Otterly brilliant at Marton Mere

The Safari had a morning out in Stanley Park with CR and GB at the end of last week. The plan was to see if we could get a bird to feed from G's hand, lots of  the birds in the park are habituated to do this due to the huge numbers of lovely peope who bring seeds for them. We walked down to the northern part of the lake going behind the boathouse with the intention of perusing the gulls and other waterfowl on the way back. There was some activity just beyond the Council's compost yard with the first of the day's Ring Necked Parakeets on one of the feeders by the ditch.

Yet again it was a dull and gloomy winter's day so the pics aren't the best but they give you a good idea of what was going on.

At the parakeet's nesting tree there are a few feeders for the small birds and so G stood close to the bushes arm outstretched with a hand full of best sunny seeds - he stood motionless for ages without a sniff of a bird coming to take his offerings - - they were flying over his shoulder to get food from the feeders totally ignoring him. There were several Blue Tits

At least half a dozen Great Tits

and a couple of Robins. A loud squawk above us had us all lookin g to the tree-tops where we found these two having a stretch and preen.

behind us and unbeknown to us a couple of Mute Swans had cruised up to the water's edge in the expectation of tit-bits no doubt. They weren't un-noticed by Monty who very naughtily made a 10 yard dart for them nearly tearing our manky finger from our palm as it got trapped in the handle of his lead. The pain was excruciating and with a visit to the surgeon coming up it might be getting near time to have the useless digit lopped off but that'll have serious implications for safaris later this year  when/if it happens. The Monster also needs to learn that chasing swans is unacceptable behaviour as is chasing Grey Squirrels and soon before he seriously hurts us trying to keep hold of him.

No lead as we were in that much pain we were unable to hold it

We moved away from the swans to deflect Montty's attention and wandered further along the lakeside passing a few Shovelers cruising through the Azolla infested area, not sure if they eat it or not, if they do they're not eating it fast enough or there's not enough Shovelers on the lake yet!

At the Conservation Area end of the lake we saw the first Heron up in the trees on the island nest-site this year. It's only a few short weeks until their first eggs are laid.

Also up this end of the lake is another area where people have put out some feeders and so once again G tried his hand (literally) at hand feeding the birds. Again he stood and stood and stood but to no avail, they just wouldn't come down to his offering. It wasn't the fault of the sunny seeds as they were taking ones from the same bag we'd distributed around the tree stumps and other feeders, maybe the birds just didn't recognise G as he's not one of the regular hand feeding people? There were plenty of birds about including a couple of very quick Coal Tits.

Poor quality but it shows their distinctive white nape for the Photo Challenge

Blue Tit comes in at number 48 on our Challenge

With time pressing it was about turn and back for a quioock last look at the Ring Necked Parakeets where we found just one this time, enjoying a succulent grape, not that grape vines grow in the park.

We had hoped a Nuthatch and/or a Great Spotted Woodpecker would put in an appearance at one pf the feeding areas but the closest we got was just one Nuthatch calling unseen from high in the tree-tops near the boathouse. or was anything particularly photogenic among the waterfowl as we walked passed the southern part of the lake. Time for lunch!

A late afternoon Monty walk with Wifey saw us meeting GB in Fleetwood where we took a cold and very blustery stroll along the prom to the marine lake. After a brief glimpse last week G had much better views, if fact despite being Fleetwood born n bred and lurking round the marine lake often in his younger days his best ever views of the Red Breasted Mergansers that are often found on there in the winter. The weather was atrocious and so is our pic (PYLC #49) but at least we didn't get the biblical rain, thunder and lightening that was reported not far away to the south.

Hopefully to be bettered for the Challenge in future but they all count even at ISO 25600!

On Sunday evening news broke that a regular visitor had posted some superb footage - do videos have feet? - of not one, not two, but three Otters at Marton Mere; we can only surmise that it must be a female with a couple of cubs, excellent news!!! The footage looked remarkably similar to some we took a couple of weeks over seven years ago although WL's sighting was nearer - he was in the hide should have been in - the one we wanted to move to in our commentary - and no doubt his kit will be more up-to-date with better resolution.

Nothing for it but to pick up CR on Monday morning and high tail it round there. Monday morning was like most mornings so far this year a dull grey gloomy affair with the serious threat of rain in the air. We got to the Feeding Station just in time to escape a sharp shower and while we waited for it to pass over we enjoyed the alien show, Pheasants (PYLC #50) and Grey Squirrels along with a small number of native birds including three Dunnocks and at least one Coal Tit.

Still up at ISO Ridiculous

Once the shower had passed we set off to view the lake and almost as soon as we'd arrived at the Bittern watching area' C spotted an Otter about half way across at our end of the mere - result!. A couple of hasty snaps were taken before we scampered to the Dragonfly Den Hide hoping it would swim that way as it has done in the past.

From the hide the animal was still distant and didn't come any closer but did give superb views as it fished for the best part of half an hour.

It has a fish in this pic but the resolution isn't good enough to be able to tell which species, it's not an Eel that's all we can say

Trying to catch it leaping just before its head hit the water proved impossible - or just  unlucky

Similarly it was double tricky trying to second guess where it would come up out of the water and then would it be facing the front?

An absolutely fabulous half hour - Marton Mere has to be the best site to see Otters in the daytime in the whole of the north of England at the moment, if you've never seen one or want to see one again get yourselves down there ASAP.

Where to next? We've got a date with some ouls if they're willing to show themsleves

In the meantime let us know who's putting on the aquatic show in your outback

A quick dart up the Prom

The Safari wasn't expecting to get out very far today. but slight changes to Wifey's plan meant we were able to have a good few hours out in today's better weather than tomorrow's drizzly rain. It did mean we had to take Monty with us though, his first 'proper' safari - how would he get on; or more importantly how would we get on!?!

We packed him into the boot of the car and headed northwards. At the marine lake we had a particular quarry in mind. To find it we get the pooch out and had a wander along the lakeside path where we soon discovered holding a 5 month old pup and using bins single-handed in a bit of a cold breeze is a bit tricky and not conducive to aiding accurate identifications. We had a good luck for our quarry but to no avail. We did however get a few year birds but had to put Monty back in the car and come out again with the camera; bins and dog was hard enough camera and dog would have been impossible and probably expensive.

At work we watched a Kittiwake (59, P2 #14) battle its way north against the fierce gale yesterday, that could be one of the species we see fairly often throughout the year but end up being unable to get a pic of for our Photo Challenge.

Anyway back to today we soon added Mute Swan (60) to our year list

with a couple of pairs hanging round the lake margins for the inevitable hand-out of copious amount of bread. Much further out were a trio of Goldeneyes (61) , one male and a couple of females, too distant for any proper pics unfortunately.

And two pairs of Red Breasted Mergansers (62) again always way too far out for a proper pic

On the little island we hoped to find one or more Purple Sandpipers roosting over the high tide with about 200 Turnstones and 150 Redshanks but it wasn't to be today; where were they - there were three there yesterday - how annoying! There was another bird for our Photo Challenge though, a Grey Heron.

The smaller lake had a been drained and a bit of a gull roost had formed, mostly Black Headed Gulls but scanning through them hoping for a Mediterranean Gull we soon found a couple of Common Gulls snoozing deeply on the far bank.

After 20 minutes or so locked in the car while we had our photo session Monty needed to stretch hos legs again so we took him up to the Prom where we soon noticed the flood barriers had been fitted. he met loads of new friends and we saw few birds as the tide was almost up to the wall already. Only a couple of hundred Sanderlings roosted on the highest shingle banks. We bumped into some friends we see at work and then CR came along after he too had been unsuccessful with the Purple Sandpipers. We wandered back to the car park with him and then drove back to the lake where we hoped the top of the tide might have pushed the Purple Sands off the last bit of beach and onto the island with the Turnstones, sadly it hadn't. We went our separate ways CR went home and we decided to have a look at the nearby Nature Park aka dog toilet - Monty loved it!

There were dogs everywhere including swimming in the lake but the birds didn't seem that bothered - they must be really used to it! Again we lt Monty have a run round and a play with some new friends before we locked him up and had a few minutes with the camera.

We can't believe it's half way through January and we only saw our first Coot (63) of the year today.

Similarly with Tufted Ducks (64) of which there were several and approachable which they often aren't at many other sites.

There were hundreds of gulls coming off the adjacent landfill site to the pools to bathe before going up on a nearby factory roof to roost, it was a shame we didn't have the time to do them justice we're sure there'd have been a goody or two sooner or later. 

By now it was long past Monty's dinner-time and he wasn't the only one getting a bit peckish so we called it a day. A very enjoyable day out at that with some great birds and doggy fun.

Where to next? Monty is going to meet his cousin Roguey for an afternoon of rough n tumble and we'll take the camera in-case there's something to point it at; the weather doesn't look too promising though.

In the meantime let us know who's playing hide and seek in your outback.

Just like buses

The Safari was in a quandary this morning without LCV - what to do? Should we go back to work and recoup a day's leave in case we need it later or should we take it and go wildlifing anyway? Well it wasn't much of a decision to make. A quick look a few weather websites had us choosing north over south as that would give us the driest day and perhaps a slightly higher chance of some sunshine.

It took almost as long to do the four and a half miles to the motorway through the rush hour traffic as it did to do the 40 miles on the motorway to our destination - what a traffic nightmare and good early morning boiding time wasted!

We parked up ate a butty, picked up the optics and wandered off down the causeway. Out in the sticks it was a very peaceful morning only bird calls and cattle lowing broke the silence - beautiful. We'd not gone more than a few paces when we heard a Nuthatch (77) calling from the woods behind us, a little further a Cetti's Warbler fired up as explosively as they do but we weren't hearing much in the way of ducks from the lake the other side of the reedbed to our left but we did hear  a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming from the same direction as the Nuthatch, the first time we've heard that this year.

Arriving at the hide we saw we couldn't go round to the next hide without wellies as the water level was well over the causeway down there and we weren't shod in our wellies just our not so very waterproof trainers.

The view from the hide was nothing we'd seen the like of before, the island that many birds usually loaf on was gone! A Mute Swan and a couple of wet footed Lapwings (78) made the most of the shallow water.

Other than a small flock of Tufted Ducks and a few Coot it was deadly quiet, not even the Otters were putting on a performance today.

Unable to any further and nothing happening we retraced our steps to the road and turned towards the visitor centre passing the not quite finished new boardwalk on the way - that should make life a lot easier by a) not having to walk on the road at all and b) you'll be in the habitat so more chance of seeing/hearing something interesting.

At the entrance we met a local birder who was having a good look at the feeders and spotted a stunning male Bullfinch (79) perched nearby, sadly it didn't stop long and was the only one of its kind we saw all day. Membership cards shown we were into the inner sanctum of the reserve, first stop the very lively feeding station. All the usual suspects were here except Bullfinch and Greenfinch. After a couple of Coal Tit false alarms and double checks to make sure a Marsh Tit (80) did come in for a sunflower seed. As is often the case around feeders there were several lively and aggressive Robins and skulking around keeping well clear of the argumentative Robins were a couple of Dunnocks. We weren't prepared for what happened next, one of the Dunnocks flew from the ground to the lower branches of a nearby shrub and then on to the feeder - well know us down with a Dunnock feather we weren't expecting that, what's going on with this species???

A Jay (81) tazzed through putting the smaller birds to flight so we took our leave and made for the nearest hide.

Again the water level was very high and most of the ducks were sat in the edge of the fringing reeds, Mallard, Teal, Gadwall and some Tufted Ducks on the open water were seen as well as a Water rail being heard. Away in the distance large numbers of Lapwings, Mallards and Teal kept flushing, keeping a close eye on them soon revealed a female type Marsh Harrier (82) cruising inches over the top of the reeds. After a while it settled on the top of a bush but far to distant for a pic. Above it a kettle of raptors appeared almost spontaneously pout of the woods on the hillside opposite, in our field of view we had four Buzzards (83), a Raven (84) and a Sparrowhawk (85) circling together - three species all year birds...bonkers!

Time to move on again but again we couldn't get to the next two hides due to inappropriate footwear, why didn't we put our wellies on they were there in the boot of the car. A look along the path as far as we could get gave us a small flock of Long Tailed Tits, several more Robins, Chaffinches and Blue Tits and another Jay and Marsh Tit.

By now we'd just about exhausted the possibilities for our footwear and also realised the tide was rising down the road so off we went passing fields full of Lapwings, Curlews and Grey Lag Geese all in single species flocks, whatever the conditions were in each field they only suited one of those three species.

Ignoring the first hide we went straight to the second and found a few birders unsure of the identity of three small waders tucked in among the Lapwings on a distant island in the pool, Dunlin (86) we told them and they returned the favour by pointing out a Greenshank (87) partially hidden in a group of Redshanks. They also told us that only a few minutes prior their arrival another birder had seen the Kingfisher so we were hopeful it would put in another appearance before too long.

On the other pool there were lots, and we mean lots, of Teal, Wigeon, Lapwings and a good number of Shovelers roosting up and a small number of Little Egrets scattered across the marsh. Another flock of Dunlin flew round but found it not to their liking and didn't settle.

Lapwing - phonescoped

Sleeping Shovelers - normal camera

Despite the huge duck numbers we only found five Pintails (88) sleeping together on one of the muddy islands. From time to time the ducks would be woken from their slumbers by something usually unseen, once we thought the culprit was a couple of low flying Cormorants, once a marauding Great Black Backed Gull although this and a another did several more circuits of the pool with causing any consternation, another time it was these two monsters.

 And yet another flush was caused by this female Red Breasted Merganser (89) coming in to land.

The hoped for Kingfisher never did show but a Little Egret came close to the hide giving us our best photo opportunity of this recent(ish) arrival we've had - with the numbers here now we can't believe we saw a couple of Pectoral Sandpipers here well before the then almost unthinkable arrival of Little Egrets.

It half walked half fluttered down the bank and began to use those huge yellow feet to stir up the mud in the same way gulls do on grassy fields and roadside verges.

The ploy worked too but we couldn't tell what species of fish it was as it disappeared all to quickly.

After a couple of beakfuls it hopped back up the bank and then must have seen or heard us move as it stared straight at us waving its head like a snake to get a proper look at what was causing the disturbance.

Approaching weather made us call it a day and head back to the car passing a Reed Bunting (90) on the way and then something caught our eye in the thick vegetation on the side of the railway embankment, stopping to check another movement looked very much like a pair (or simply two) Cetti's Warblers but they vanished before we could confirm the glimpse. If they were Cetti's Warblers we've never seen/heard one in this part of the reserve before.

The rain arrived but was only light when we got half way down the motorway and as we were making good progress we thought we ought to pop in to the nature reserve for half an hour before hitting Base Camp. We did but didn't stay long, it was very windy, much windier than up north, the rain was heavier and it was cold. A quick look from the hide gave us a good number of Coots and some Grey Lag Geese and Cormorants but not a lot else so we only stopped a few minutes. Once back on the main road we recalled that someone had reported a Peregrine sitting on the ledge outside their office building adjacent to the nature reserve, sure enough once through the traffic lights we cast our eyes up and right and there was the Peregrine (91, MMLNR #56) clinging to a very narrow ledge out of the wind, happy days!

We mightn't have had the enjoyable company of LCV but we did have a good day out after all.

Where to next? All good things come to an end and so it's back to work tomorrow. All being well Patch 2 should be back in play, what will we find?

In the meantime let us know if those Hedge Tits or Dunfinches whatever they're called have learned to ransack the feeders in your outback.

Fantastic wildlife spectacular

The Safari took Frank for a drag this morning, need a wheelbarrow! No Patch 1 visit as is now the norm! Its a battle of wills we've more or less lost!

 And if sitting like an anchor does work there's always the upside-down mode...

On the drive to work we kept an eye out for the blackbird in the unusual place – still no takers!

The tide was on the rise and a blustery breeze was coming off the sea so it was straight out onto Patch 2.

Superb!!!

As soon as we put eye to eyepiece two Manx Shearwaters (156, 58) barreled past along the horizon with a number of Kittiwakes. The Kittiwakes kept coming and coming at all ranges from fairly close in, almost close enough to pick out their yellow bills, to the horizon; they were like Wildebeest on the Serengeti. We didn’t count anything this morning we were too awestruck by the Attenboroughesque spectacle that was happing right in front of our very eyes.

What did we have?...It was more a case of what didn’t we have! 

There were Gannets aplenty including our first immature of the year, at least 10 Manx Shearwaters, just how many auks?

A fair few Sandwich Terns went by along with two ‘Commic’ Terns  that can’t be added to the year list but later in the morning we learnt that four Arctic Terns had gone past not far to the north of us, flocks of Common Scoters bumbled about here and there in their own inimitable fashion...anyone know where we’re going...ohh OK we’ll head off this way for a bit then turn round.... A Red Throated Diver, like the auks, bucked the trend and headed southwards against the Kittiwake/Gannet ‘traffic’. Another Patch 2 tick, and one which seems a long time coming, a pair of Red Breasted Mergansers (59) was quickly followed by another pair...buses spring to mind

Flocks of waders sped southwards aiming for their estuarine roost site as the tide got higher but yet another Patch 2 tick bucked the trend when two Ringed Plovers (60) shot through north-bound close inshore.

At sea the Kittiwake-fest continued but we failed to find any Little Gulls nor were there any Arctic Skuas tagging along.

Sadly we had a desk to drive and couldn’t stay out any longer but to help our decision regarding leaving the mother of all black clouds was heading swiftly in our direction.

Could hardly wait until lunchtime came around.

Lunchtime did eventually arrive but the first scan of the dropping tide showed that activity had subsided significantly.

A few Gannets carved their way through the deep troughs and two Great Crested Grebes in full sum plum looked rather incongruous amongst the rolling breakers.

Before too long an Arctic Tern (157, 61) bright ‘Daz’ white came past with two more hot on its heels (should that be tail streamers?).

The Gannets continued to pass, mostly aiming south this time and there were a handful of Kittiwakes but it had become pretty slow.

A pair of Eider whizzed past and we found a winter plumaged Guillemot just behind the surf.

Not quite as exciting as we had hoped but we still managed to add another species to the year list...Monika 165 v 157 The Safari - so we’ve still got a bit of catching up to do.but there’s a long way to go yet and anything could happen!

Where to next? More of the same thrills n spills wouldn't go amiss in the morning.

In the meantime let us know what is rivaling Wildebeests for sheer numbers in your outback.