoy a bit of Stargazer from a long time ago....was at the Liverpool gig of this tour..on crutches with an iffy foot after a bit of a to-do with a steam roller

 You might as well have the next track off the Rainbow Rising LP - all side 2...remember sides?

RIP Ronnie & Cozy - much missed

And while we're on the subject