A morning's rampage through the Rock Gardens

The Safari apologises for being 'off-air' for so long. We have been out n about on safari but have had serious family stuff to deal with culminating in the not-unexpected funeral earlier this week.

With a bit more time on our hands we were able to join CR at the local park mid-week for a butterfly hunt and arriving there we found former colleague WM already searching for the White Letter Hairstreaks.

By eck it was hot and humid down in the 'Butterfly Zone', the rough un-managed bit of the park. Unfortunately with the recent hot spell all but a tiny few of the Bramble flowers have been pollinated already and are turning in to tasty Blackberries. This along with the total lack of Thistles this season meant there was no nectar to tempt the Hairstreaks down from their favourite tree top so we have no pics of them for you, They did emerge very early this year, looking back through our Flickr site we tend to see them on Bramble and Thistle flowers about now or even later!

Although our quarry wasn't for showing itself other than fluttering around the uppermost branches of their favourite tree we did find plenty of other insects to point the camera at.

Celypha laculana

Field Grahopper - or is it Common Green Grasshopper?

It seems to have hairs on the underside which would make it Field but we're not totally sure

Gatekeeper and common Wasp

The same Gatekeeper

Large Skipper - a male due to the scent lines on the wing

Meadow Brown

Leptopterna dolabrata - female

Leptopterna dolabrata - male

Small Skipper - female - - no scent lines on the upper wings

Definitely a female - she started laying eggs on the nearby grass stems

And then went for another refuel

Common Red Soldier Beetle - not sure hat the white stuff on it's face is

If the White Letter Hairstreaks are the animal speciality of the site then Ploughman's Spikenard must be the plant speciality. This year we can only find a handful of specimens but typically there's a dozen or more. Somehow this site was omitted from the huge and authoritative Flora of North Lancashire.

Our final tally was 13 species of butterflies, including Small Tortoiseshell, shich CR didn't see and Small Copper which WM had seen before we arrived. With a bit of luck we could have added Common Blue, Peacock and Green Veined White but were perhaps just between broods wit hthem on the cusp of emerging.

An Emperor dragonfly was good to see there too.

Pottering around in the garden later that afternoon we were lucky enough to be visited by a Comma, a species seen at the Rock Gardens but not keeping still enough to be photographed - well we made amends!

In other news we've moved our Photo Year List Challenge on by not a lot to 147, adding poor pics of
Red Kite

 and Green Woodpecker

Both a long long way away while on our sunny sojourn to south Shropshire. We failed to see, never mind get a pic of, the Yellowhammer that was singing from the hedgerows almost all day every day!

A wander out along the new seawall at Rossall with GB the other afternoon  gave us distant, but close for here, views of Manx Shearwaters....Stop Press...as we type this rubbish there's a House Sparrow calling in the garden - our 1st of the year!!!!!

And relax...and back to the Manx Sheawaters...

We've been doing a lot of moth trapping in the garden and trapping not a lot of moths but we've had some nice ones and some NFGs (New For the Garden) so hopefully we'll let you know all about those in the net couple of days.

Where to next? This coming Thursday we're joining the Wildlife Trust's Living Seas NW team again for the monthly sea watch at Rossall Coastguard tower, Bottlenose Dolphins were filmed off the prom at Cleveleys yesterday evening) so finger (and everything else crossed) for a good result on the watch. And then we're out with CR again perhaps to the private reserve on the fringe of Lakeland.

In the meantime let us know who's been fluttering round the tree tops in your outback

A mixed bag for a grey and dreary Sunday

The Safari was hoping to get out early for a wander down along the dunes just south of Patch 2 this morning but it didn't happen. Instead we ended up heading north with Wifey who had an errand to run for her sister who was working in her shop today. While Wifey went inside we stayed out to watch the car and watched the urban wildlife flying round the rooftops. Mostly Herring Gulls and Feral Pigeons.

Once the errand was completed we took Monty for a slither up the hill over the estuary at the rather soggy Country Park.

Looks like he's discovered mud!!!

Chomps more grass than the average horse too!

There were a lot of flighty thrushes flying around. Mostly Redwings and Blackbirds with a few Fieldfares and a Mistle Thrush or two thrown in for good measure. None of them allowed anything like close enough approach with the camera. Put on the muddy banks of the dropping river in the estuary there were a decent number of Lapwings taking to the air from time to time. 

Closer, on the marsh, but not close enough was a Little Egret working its way along a small creek.

Back at Base Camp Monty was washed down and a bite of lunch was eaten, then it was time to hit the dunes in search of a Snowflake which we now knew probably hadn't been seen since early morning.

We started off at the bottom of Patch 2 and walk the strandline south watching for flits and hits of movement among the clumps of washed up seaweed lying at the top of the beach. As expected we came across a couple of Pied Wagtails after only a couple of minutes.

Once passed those our luck ran out and we didn't see another small bird for ages until a female Reed Bunting was spotted lurking in a patch of Marram Grass on the edge of the dunes. We continued for about a mile seeing just another pair of Pied Wagtails before the light really started to fade. The area of the lower dunes just behind the posts was awash with doggy footprints so we can only imaging our lovely little Snow Bunting had been dogged-off...but will it reappear in the week when it might be a little less busy.

At the farthest point a couple of lads were having a blast up and down the beach on their kite trolleys. Even in the very light breeze they were getting a fair turn of speed going.

We hurried back to the car and leaving the beach watched a couple of folk watching an enormous gaggle of Starlings lined up on the tram's overhead wires. The lady asked us if we were filming the birds so it would have been rude not to point the camera at them even though the light was atrocious.

We left and headed back to Base Camp passing the pier where no roost had started and the sky was dull and grey. As it transpired there was an awesome sunset just after we reached Base Camp and had settled down to a nice cuppa. What a shame we didn't stay out a few more minutes and catch the murmuration with a totally fiery sky.

'Our' Peregrine was roosting in its usual place close to Base Camp when we took Monty out for his tea-time mooch round the block, probably been there all day as we saw when we left this morning.

Where to next? A day off work tomorrow with some jobs to do but we're sure we'll find some wildlife somewhere to tell you about.

In the meantime let us know who's been dogged-off in your outback.