A Week of Wonderful Wildlife While under Lockdown

The Safari like a lot of folk has been mostly confined to barracks this week.We have been able to get out on Patch 1 for a short walk with the dog every morning but so far haven't taken the camera just the phone for any pics. We've seen a nice variety of wildlife like a small flock flock of migrating Jackdaws, a the female of a pair of Sparrowhawks narrowly missing catching a Wood Pigeon, a kettle of four soaring Buzzards, which is the same number as seen in total at the nearby Marton Mere NR between 1950 and 1991 - how much more common are they now persecution has almost stopped - and a Blackbird which looks to be nesting in the big Gorse bush in the middle of the field that is now smothered in bright yellow flowers - it's such a shame that thsi field will probably be built on before the end of the year. 

So far we've only heard singles of Chiffchaff and Blackcap but we're sure we'll clap eyes on both of them before too long.

For vast majority of the time we've been poking around in the garden, taking snaps of the regular garden visitors doing their usual thing.

Goldfinch

Greenfinch

Collared Dove

Great Tit

Greenfinch

Blue Tit

One regular visitor was seen doing something most unusual. Our resident female Blackbird was quite often seen perched in the Crab Apple tree pecking chunks off the suet block hung from one of its lower branches. On odd occasions it was able to perch on the feeder, this was seen when the suet block begin to get smaller and smaller. What we didn't expect was it to cling to the sunflower heart feeder once the suet block had been finished. In all our five decades of birding, feeding the birds in a variety of gardens and watching bird feeders in 101 locations throughout the land we've never seen this behaviour from a Blackbird before. We were lucky to get a pic as it's quite shy and flies away at the slightest hint of movement from either indoors or out. But it has been back to repeat the performance on at least one occasion.

Our unique female Blackbird

Has anyone else seen a Blackbird (or any other of the typical thrushes) do this?

We've had some half decent sunshine and that has brought a few invertebrates out, mostly queen bumblebees - we've had a Tree Bee and a few Buff Tailed Bumblebees and a queen Common Wasp. A large 'colony' of the solitary Buffish Mining Bees (at least that's what we think they are) is on the street corner a few doors down where they burrow between the stones in a revetment banking and butterflies have so far been only represented by Peacocks.

The moth trap has been on all week but so far only one night has produced any moths and then just these two, a Common Quaker, the pale one, and a Hebrew Character (this is an old pic)

The only other news we have spotted an absolutely butchered Holly bush in the park in Patch 2 and to quote a senior arboriculturalist friend "Sack them - Pr*ck with saw alert!" or if it was done by volunteers some serious training is required. But the big question is why on earth do you need to chop a Holly bush in half in the first place. But then there's been some serious devastation to trees and shrubs in the park since we last visited at the beginning of the winter with some good trees having disappeared reduced to a pile of woodchip but again for reasons which seem inexplicable to us like an old gnarly Hawthorn and a standard Cotoneaster waterii that was full of berries among others.

Some seem to have been taken out to open up the view to the huge pylons that carry the electricity cables across the Wyre and beyond to the huge organised wildlife crime scene that is the Forest of Bowland hills. Whatever the reasons it looks like they're trying to purge any and all wildlife from the park. We're just a bit gutted...and the little pond has been cleared so the Moorhens have vanished but the Typha will grow back so they will probably return in a year or two if the clear out doesn't become an annual thing, it is full of Frog spawn though, acres of the stuff and we're hopeful there'll be a Smooth Newt or two still lurking in there too.
Word on the street is that the Roe Deer is still in the vicinity, one of our dog walking friends reporting it second hand as being seen on the golf course across the road and another saying he disturbed it in the park at 05.00 taking his dogs out before going to work a few days ago...it wold be great to get a pic of this Roe Deer only a few hundred yards from our front door.

Where to next? For the coming week the weather has turned wintry cold again but we'll keep you posted with what we find on our early morning walk and any offerings from the garden. 

In the meantime remember - Keep your distance, stay safe and don't forget there's loads of fantastic wildlife to enjoy and learn about right outside your door or through your window.

A bit better on the moff front

The Safari was out before sunrise this morning along the North Blackpool Pond Trail on our last ever Winter Thrushes survey. The world had the fresh green cast of unfurling leaves but the birdsong was still only made up of resident birds though with Blackbirds, Woodpigeons, Collared |Doves, Dunnocks, Robins, Wrens, Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Goldfinches, Blue Tits and Great Tits so it still smacked of winter out there.

A few opening flowers of Bluebells, native, Spanish and hybrids made it a little more springlike and it was reasonably mild for the time of year at about 10C. A few heads of Hedge Garlic were coming out too, bring on the Orange Tip butterflies!

A little further along it sounded a bit more summery with Blackcap and Chiffchaff singing away at the Community Orchard as we neared our survey's starting point. 

The second bird on our survey was a singing Song Thrush giving it plenty a hundred yards further on, this was the only one we heard, indeed it was the only thrush that wasn't a Blackbird and they were down a bit on recent visits probably because half of them might well be sat on nests. Or maybe not as we saw a female carrying a huge long strand of grass in to the hedge by the long ditch.

Thrush action was interrupted by four Cormorants flying north at height. We thought they might drop on to the nearby lake but they kept going straight on, unlike us who broke off the survey route for a few minutes and did visit the lake where in the scrub we heard the liquid cadences of three Willow Warblers (130), two days earlier than last year but about the average date for us for this species but they have been in awhile and we haven't had the chance to get near any.

On the islands a Heron was attending to it's well grown youngster in the first nest while in the other the adult was hunkered well down.

The only notable thing about the second part of the survey was notable for the wrong reason, few Blackbirds but freakin shed loads of cats, they were everywhere!

In the end we only had 23 Blackbirds and the aforementioned Song Thrush on the tally sheet.
Once back at Base Camp we opened the moth trap to find a small number lurking within...whoopy-do - success.

Well it wasn't that brilliant just two Hebrew Characters, a Common Quaker and an Early Grey, nothing over exciting but the Early Grey didn't appear last year so it was nice to get reacquainted with one.

Common Quaker

Early Grey

Hebrew Character

In the garden a bit later doing some chores we heard an 'alba' Wagtail go over, there's a few Whites about at the mo but we'll have to track them down on the ground no chance of IDing an overflying bird.

A flying visit for a brew and drop off some firewood from his current job by our Extreme Photographer saw us in the garden again. We noticed that a chunk of wood had fallen at the back of the woodstore and we footled it out only to see a freshly deceased moth on it - had we just deceased it, hope not - a quick check - well you have to don't you - revealed it as a male Bee Moth, thought these were a summer species mid-April seems a bit early for one to be out and about, it's not been that warm has it? There is a Tree Bee nest just above where we found it - coincidence or not??? They larvae live in the nests of bees eating the waxy cocoons.

A quick trip with Frank to Magpie wood mid-afternoon gave us a nice selection of songsters at the golden Triangle, Woodpigeon, Robin, Wren, Dunnock, Blackcap, and Chiffchaff. They all went a bit quiet when Sparrowhawk lashed through.

In sports news the mighty Blues Everton scored their winner at the same moment as the lowly 'Pool conceded their second, Europe for one perhaps relegation looms frighteningly large for the other.

Where to next? Moffy will be out again tonight.
In the meantime let us know who's brought the summer with them in your outback.

Fish hawk high

The Safari was relieved to find no water in the moth trap this morning. Better than that there WERE moths!

Not many and after three negative turns of the egg-boxes at the bottom  we were beginning to feel we were going to be out of luck again...but no a Hebrew Character was lurking in box number four.

A couple more came out and then we found a Common Quaker lurking in the deepest recesses of the box.

So with five Hebrews and a Quaker, bit of a religious theme don't you think?, our season's mothing is off the mark at last - let's hope it continues and is a darn sight better than last year.

The morning was productive with a successful MOT for Wifey's car being the highlight - always a phewwwww.

After we got back from the garage you know who wanted to go out so we took him to Chat Alley. There's been a few Ring Ouzels about and with the odd shower in the air you never quite know what might get dropped at this time of year.

Our main quarry was Wheatears and it wasn't long before a stonking male was found on the first set of steps leading down to the Lower Walk, always a good place to check out. It flitted down on to the seawall between the fishermen waiting for the tide to come in and their match to start.

It then flew up the cliff and started poking about in the grass.

Another flash-of-white flit was noticed a little further dawn the way and was eventually seen on the 'ornamental' rocks - a female Wheatear. Nice. 

Above, at the top of the cliffs three Meadow Pipits dropped out of thee sky and landed on the path-side fence when a bit of drizzle was felt in the air.

Out at sea there was nothing happening but with only binoculars our range was limited. All of a oneness the gulls which had been noticeably quite started making a ruckus behind us. Spinning round and scanning there was an Osprey (129) circling around drifting northwards a few hundred yards inland about 500 feet up = thank you gulls :-) 

OK so there may be about 700 in Scotland now (breeding pairs + returning unpaired second years) and others passing through on their way to Scandinavia but it's always good to get a self-found one on a local patch for the year list and not have to go to one of the always popular 'commercial' viewpoints to see them.

Quite a good Saturday, moths off the mark and a bit of patch gold we weren't expecting - sorted!
Still 22 behind our arch-rival Monika for the year, but then we haven't had the trip of a lifetime to the Mexican Baja California...maybe next year????? If you haven't yet had a shuffy at her adventures we suggest you nick over there sharpish and have a rummage round.

Where to next? A bit of wet weather forecast to arrive sometime overnight so we're thinking nature reserve tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know who the gulls found in your outback.

The moths they came in two by two t'raa t'raa...the moths they.......

The Safari opened the moth trap to success, not a great success but success never-the-less. From the deepest darkest recesses the paint-brush coaxed two each of Hebrew Characters and Common Quakers, our account for the year is belatedly opened.

After a hearty brekkie of bacon, mushrooms and tatty scone butties with lashings of brown sauce and a lovely cuppa whilst watching out of the window for the Wrens, we decided to have a day's twitching.

On the cards was a female Lesser Scaup not too far up the motorway that had been at the site for at least a week, so what were we waiting for...We loaded Frank up and set off into our favourite traffic...jeez it doesn't get any better, one numptie couldn't do more than 35 miles an hour almost caused a crash when joining the motorway, we thought we'd pass him and leave him for dust - no chance he shot off at well over the speed limit - barmy!!!

Anyway we called at th site and couldn't find the Lesser Scaup but did find JP...wasn't expecting to see him there...he'd had no luck either.

The pair of us spent another good half hour checking the few Tufted Ducks lurking here and there. Eventually we went our separate ways disappointed but we both resolved to come back later. He went to the nearby reserve which, having Frank with us we couldn't, we went to the point overlooking Morecambe Bay. On the way over he crag we stopped at the little viewpoint over the marsh to have a quick look at the Avocets (158) we knew would be down there. But probably more exciting than the birds was this beautiful Early Purple Orchid right at the start of the path but just far enough back off the pull in not to at risk of being run over by parking cars.

At the point bird-life was restricted to a few Robins and Blackbirds, a Bullfinch peeu'd unseen and a Jay hoped around briefly - where were all the migrants? Looking over the sands we heard the ung ung ung of Shelducks and over 100 Black Tailed Godwits. A familiar sound but out of context had us bemused for a minute or two, a first summer Kittiwake chased a Black Headed Gull round the 'cliff' calling for all it was worth...wasn't expecting one of those!

Even the flowers here weren't as prolific as they should be at this time of the year, just a few Cowslips and Primroses...far too cold to even think about looking for Adders.

 Cuckoo Pint is always fun to see.

Frank staggered about but did pretty well considering the old damp conditions but needed plenty of rest towards the end. He enjoyed himself sniffing almost every one of the hundreds of Molehills.

Getting cold we decided to call it quits and move on. We stopped off at the big quarry where there was some Peregrine action unfolding. A Raven had been grounded in a tree and the Peregrines weren't about to let it out! They didn't mind the Jackdaws leaving but if the Raven got to the edge of the branches one of the Peregrines would tazz by with feet outstretched almost touching the twigs to keep it tucked well in and out of the way.

After several minutes it was time for a breather, looks like they've had a few smokos on that high ledge over the last few weeks. Right at the limit of our camera's range.

Back at the Lesser Scaup site it still wasn't to be found. The fisherman nearest to us had a bite and reeled in a sizeable Carp.

The field was full of the joys of spring, lots of sheep with lots of lambs making lots of poo attracting lots of Yellow Dung Flies.

And on the way home the sun came out - drat!
Where to next? Bank Holiday tomorrow so we won't be braving the traffic, just staying local.
In the meantime let us know what Yankees failed to show in your outback.

The Safari emptied the moth trap this morning. A few in there but nothing out of the ordinary, six Hebrew Characters, an Early Grey and a worn Common Quaker.

With Frank breakfasted and sent back to bed we headed off to the nature reserve with a bit of wish list after recent sightings. The rising sun lit up last year's seedheads on the reedmace at the drying wetland...need to check here for Great Crested Newts soon...before the water disappears!

Blackcaps were noticeable by their abundance, they were everywhere and Willow Warblers (MMLNR #76) put on a decent show too. With the Chiffchaffs it was all beginning to sound a bit summery and after about an hour Swallows (MMLNR #77) started to dribble through in ones and twos. 

The Cetti's Warblers were loud enough with three heard along the north side of the lake (the second and the might have been the same one moving down).

A Curlew flew over but we still await our first Whimbrel, and three Oystercatchers flew around in a display flight. 

A met another birder, from out of town,  coming the other way who'd seen a couple of Wheatears and heard a Reed Warbler but we couldn't offer him the Whitethroat or Grasshopper Warbler he'd read about on the web.

Wandering further down we too heard the Reed Warbler (159, MMLNR #78) and saw one of the two Wheatears (MMLNR #79) in the newly planted potato field.

At the hide a pair of Shovelers looked to be all loved up which could be interesting.

Walking back the way we came we bumped into the Ranger who'd had a Whitethroat but alas it didn't sing for us at the place he'd not long had it.

This Blackbird looked handsome in the morning sunshine but stayed just a little too far out of range for a 'proper' shot.

A Linnet was seen with a beakful of grasses for a nest nearby

At the viewing platform a pair of Canada Geese grazed on the sprouting greenery. One always kept an eye on us but once we'd not moved for a few minutes they settled down.

Back at the newt infested dryland a numpty and her son were throwing stones into the last of the shallow water for their mutt.

A lunchtime trip to the shops was fruiful. Wifey bought the pies while we stayed in the car with a tired footballed-up Frank and got a House Martin (160) flying over the car park.

We settled down to keep an eye on the thrashing of Burnley by 'Pool in the afternoon but only a few minutes into the game a call from the Young Un's had us shooting back out to the nature reserve, they found a male Redstart. Within a few minutes we were stood with them getting the low down on a crackin bird and found out that they'd spotted it whilst watching a Whitethroat and had had a Sedge Warbler.

We stood around waiting for a while and could here the roars of the crowd at the footy as goal after goal was being scored. After a fair bit of waiting the Redstart (161) did indeed show itself but only briefly and fright at the back of the scrub well out of pic range...wot a beauty tho, it's been a long time since we had one on the nature reserve...well chuffed...and many thanks to the Young Uns for the tip-off.

The Whitethroat (162) also put in a display song flight or two too.
And the final score? 'Pool 4 - Burnley 0...bring on the Play-offs!
Where to next? Mothy will be out again, weather permitting, and then we plan to go back to the nature reserve early doors for Sedge Warbler and Cuckoo???
In the meantime let us know who's giving the tip-offs in your outback.

Not a bad day at all

The Safari's day started pretty well. We peered into the moth trap to find more than two Hebrew Characters!

In addition to four Hebrew Characters there were two Early Greys, two Clouded Drabs and a Common Quaker - not a bad haul.

Clouded Drab

 Common Quaker

And now our fave shot of the day...Early Grey...what a hairy little chappy!

The final moth out, squeezed in to the tightest corner and not immediately identifiable was this somewhat different and well marked variant of Hebrew Character.

The rest of the morning was spent in the garden, mostly waiting for the gulls to find us a raptor going over. they find the hazy conditions easier to deal with with their polarising eyesight - why don't they make bins with polarising lenses? Eventually they did..a Sparrowhawk, not one of the bigger, dare we say 'more desirable' species.

A loud honking from out of sight to the south heralded the low fly over of a pair of Grey Lag Geese (Garden 26), not an expected species for Base Camp although they were on the garden list last year too.

Several Meadow Pipits went over, mostly unseen, but unlike others nearby we failed to connect with any Siskins or Redpolls.

The camera was pointed at the feeders for a while.

Peek - a - boo

Inverts started to put in appearance as the temperature sizzled towards 20C. White Tailed Bumble Bees and a Peacock butterfly but our fave was a Drone Fly that kept buzzing us but kept out of range of the camera.

In range of the lens but extremely mobile was this tiny Zebra Spider on the garage wall. Shame we just dipped out on the focus.

Must try harder...or get him on a cooler day when he's less active.

Late in the afternoon a Goldcrest dropped in to the top of a neighbours tree (from where?) called a couple of times then immediately flut into the depths of the adjacent conifer.

Where to next? Hmmm...not sure yet.

In the meantime let us know what dropped in from on high into your your outback.