Drizzle drizzle and yet more drizzle - it's wet out there

The Safari has had laundry 'drying' on the line for over a week and it's still wetter than when it came out of the machine! To say it's been a bit dreich would be the understatement of the year...and today we had thick fog all day too.

Other than having to walk Monty we've barely been outside except to do bits n bobs of Christmas shopping. We've not seen a great lot of wildlife even the garden at Base Camp has been very quiet probably because the temperatures have been well above 'normal' for mid December this week. We did get a very brief surprise visitor the other day though; wee were sat at our desk in the sitting room half watching daytime drivel on the telly, half flicking through Flickr or some other social media on the laptop and half doing nowt in particular at all when by chance we chanced to look up through the window as a Woodcock (Garden #31) flew past the window and up the garden beneath the two pergolas and away over the back fence - the first sighting for the garden and at about 2pm it should have been roosting deep in cover in some woodland. It must have been flushed by a ?cat? from the little piece of rough scrub affectionately know as the Golden Triangle close to the end of our street.

A couple of days later we had a male Sparrowhawk fly through on the same route but this time landed on the back fence and stayed there for several minutes but not long enough for us to grab the camera as we'd not long since put it away upstairs from its normal within-easy-reach place due to a big family birthday meal and lots of guests arriving imminently.

We managed a very early morning walk round Marton Mere to catch up with LR. It was deadly quiet out there even the Robins weren't singing! We did have a Woodcock fly in front of us in the gloom of the pre-dawn as it went to roost in the scrub close to my old cabin. No sign of the Bullfinches later once it had got light - we use the word loosely! There were a good number of Wigeon and Coot on the mere but most of the other waterfowl were still tucked up in the edge of the reeds and mostly out of sight, seeing three Pochards was good - - can't believe we've ritten that, we've made triple figure counts here in the 90s! 

Drake Wigeon

That early in the morning there were few gulls on the water, there's no overnight roost here, so the chances of bumping into the local Iceland Gull were slim to remote. A quick bunk in to the roadside alongside the waste depot was fruitless too...where does that little blighter lurk when it's not being seen?

As always there were a couple each of Cetti's Warblers and Water Rails calling from the reedbeds.

A pre-planned trip down the motorway to Pennington Flash to hopefully find the increasingly disappearing Willow Tits with CR was rained off. We were hopeful that a couple of Yellow Legged Gulls would be there too if we looked through the gull roost hard enough but it wasn't to be.

A wander out today with Wifey and GB along the prom was taken in thick fog, even though the tide was in you could hardly see the sea. We didn't make it as far as Rossall tower, it wasn't far off but was barely visible through the fog.

Plenty of chat but not a lot to see obviously. A few Skylarks flew down the beach looking a bit lost but it seems the Snow Bunting that is sometimes seen the far side of the tower might have joined another and gone down the coast just beyond Patch 2 to where we photographed them last winter, lets hope they stick around down there as the Year Bird Photo Challenge will be on again in 2018 but maybe with slightly different rules.

Where to next? Not sure if we'll get out until after Christmas now but where-ever you are have a happy solstice and a merry Christmas we hope 2018 is a peaceful one for you and don't forget whatever nonsense the humans get up to the wonder of wildlife is just outside your front door so get out and enjoy it.

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

Is anybody out there?

The Safari woke to fick fog this morning, when we took Frank out at 06.00 we couldn't see to the end of the street.

With the fog so fick it didn't look good for going out but nothing ventured nothing gained and once  breakfast was made for Wifey and a few chores completed we went to pick up BD who's struggling with a gammy knee at the mo.

Off we went to the nature reserve, successfully resisting the jovial Larid temptation an hour or so's drive away. If we twitched this lovely 1st winter Laughing Gull there might be no stopping us in the future so although it would be a good bird to get for our Year List Challenge with Monika it could be a dangerously slippery slope to embark on...now had it been a Franklin's Gull...

The wetland didn't produce the Stonechats that often frequent the Typha tops there.

Once in the nature reserve we made a bee-line for the viewing platform - we had this weird idea that the Firecrest would show straight away seeing as how we saw it yesterday and the duck was broken...How wrong we were! At least we'd brought the scope this time, not that it was much use.

Some dark shapes at the far end could have been wildfowl and the pale blobs were likely to have been gulls.

Even the friendly Robin was subdued today. A Goldcrest came and went but didn't bring its fiery friend neither did a small flock of Long Tailed Tits.

The fog lifted sporadically, enough to have agood look through the gulls but there was nothing to get the juices flowing, best was three adult and one 2nd winter Great Black Backs, no sign of the 'Posh Gull', as CR calls our wintering Iceland Gull.

After a while we decided to wander down the path to see if we could see the Long Eared Owls that were reported yesterday. We must have looked in every tree and shrub from every angle - except the right one! They're there somewhere but we couldn't find them for love nor money. The Bullfinches that were seen a week or so ago may have moved through by now, there was certainly no sight nor sound of them, we'd be very happy to get them on the reserve year list. The habitat is ideal it's a shame they don't bred round these parts. They don't even turn up that often and never find the feeding station when they do.

Disappointed we didn't find the owls we continued to Dusky Warbler corner where we waited in vain for the tchk tchk call - northing - well not nothing a Cetti's Warbler called a few times and a Water Rail screamed from the reedbed.

The Stonechats that lurk down this end weren't for showing themselves either. 

There's a pool down here that sometimes has a Snipe or two so we had a little look and some flew out, at least one was a Jack Snipe, a lifer for BD but too quick to dart back into cover for his camera.

A slow walk back to the viewing platform again looking in every bush on the way again had us fail to locate the Long Eared Owls, they're pretty much invisible!

At the viewing platform we soon found a nice drake Goldeneye and two females, apparently there were four females. We hoped for some displaying action from him but it was totally disinterested in the females. It was then a striking Cormorant dropped in right in front of us, too close in fact as it was obscured by the intervening reeds. It looked interesting in the bins and we asked BD to fire off a few shots. 

That gular angle looks quite wide and therefore the bird could well be a 'sinesis' type.

90 degrees, should be OK for sinensis - any thoughts?

With more fog closing in and little happening on the bird front we turned our attention to smaller and all too often dismissed wildlife. We'd already seen and discussed the mosses that had been overturned by the birds, were there more than one species there or just the one with different growth forms on the upper and lower surfaces. The trees around are covered in lichens and it was those we concentrated on first.

Spot the Goldcrest food - a Springtail

Then BD found a patch of moss in the crook of a Sycamore tree that had some fruiting bodies on it, sporophytes we think they are properly named.

The very tip of them looks like a lemon juicer!

With the fog still thick and the temperature falling it was time to admit defeat and call it a day. A day when plans were thwarted but we found something else to point the camera at, there's always something out there to find!

Today was the final day of our #100moredaysofnature tweets, tomorrow will be the first day of another 100 wildlifey excitements to show you, and that'll take us into spring. Please do follow and join in with the hashtag #another100daysofnature

Where to next? We should be able to get out on to Patch 2 early doors tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know who provided alternative entertainment in your outback

Ffarwted by ffery ffick ffog

The Safari barely saw a thing today, not for want of trying, we simply couldn't see more than a few feet.

Two Redshanks at 50 feet (17m)

Mirror Ball at 200 yards

News came in this arvo that two photographers had been rummaging around in the scrub trying to find the Long Eared Owls and flushed them - marvelous - NOT!!! If you are thinking of visiting and aren't sure where to look please ask or join one of the Ranger's Sunday morning guided walks. Photo opportunities aren't always guaranteed as with all wildlife photography! In the meantime please STAY ON THE PATHS or they'll disappear for the rest of the winter which is no use to anyone!

The Peregrine was on the tower while we were out with Frank yesterday tea-time, might have been there again today but there was no way we were going to be able to see it.

Where to next? No more fog on Patch 2 or elsewhere please. We have some stuff to deliver which might give us the chance to have a shuffy for the Iceland Gull on the way back as it seems to be  hanging around a certain road junction that has a raft of fast food joints.

In the meantime let us know if there was any visibility in your outback.