Waiting for the Wheatears

The Safari hopes everyone is well in these trying times. We've been eagerly awaiting the first of the spring arrivals walking the cliffs watching  every little flit most of which were Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails as usual. We've also kept an eye out to sea too - the mild weather has made for flat calm seas and obviously we were looking out for some blubber, either a Grey Seal or a Harbour Porpoise. Unfortunately neither bothered to put in an appearance for us. Some seabirds have but only distantly like this pair of Eiders about a mile out. But hey-ho they count towards our 1 mile from Base Camp challenge in that we were within the mile even if the birds weren't.

A drake Common Scoter was much more obliging coming in from way way out before turning North a few hundred yards offshore

Somewhere between the two was a flock of Shelducks.

Out on the beach we found the eggcase of a Lesser Spotted Catshark that still had the embryo inside. After a request for adjudication we were allowed to add it to our Vertebrate Photo Challenge, #132.

We were hoping to find some other fish like Sand Gobies and Blennies but cold only find a few Blennies and they hid far too quickly for us to get a pic.

Meanwhile what about the Wheatears? Well we predicted we'd get on on the 15th looking at the weather charts. Well we didn't but they were seen south of the Ribble that day but obviously stopped short by 20 odd miles. They didn't turn up in the Fylde until the 17th and that was somewhat annoyingly to the north of us. We didn't get or first one until 23rd, a couple of days later than our average first sighting for the last 10 years, when three showed up together along Chat Alley. They were very flighty quickly moving north along the cliffs taking some effort to keep up with them.

Vertbrate Challenge #134, 1 mile Challenge #26

On the way back we passed a couple of anglers one of whom was into a fish so we waited to see what she had caught - a nice sized Dab came over the seawall. It was quickly unhooked and returned to the sea. And it counts as it was only temporarily captive and returned to the wild, #135

And after that came the Lock-Down. Thankfully the fields at the Rock Gardens haven't been built on yet (a real travesty given how biodiverse they are) and are slowly drying out after being a total quagmire for months, which is why we've been avoiding them with the mutt who is a total mud-mop, so we do have somewhere to wlak to and explore the wildlife in these 'interesting times' but migration is happening Spring is sprunging and anything can happen - watch this space.

Stay safe folks, keep your distance and above all look outside and enjoy the wildlife all around you - the birdsong is so much easier to appreciate without the abominable traffic noise and the sky-scape is much better without all the con-trails from the planes so there are some silver linings even if at times it might not feel like it. 

Where to next? We'll be regaling you with tales from Base Camp and beyond...well up to a short distance away.

In the meantime let us know what you've been seeing in your very much restricted outback.

A busy week followed by frustrating fog

The Safari had a few opportunities to look at the sea this week but there wasn't much doing. On Thursday we joined up with a local Community Arts group to see what natural materials and things wild we could find for their project. We started off at the chapel at the entrance to the old cemetery 

We measured some trees, finding out their age with a tape measure and a clever piece of card and a friend to discover their height. One some of the trees have had a garnish of bat boxes placed around them.

Anywhere where there's old(ish) trees we look for faces in them. This one's probably no the best we'll ever find.

Beneath the trees we found a few fresh fungi coming up through the grass.

We found a Holly tree which had been attacked, like almost all Holly trees, by the Holly Leaf Miner fly. This one has hatched rather than the larva within the leafbeen predated or parasitised.

Well if we've got Holly, there must be Ivy nearby.

Ivy has lots of good shapes, patterns and forms

And there even some berries left for the birds. 

The group we were with were trying to identify the trees from their twigs and buds. So what's this one folks?

Close by was an Ash tree with its distinctive chocolate brown buds and flattened twigs. So for a bit of a clue we told them the old adage about which of the pairs' leaves coming out first will determine if we have a splash of a summer or  a soak of a summer to come. No sign of any leaves on either of the trees yet.

A nice Wild Cherry tree stood all gnarly on the intersection of to of the avenues.

Some trees around the cemetery have had to be felled and they have left some interesting stumps like this one with a big see-through hole in it, possibly the reason why it was felled.

Along with twig collecting our group were also doing some bark rubbing. Another one for you, what;s this snap from?

A very pleasant couple of hours out. On the way back to the office we stopped off at the waste depot but there wasn't a single gull on the roof.

The following day we were entertaining a half-term holiday group rockpooling on the beach, our first of the year. We thought we'd best do a recce to see the lie of the land - well the sand anyways - and what was about. Good job we did as we found a huge tangle of fishing line with a massive hook in it right where the children would be exploring and no doubt their eagle eyes would have been attracted to the bright colour.

We put it out of reach but somewhere we could show them and tell them about the dangers of marine litter. Then we spotted something else in the pool. On closer inspection it was a large bullet! Where'd that come from?

Having seen corroded live ordnance before we thought it best to call the police. They came and took it away...in his pocket, so much for it being unstable and deadly dangerous!

With the beach all safe and well the kids came and had a great time. A flock of about 100 Pink Footed Geese flew over but they didn't notice they were concentrating too much on hat was around their feet.

Tiny hands soon filled our tubs with all manner of goodies gleaned from the pools and sands.

 Catch of the day was left to us, with this Dab.

Actually we cheated as we knew where it was because it was buried in the sand attached to the fishing line we collected earlier. We' cut the line but there was no chance of removing the hook so we don't reckon much for its chances. When we let it go the children were fascinated watching it wriggle to bury itself.

The enjoyed that more than the fossils we found them, Crinoids aren't as impressive as dinosaurs even if they are much older

After work we took Monty to the park and had a surprise on the way in the form of a couple of rather early 'blooms' of Meadow Foxtail, anyone else seen any spring grasses in flower yet? Sorry about the grotty pic it was almost dark and a  bit breezy.

Far more expected in mid-February are the Snowdrops in blossom around the base of several of the trees.

Where to next? Our bad hands have got tired of typing so we'll have to tell you about more community fun and all that frustrating fog next time.

In the meantime let us know who's very early in your outback.

Invasion of the killer jellyfish

The Safari is exaggerating slightly. The day dawned bright warm and calm, actually it was well past dawn by the time we got out of our pit. Looking at the sea on our commute we were eager to get out but for the second day in a row it wasn't possible which was a tad annoying to say the least - it was just about perfect out there. Not to worry we would be out on the beach exploring with a group of youngsters soon enough.

Today we were near the pier rather than at our usual temporary rockpooling site so it was all a bit new to us. There wasn't much standing water near the new steps but a bit of a shingle bank that had been thrown up had a few strandlines on it which looked promising. We started off there looking for pebbles, one's with stripes in them, round ones, flat ones, ones that looked like a marble; the children were only very young. All the while keeping our eyes peeled for shells and other items of interest.

Once we'd looked at this small section and not found a great lot although the kids did like the seaweed with 'armbands' to help it float - Spiral Wrack and Bladderwrack - we wandered a fair way down the beach to the nearest pool of water. A decent amount of shells had been washed up here including all the favourites, Banded Wedge  Shells, Striped Venus, Common Otter, Prickly Cockles, Common Cockles, Mussels, Pod Razors, Bean Razors, Curved Razors, Telins, Tower Shells, Whelks, Rayed Trough Shells along with lots of Masked Crab carapaces. All of which found their way into the tubs.

In the pool lots of tiny young Brown Shrimps skittered away from the nets, many weren't quick enough and found themselves in the tubs too.

Fish catcher extraodinaire from last week RC found another flat fish, not a tiny juvenile this time but a full grown whopper, dead though.

Looks like the remains of a Dab

We'd already seen quite a few mostly small jellyfish stranded on the beach but were quite unprepared for the mass of them in one corner of the pool. Lets just say there were a few more than plenty.

Almost all appeared to be dead, we didn't see any pulsating trying to swim off. The great majority were the harmless Moon Jellyfish but scattered here and there were a few orangy Lion's Manes.

At the nend of the session we gathered together to show everyone what each other had found. There's a nice big Thornback Ray mermaid's purse in the middle and a 'modern' lump of limestone that's sheared in the shape of what is almost definitely some kind of largish fossil.

The seaweed bottom left is a piece of the invasive non-native Wireweed originating from the Pacific Ocean.

Back at the office at lunchtime the sun was still strong and bright and had brought a few insects out in the wild garden. There were some Tree Bees collecting pollen and our first Large White butterfly of the year here. There's still nont that many hoverflies about although there were several of this shiny metallic Broad Centurion Flies (Chloroyia formosa).

A pair of bee mimicking Narcissus Bulb Flies were really making the most of the sunshine.

A quick look at the sea at lunchtime revealed it was very poor - other than a handful of Herring Gulls there was nothing to be seen at all.

Where to next?Back in the rockpools tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know who likes jelly in your outback.

Beat the weather!

The Safari set up the Stealth-cam last night but when we looked out of the kitchen window before going to bed the intended quarry was no where near the camera but tucking into a pile of old  muesli we'd put out on the patio, didn't know they were veggie! We grabbed the normal camera and very quietly snuck outside until we were within a couple of feet of him/her.

This morning we were late in again due to vehicular failure last night and having to use Wifey's car. The weather was simply awful when we dropped her at her work and we didn't hold out much hope of our family group coming out later in the morning.

Fortunately the rain stopped as we set off and although all of us were dressed as if it was a wet weekend in October the rain held off and it was quite mild.

The children soon got their eye in for good finds...

Baby flatfish, only about an inch long, Dab?

Mermaid's purse, Spotted Catshark egg - there's an embryo inside but you can't see it because we didn't spot the shell fragment - it won't hatch as the case is torn.

The main feature of the morning was the huge numbers of jellyfish that were washed up, varying in size from an inch or so across to over a foot in diameter. They were this dense for hundreds of yards and probably similar on the next strandline down the beach too. Tens of thousands have been washed up along the NW coast this week, maybe even millions, not seen anything like this for years, if indeed ever before! Most were the harmless Moon Jellyfish, a few Compass Jellies were found and just a handful of Lion's Manes.

Note nos 2 & 3 trapped in a plastic bag - just right for murdering a turtle

Compass and Moon Jellies found side by side - we didn't place them like that but someone else on the beach earlier might have done

Find of the morning was a ???

 No not the little bug, we know that's an Idotea baltica.

Soft but firm and looked like it had some kind of holdfast,which we're holding so you're not able to see it

We think it's some kind of sponge, one for those clever iSpoters.

Another great day on the beach, hopefully there'll be some good pics of some of the other things we found sent in over the weekend for our wildlife exhibition at work.

Where to next? Could be an early start in the morning, if Frank can be prised out of bed...he's lost two kilos at doggy fat-club this week.

In the meantime let us know what's lethally squidgy in your outback.

The Golden Sands hit new heights

The Safari was out extra early with a group of pre-school kiddywinkies this morning. They were so small they had to be taken across to the beach using a Walkodile - what a cracking invention...now where did I leave my plough?

Small and toddly though the children were they were up for some serious exploration even though it was still a bit nippy frosty and the wind was keen under the wall where the sun didn't yet reach.

We soon had tubfuls of the usual suspects and as is befitting small children they liked the big Pod Razors. curly Edible Whelks (we all had a go at listening to the sea in that one - hope there wasn't a giant Ragworm lurking in the innermost recesses!) and the colourful Prickly Cockles best. 

However it wasn't long before they discovered the delights of the small shells, they especially liked the lovely purple of the inside of the Rayed Trough Shells and Banded Wedge Shells.

They found loads while we struggled to didn't them any Brown Shrimps, Common Prawns or Green Shore Crabs - nothing creepy-crawly was discovered in the net apart from the smallest baby Brittle Star we've ever seen and unlike most Brittle Stars it was still alive.

Better was to come; one of the children found a shell we've never seen before. a bit like a cross between a flat ended Banded wedge Shell and the much bigger Blunt Gaper, a real mystery. The ever helpful iSpotters have given a likely ID as a Paper Thracia (Thracia phaseolina); no; we've never heard of it before either...all credit to sharp little eyes!

Should have taken out the grain of sand

And there's more as the saying goes - this time we found it ourselves whilst trawling for the creepy-crawlies. There were lots and lots of the regular Sand Mason Worm cases all limp and floppy in the bottom of our net but there amongst thenm was something stiffer and made with finer grains looking for all the world like tiny thin ice cream comes - what were they? Again not previously seen and we think they are from some kind of Fan Worm. We went back at lunchtime to get some for pics and could only find three out of the tens of thousands of Sand Mason Worm cases.

It's not every day you find two species you've never seen before especially as we only went out with the intention of showing the little ones the 'usual' stuff they are likely to find if they come down to the beach with ma n pa.

All goes to prove nature throws some very curved balls and you're quite likely to learn something new everyday. As Wifey says "The magic of nature is all around us we just need to learn how to look"

Our lunchtime look found this freshly deceased and unmarked Dab.

 On the sea two more Sandwich Terns went by, one near in the other far out, that was about it bird-wise for today.

At going home time we spotted a Greater Pond Snail chomping away on an Elodea stem close to the surface of the pond in glorious sunlight. Our photo doesn't acuratley reflect what our eyes could see...also seen a single small 3-spined Stickleback......arrrrrggggghhhhhh...and no sign of the Goldfish, a cunning bottle trap awaits it we think.

First Dandelions were seen yesterday along with a single Cowslip flower.
And guess who came to tea again last night, enjoying Frank's working dog high cal high protein biscuits he's not allowed/doesn't need any more...wonder if it would like one of his old beds too!

 

Where to next? More Patch 2 stuff, a passing Osprey would be nice.

In the meantime let us know what's hard or flaccid in your outback.