The gloom continues but it's sure better than wet n windy

The Safari was taken up to Leighton Moss by CR where we met IH joined by young LH who hopefully will become a more regular safari member although she currently lives in a different  part  of the country.

First stop was a look from Lillian's Hide where there was a good selection of waterfowl and a few well secreted Snipe. However we didn't stop too long as we wanted to show LH one of the reserve's specialities, the Bearded Tits, so we walked down to the grit trays along the path to the Grisedale Hide withall our fingers crossed. The woody walk was quite, almost devoid of life and the reedbed section not much better and we weren't hearing the tell-tale 'pings' of any Bearded Tits as we neared the grit trays. The grit trays are important as Bearded Tits change their diet in the autumn from summer invertebrates to winter seeds. They dine almost exclusively on the seeds of the Phragmites reeds in the winter and to help dogest these swallow grit to help grind the seeds up. Early in the season their crops hold no grit so they visit the trays regularly but as the season progresses some but not all gets passed out the other end so the don't need to top up so often and we're now at the start of that not so often time of year. Today we were unlucky as it seemed to be a no grit required type of day. After waiting around a fair while with no joy we moved on to the hide where we hoped a Red Deer or two might be on show for LH but again they too must have heard a newby was with us and not wanting to get her over-excited decided not to put in an appearance as well. 

On the pool was the usual waterfowl fare, a few Coots swam around in the gloom, like our last safari photos today had to be taken at ISO Ludicrous.

Ducks included snoozing Shovelers

and more active Gadwalls

High up on the Great Black Backed Gull nesting platform (aka Osprey platform) a Cormorant kept an eye on proceedings from its lofy perch.

Meanwhile back on the water a nice drake Teal swam past not too far away

Before drifting off to drift off with a pair of sleepy Shovelers

All of a sudden there was a commotion and a burst of activity off to our right, a Sparrowhawk had launched an attack on some Snipe hiding unseen by us at the water's edge over that way. All the Snipe escaped and were up up and away off to the safety of another pool while the Sparrowhawk flew into a nearby bush and waited in the hope they wouldn't notice her and return.

After casting her beady eyes this way and that it must have become obvious there were no other potential  lunches close by as she soon left the bush and swooped low over the water right in front of us giving superb views but too quick for our cameras, sometimes though the image is etched into your memory far better than binary code onto an SD card and this was one of those occasions. There were no Snipe flushed as she shot low across the length of the pool - time to try her luck at another one. The scattered ducks soon settled down and among them a drake Pintail

came out from its hiding place and started to do a bit of head-bobbing displaying.

A distant female Marsh Harrier simply rerfused to come any closer and soon disappeared into one of the unviewable pools at the back of the reedbed.

It was now time for another wander so back we went past the still quiet grit trays, listening for the tell-tale 'pings' we only heard squaling Water Rails and chuntering Cetti's Warblers calling unseen from the dense reedbed. There was little to get excited about from the Tim Jackson Hide and a good wait in there gave us no real photo opportunities and sadly no Red Deer either. 

Moving on we retraced our steps back to Lillian's Hide where a female Teal was dabbling among the reed bases right in front of us.

She looked up every time she heard the camera shutters clicking

A female Shoveler dabbled, or should that be sieved, past too.

She was approached by a male

who's scratching looked like he was waving at either the female or us.

Food was now on everyones' minds but to get to the butties in the cars we had to pass the Feeding Station which was lively with a good selection of birds. And if they perched in the right place offered some nice autumn colour pics.

Star of the show might have been this friendly Robin singing for his supper (lunch) at the passers-by who might have a mealworm or two in their pockets

He was certainly giving it some welly!

However he was usurped by a tiny Goldcrest that was spotted flitting around a small tree to his right and all attention turned away from the him; we're saying he's a he but at this time of year he could easily be a she as both sexes sing to defend a winter territory for themselves and although they might be able to tell the difference at a glance or by ear us Humans can't.

There was a second one further back flitting around an Ivy covered Hawthorn bush but we didn't manage to connect with that one. Nor did we manage to connect with the Marsh Tit that was repeatedly visiting the feeders. Just as we were about to leave a Treecreeper was pointed out working its way up the large Oak nearby.

It even did some arboreal gymanastics for us.

Pies and butties were taken to the Causeway Hide where a few Black Headed Gulls jockied for position on the post in front of the window. One of which was ringed by good friend KB down at Martin Mere as a youngster in 2022 then made it's way to here by the autumn and has only been recorded in the autumn and winter up here at Leighton Moss since. In fact our record is the first for, give or take a couple of days, exactly a year begging the question where does it go in the spring and summer.

If you see a bird with a coloured ring like this one or even without letters you can report them very easily here.
The posts seemed to be a good place to have a bit of a preen and feather ruffle...good to see some sunshine at last too.

As usual there were large flocks of Gadwall and Coot.

Just look at those vermiculations on the drake Gadwall - taking understated to a higher level!

Coots too are understated with lovely shades of dark grey and almost black when the light catches them right, and then there's that somewhat menacing red eye.

One of the Coots played at being a Black Headed Gull and found a (much shorter) post on which to have a preen and a stretch - enjoy those weird feet!

The Gadwall and Coot had another function apart from their aesthetic beauty, Otter spotters! On a couple of occasions we saw commotion in the flocks and birds fleeing en masse but didn't see what had caused the panic. Then a Buzzard flew across the water and strangely came straight back but had somehow morphed into a male Marsh Harrier andd while watching that a dark shape appeared low in the water right in front of us not too far out, an Otter's head. How had that snuck past all the Coots and Gadwall, was all their attention taken by the raptors overhead? All to soon it was lost behind the reeds closer to the hide but at last LH had got her first view of an Otter even if it was only brief. Now we'd seen it all we had to do was wait for it to reappear which eventually it did but much more distant along the reed edge to the far right and then again again even more distantly but gave much more prolonged views...a scope would have been useful. Somewhat surprisingly that was our first sighting of an Otter this year. We watched it slink into the reedbed and then decided to spend the rest of the afternoon down  on the saltmarshes. Down at the Allen Hide the low November sun (yes that strange glowing thing in the sky) made viewing difficult and uncomfortable, we think everyone still has their retinas! but it did make for nice arty silhouette shots.

Looking southwards from the Eric Morecambe Hide was more or less the same although we did pick out a distant Dunlin among the silhouettes of Redshanks and Lapwings. One such group of Redshanks held a Spotted Redshank which was incredibly difficult to pick out until we were offered a look down the finder's scope. With viewing conditions awkward to say the least we swapped over to the other side of the hide to view the Allen Pool in much better light. We spent the time waiting for a Kingfisher not to show counting the Little and Great White Egrets to make sure IH's Herons were well beaten and following this Redshank around as it waded, paddled and swam across the nearest bit of the pool looking for Brown Shrimps n stuff.

Eventually we did get to see the colour of a Redshank's shanks

and then ended the safari with a cracking male Mallard. We don't care if they are common they're still a fabulous looking bird.

 

All the time we were out LH was borrowing her dad's camera and once home put together this little snippet of video to give you a flavour of the day.

We look forward to her coming along in the future and can't wait to watch her next videos of our safaris

Where to next? Not sure yet but we'll be out on safari somewhere in the north west before too long.

In the meantime let us know who's got the reddest legs in your outback.

The ton is up

The Safari left you on a cliffhanger at the end of our last blog, would we or wouldn't we get 100 species of birds photographed by the end of January. Well it's now the end of the first week of February and we're on 103 but have been plagued by two weeks of seriously grotty weather...did we or didn't we...read on...

Desperate for a safari away from our usual haunts with some better shelter we had Pennington Flash near Wigan suggested to us. Now we've not been there since 2019 mostly due to the fear of getting caught in humungous motorway traffic jams on the way back to Base Camp at the end of the day. These road works have been going on for years now and we have been stuck in them on non-safari days, once for five hours! So you can understand our reluctance to venturte that way...But after umming and ahhing at IH's suggestion we plugged the post code into the sat nav and knock us down with a feather it suggested an alternative route we could have been using in all those intervening years...dohhhhh. We picked up CR without further ado and followed the sat nav's very easy route to our destination with IH turning up from the Southside a few minutes later.

A bitterly cold strong wind was blowing across the lake but we headed for the shelter of the wooded areas passing a well watched Siskin in a bankside Alder tree.

The Feeding Station was awash with Grey Squirrels, at least a dozen of them. There was plenty of food for the birds but with that many squirrels gorging themselves on it it wasn't going to last very long...and there was a similar number of Mallards enticed off the adjecent pond by the copius free handout too. The smaller birds flitted in and out as best they could when the opportunites arose.

But there was no sign of the one we really wanted to see, the local Willow Tits. After a very enjoyable lengthy watch we moved on down an extremely muddy track to the next hide passing another small feeding station of four small bird tables secreted in the edge of the scrub. This was very active with Blue, Great and Coal Tits but still no Willow Tits. The hide overlooks a fairly large pool with an island in the middle much favoured by the local Goosanders.

Everything else on the pool was tucked up in the margins on the far side Tufted Ducks, a couple of Pochards, Little Grebes, Teal, a few Shoveler and Mallard, a nice selection of waterfowl. A Wren acted like a mouse along the side of the ditch below the hide window diappearing under the thick layer of fallen grass in the hunt for whatever invertebrates it could find but no Kingfishers were perched on the ditchside twigs nor flew along it. Continuing our circuit the wooded areas were indeed pleasantly sheltered but sadly lacking in birdlife. The next hide was good though with eight Herons stood on the bankwith one Little Egret, it's not often you see more herons than egrets these days. Then a flash of blue shot by followed by a second and this one perched in a nearby tree but well hidden by intervening twigs and branches requiring that scariest of photographic techniques - manual focus!

Not the best but Kingfisher became bird #94, Little Grebe at the previous hide would have been had it not been so far away as to only about three pixels in the frame. By now it was lunch time so back to our vehicles to collect the butties/pies etc. Lunch was devoured at the small hide we'd not visited on the morning lap. It overlooks a different part of the pool we saw the Kingfisher and probaly one of the same two from early appeared in a slightly more open position in a nearby bush.

From there it was round to the Feeding Station again, crossing our fingers that Willow Tit would turn up. None did although there were plenty of Reed Buntings to keep us entertained

It was soon time to have another look at those small bird tables. The usual suspects were still there.

And then...BINGO...a Willow Tit appeared...#95

Followed soon after by a Great Spotted Woodpecker annoyingly keeping round the back of the tree at first

Before showing itself in all its glory...#96

Discression is the better part of valour so it is said and this time we left the little feeding station by the way we came instead of traipsing through the thick mud again. This time the 'Goosander Island' Hide came up trumps with the Little Grebes now more active and had moved a lot closer although still a bit distant for 'proper' shots.

Leaving the Goosanders to their island

we moved on passing a tiny pool, not much more tha na puddle really which was well illuminated by the afternoon sun. "It would be good if a Kingfisher was sitting on those well lit branches" said CR not realising a few feet away in the gloomy side of the pool there was one!

We edged forwards as stealthily as possible

The pics would have been so much better had the bird been sat 20 feet to the left. We managed to get a couple of passers-by on to it too which was good. Continuing on in to the sheltrered wooded area either CR or IH spotted a Siskin high in the tops of the trees but we couldn't find it and before we'd finished searching one of them had spotted a Goldcrest low in the trees on the opposite side of the track. This was in the better light...at times!

A nice bonus for #98 as we'd missed one up Beacon Fell a couple of days earlier.

We had another look from the hide where we first saw the Kingfisher and this time watched a female Bullfinch acrobatically stripping buds from a Hawthorn tree close to where the Kingfisher had been sat erlier.

As time was now pressing and it was getting gloomier by the minute there was just enough time for a last look at the little bird tables. We did see another Willow Tit but it was in and out too fast for us.

And then like this Nuthatch it was time for us to leave.

Another great safari in the bag, loads seen and another few added to the Challenge tally; now standing at 98 with five days left, surely we can get the last two in that time...but the weather had other ideas and poor conditions kept us stuck at Base Camp although we did bump into another Snow Bunting while walking the dog yes you've guessed it - no camera! It wasn't until the penultimate day of  the year we were able to get out for an impromptu safari picking up CR on the way to Middleton up north. The sun was shining and we had the morning ahead of us. Arriving on site CR said he could see our target even before we'd drawn the car to a stop...Glossy Ibis - not a bad 'from the car' tick. After getting out of said car we couldn't see it for a while - we were looking too far away and the bird was hidden behind a fence rail. But then there it was in all its multi-coloured finery shimmering the sunshine.

What a beauty for #99 but could we get the ton up today? With a bit of  time to spare we had a look at the nearby Heysham nature reserve and Red Rocks while giving the pooch a bit of a run at the same time. It was deadly quite apart from a singing Chaffinch, the first we've heard this year. We were hoping for something like a Jackdaw or maybe the Brent Geese on the rocks but the tide was out there and there were very few birds within any sort of range. Maybe we should havev gone round to Half  Moon Bay but unfortunately we didn't have enough time and had to high tail it back to Base Camp with the tally stuck on 99 with one day to go. That evening we saw two Snow Buntings fly into the remnant dunes on the prom in the very last of the daylight, we tried to get a phone pic of one of them but it flitted off to somewhere unseen before we'd got the phone out of our pocket...One day to get one species - we had a plan!

The 31st was an average grey sort of a January day without much wind thankfully. We loaded up the camera, dog, and half a loaf of bread and headed to the shopper's car park in the nearby village of Poulton-le-Fylde. St Chad's church is a well known Jackdaw haunt. We did see some on a roof top not far from Base Camp while en route but the pics weren't great, it's a bit awkward pointing a long lens towards bedroom windows while sttod beside a busy road.

We'd got our ton, happy days, but could do with a better pic so we carried on to Poulton where the Jackdaws were indeed in the churchyard and showing much better than the roadside ones earlier.

One of them even got to sample the bait we'd brought just in case...

Mission accomplished 100 species of birds photographed during January and with about 6 hours of daylight to spare - Result!!!

And then reality hit home. All that hard work will mean progreesing with our Challenge during February and into March isn't going to be easy, we've sort of shot ourselves in the foot a bit. Well we've got to give the other challengers time to catch up before the summer visitors arrive in the spring.

Target for February will be 15 and only 5 more for March...how will we fare?

 

Where to next? Another safari northwards beckons.  

In the meantime let us know who's got the taste for bread in your outback.