The third week of lockdown local wildlife safaris

The Safari has had a rather productive week despite being on Lockdown. Last week ended on a high too with our first ever spring record of a Rook flying over Base Camp, they are very infrequent in the autumn, usually tagging along with flocks of Jackdaws on passage.

An early morning visit to the prom last Monday gave us a distant flock of Eiders heading south and the day got better still when a Chiffchaff dropped into the Base Camp garden staying a while to have a  little bathe in our ornamental waterfall. That gave us just enough time to grab the camera and fire off a few shots through the increasingly dirty kitchen window - time for the mop, bucket and Windowlene. Number 32 on our 1 mile from home challenge which was a two week challenge but has now been extended to six weeks - we get the impression it might be expanded even further yet too.

It wasn't the only bird having a spruce up that day, a Blackbird was in there too.

The following day we were back in the park this time we'd taken the camera to see if we could get a pic of the local House Sparrows that hang around the perimeter of the field where it backs on to the neighbouring gardens. Crikey it took some doing they were either very flighty not allowing any sort of close approach or keeping hidden in the dense Ivy or thick twiggery of the bushes. It took several circuits to finalyy get one submitted to the SD card for #33.

On a further lap of  the fields we heard a commotion of Sparrowhawk yikkering coming from the Butterfly Zone. We headed over that way to see what all the racket was about only to find the pair mating in one of the Sycamores at the edge of the scrub but requiring a very tricky shot through plenty of intervening branches and twigs.

Flamin out of focus twigs!

Job done and off...

The female

Never seen that before and very lucky to witness we guess. 

Nearby Green Alkanet was flowering in a sunny glade

Bright sunshine, warm too, brought a Peacock to nectar on the Aubretias in the garden tubs. Our first and so far only butterfly pic this year.

The fine weather got us to thinking about doing a bit of gardening so out came the stout gloves and secateurs and we ventured into the Bramble-infested no-man's land behind the garage. Now Brambles aren't that bad and provide habitat and food for a humungous number of invertebrate species but in a very small garden it's easy to have too much of a good thing. While doing a bit of snipping we heard the gulls go up in alarm and looking up we saw about a dozen of them chasing an Osprey almost directly over our head, tantalisingly close to being a Garden Tick but at least we'd joined the Osprey-from-the-garden-during-Lockdown club. We dropped the secateurs and tried to remove our gloves as we sprinted back down to the kitchen where the camera lay waiting. Too late - by the time we'd grabbed it the Osprey as nowhere to be seen, obscured by all the neighbouring houses. We called CR but sadly he missed ti too. There's a moral here - if you go up to the furthest reaches of the garden take the flippin camera with you!!! A Blackcap was singing very close to Base Camp much of the day too but never ventured in to the garden.

That takes us to Thursday. Leaving Base Camp for the early morning quick dog walk we had a skein of about 90 Pink Footed Geese fly over us. Later, on the proper exercise/dog walk we heard or first  Coal Tit for a long time, singing away in the line of tall conifers by the water tower and further on in the park the Chiffchaff and Blackcap now seemed to be settled in the Butterfly Zone which incidentally is so far devoid of butterflies.

Base Camp's moth trap has been dire, a combination of the Super Moon, neighbouring high intensity security lights and severe local habitat destruction aka garden tidying has butchered the local moth populations. A tatty Hebrew Character was a welcome find but we're getting to the stage of How many kilowatt hours per moth!

The Super Moon - we were out too late to find it in all its pinky glowing glory

Good Friday was a good day on the prom early morning, out on the beach we came across a Green Leaf worm in a little puddle, not something you see ervyday and it soon buried itself in the soft sand. A few yards further on a recently deceased Lesser Spotted Catshark lay on the beach. Probably a victim of the anglers that are still out angling abeit in much smaller numbers than usual.

When we got up to the top of the cliffs at the furtheest point of our walk there was a bit of passage going on. We counted at least 35 Meadow Pipits and 21 Linnets going northwards, five Pink Footed Geese heading NW out to sea, got our first Swallow of the year, quite late we've ususally come across one in the earliest days of April rather than into the second week and a Blackbird was singing from a promenade rooftop - most unusual, the first we've heard along here in several years of 'treading the beat'.

Back at Base Camp several Nomad Bees were flying around and a Sparrowhawk soaring away to the north got the gulls going and our pulse racing again.

Easter Saturday started well with 50 Pink Footed Geese going north and a few minutes later we heard our first Willow Warbler of the year, which, like the Swallow, was quite late for us. We heard the conifer Coal Tit singing again and followed it up with a second this time in the big conifers in the park.

Most unexpected, although at migration time birders should always expect the unexpected, a pair of Shelducks flew towards the sea just east of the park - a Patch Tick!

In the garden a female Light Brown Apple Moth graced the trap and up to four Greenfinches graced the feeders.

Best sighting of the day was a female Orange Tip butterfly, really scarce here, flying through the gardens just round the corner on our very quick lunchtime dog-pee walk. In the afternoon another good sighting was had, a Red Mason Bee, a new species for the garden, was discovered when we ventured behind the garage to bash some Bramble again.

A Common Quaker and a large Crane Fly were in the moth trap on Easter Sunday.

And a review of the stealth-cam revealed the Hedgehog is still about if only an occasional visitor this week. we've repositioned the camera to see if we can get a better view of him for next time.

In other news the sunny week has given us lots of invertebrate photo opportunities at Base Camp - here's a selection of what we've seen.

Buffish Mining Bees - from the 'colony' at the corner of our street

Several Eristalis Drone Flies take up positions around the garden. We've not had a proper look at them but guess they'll be E. pertinax.

Some of our plant pots have more moss than plant!

In the latter half of the week Gooden's Nomad Bees became regular visitors but they're a nightmare to photograph as they just won't settle for more than the briefest moment - here's a few of the hundreds of pics we've tried to take of them.

Another good find in the 'Bee-line' was this Tawny Mining Bee sunning itself on the fence, a rare find in the garden.

While watching our first Zebra Spider of the year clamber about on the the trellis 

we spotted this tiny Hoverfly flitting around the flowers by our knee - no idea which species, one of the Sphaerophorias perhaps.

Where to next? More of the same - here's hoping the weather stays fine for daily Base Camp safaris and there's still the opportunity to take the dog for his walks round the park and occasional visits to the beach which he loves.

In the meantime let us know what's in your very much restricted outback. Stay Safe - Keep your distance!!!

There's snow't about

The Safari hasn't been able to get out much in recent days and when we have we haven't seen much. We've been out so little we've not had a look at Patch 2 all week and have probably come to grinding halt on our Patchwork Challenge for there. No Velvet Scoter or Scaup to add to our list then.

The last week has seen moon-set happening around mid day so we took the opportunity to try a few arty shots from the garden last weekend.

Poking around the garden at work we came across the Borage we saw flowering last week with a new flower recently opened - it;s mid/late December what's going on!

Since the weekend a couple of Snow Buntings have been frequenting the beach just to the south of Patch 2, although news is often released of them being 'dogged-off'. At lunchtime today we thought sod it let's have a long lunch break and drive the mile down the road and have a look for them. Once we were on the beach it took about two minutes to locate them well out on the sands rather than where we expected them, high on the beach on the strand-lines.

We walked well out beyond them to get the light on the right side and then got in front of them to let them come to us; which they very obligingly did. Standing still they came within about 30 feet (10m) of us. If we'd have lain down on the sand they may well have come closer. It was a bit cold and damp for that though! But Snow Bunting (185) is now on the list - wonder how Monika is getting on? She's had a bit of a busy year.

They were finding seeds washed up with the shell fragments on the lowest strandline.

We watched them flit about a few times too when there well deserved colloquial name of Snowflakes was all too obvious - lovely little things and a treat to see on a lunch break that only went five minutes over our normal allocation.

Where to next? Holidays - whoopee-doo; but they start with another funeral tomorrow morning which isn't so good.

In the meantime let us know who's doing snow't in your outback

Short changed

The Safari has had the best views of Short Eared Owls (MMLNR #105) at the nature reserve since the early 1990's when that was the 'default' hunting over the rough grassland that is now the golf course. Now the default owl are the Long Eared Owls that sit quietly all winter tucked up in the scrub but which are unfortunately notably invisible so far this this season.

Yesterday we had a look for the one seen at the weekend with no success and not seeing very much else either apart from a good number of Fieldfares.

As darkness grew we trundled off head down against the chilly wind until we got to the wetland were we stopped for one last look for the Stonechat and BOOM - a Shorty flew though our field of view. It quartered back and forth across the wetland and then over to the rough fields further away before coming back and passing within a few yards of us, we could almost have reached out and grabbed it as it flew by looking at us with its bright yellow eyes. SU-flippin-PERBBBBBBB.

We went back today for another look. Again the reserve was fairly quiet apart from fewer but still plenty of Fieldfares and Blackbirds. Looking over the water we found two male and a female Pochards as well as a doubling of Goldeneye numbers to four, the two females being joined by our first adult male of the season and a 1st winter male.

A pink Rose has burst into flower at the back of one of the scrubby areas.

The afternoon passed and a bit of a sunset began to develop while we were at the far end so we got into the reedbed to try some arty shots, sadly the hoped for red hues didn't materialise, but you get the gist

We had a chat to the Ranger who was packing the kit away after a day's hedgelaying with the volunteers when the moon began to rise...a Goldcrest nearly landed on his head just after the pic was taken, he hadn't seen it but moved and it jinked away landing in the bushes some distance away.

As we chatted some Starlings came in and did a mini-murmuration, others had already come in and gone straight into their reedbed roost without any flying around kerfuffle. It was quite dark by now and we thought we'd left it a bit late for spotting any owls.

Off we went back towards the car past the wetland where we stood for a few minutes without any sign of the Shorty, we were just about to give up when two 'crows' started interacting high over the treetops at the corner of the reserve. We put the bins up to watch their antics only to see they weren't crows at all they were TWO Short Eared Owls. They cavorted with each other in twists and spirals well above the tree tops for several minutes before they split up and went their separate ways - those ways didn't include coming down to hunt the wetland though. 

Where to next? Last day of sick leave tomorrow so we'll try to get out somewhere.

In the meantime let us know who's doubled their numbers in your outback.

National Whale and Pipe Watching Week Day 7

The Safari was out with Frank the other night and spotted there was a bit of moon out.

At work colleague big JG has been terribly worried cos he's not seen the Rabbits under the front hedge for yonks, he's afraid the Fox or local cats have had them all. We've not seen them for a while but this morning one was out on the nearer lawn when we drove up first thing.

A look at the sea wasn't productive despite the light offshore wind and overcast sky making conditions much more conducive to spotting blubber.

In the office we learned that a Common Seal pup had been found on the beach at the end of the Prom. Not often they are seen off our shores and when they are they are invariably pups in some sort of trouble often not long weaned and become dehydrated due to not being able to feed in rough sea conditions. 

There was some movement that caught the corner of our eye on the lawn outside the office window, a male Pied Wagtail collecting plenty of insects for a brood of youngsters somewhere.

Taken through the dirty double glazed windows so not the clearest of pics

At lunchtime we had our regular National Whale and Dolphin Watch, just an hour during the week, and had a great group of volunteers from the Cumbria Wildlife Trust to show the ropes too. But there was a huge piece of pipe on a truck right in front of our usual watching point so we had to move down a hundred yards or so. 

The pipe on the truck was a tiny piece of a rather larger one being towed into position by barges on the other side of the wall.

Large! It was huge, about 1000m long, so big it was never going to fit in one frame on the camera.

It was towed in this morning by the tugs from Holyhead in Anglesey after being towed all the way from Norway where it was manufactured.

The action here didn't stop us from hunting down blubber and towards the end of the watch one of the girls found a Grey Seal. 

The hour was up and we had to go back inside. But the excitement was too much so we nipped out for another look after munching our butties. 

We'd missed the main event of them turning the pipe through 90 degrees and floating it down the channel that had been dug for it...dohhh.

Wonder what it'll look like tomorrow.
We did spot a little wildlife in the form of a few Oystercatchers flying over the pipe as it was being winched/pushed/dragged.inched into position.

Where to next? A longer full four hour National Whale and Dolphin Watch tomorrow from Patch 2, will there be any blubber, if so will it be the tentatively identified Orcas from west Wales - we wish!!! Will it be the Beluga seen off Northern Island yesterday - how bonkers is that only lordy knows how many thousands of miles south of where it should be - what;s going on?

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

Slow sort of a day

The Safari didn't get out til mid-afternoon, forgoing the opportunity to twitch a couple of Temminck's Stints and a Little Stint not too far from the nature reserve (where there are 44 marsh orchid sp to have a blimp at asap).

Then our Extreme Photographer came round and we were off out on a proper job safari...into the garden again. Where we found a jumping spider.

and our first Ruby Tailed Wasp of the season

We hit the road and headed east. The heat was hot in the valley. The scent of May blossom hung heavy in the air. We endured Nettle stings, thistle spines and even a Horse Fly bite but it was well worth it. Tiger Beetles would chew you to tiny bits if they were big enough!

But quarry of the day was a little bigger.

We were successful!!!

Our first Lancashire Slow Worm. Just one of hundreds of pics we took.

Oh and don't drink any more water...

This reservoir is about 15 feet (5m) down on what we normally see when we visit this site.

We had another crack at the moon last night and again failed to get the earthshine, although it was alot less evident; we reckon this is a better pic than yesterday's.

Where too next? Back to work tomorrow :-(

In the meantime let us know if you had success in your outback today.