Bird bingo

The Safari joined PT to lead the North Blackpool Pond Trail's Bird Bingo family event last Saturday morning. The birds were on fine form, showing well, it's just a shame the families didn't make such a good showing too. Maybe people are doing other stuff on Saturday mornings and Sunday might be a better day for more people to be able to come along.

The birding is quite easy at Kincraig Lake as the birds are more than willing to come close and grab a beakful of whatever is on offer so you can get some nice portrait shots of old favourites like this male Mute Swan.

The sun shone bringing out the finery of the drake Mallards.

Also present was a very tame Heron which has become accustomed to eating bread - Can't be good for it!

Note its iris, it seems to be deformed and not circular like its other one, an old injury perhaps or was it born like that?

There are three Herons' nests on the wooded island this year but now the spring buds are unfurling they are quite difficult to see unless you can watch the birds flying in to them.

Birds came and went and we saw Woodpigeons display flighting, Collared Doves passing by, Feral Pigeons doing circuits and a lone Stock Dove heading north - never really imagined seeing one of those at this sight, weird or what, it certainly wasn't on the Bird Bingo tick-off sheets!

Woodpigeon

One of the Woodpigeons alighted on the fence to our left so we crept closer for a better look

As we were edging closer a Common Sandpiper (154, YLPC #123) flew past us

And landed on the edge of the viewing area just behind the fence almost right beneath the Woodpigeon.

It was quite wary and flew round several times looking for the best feeding opportunities around the lake which has no muddy margins, eventually after waiting most of the morning it came reasonably close.

Where there's water and bread there's inevitably Coots, this one had a nest under construction close by but wasn't going to pass up a free lunch

And if there's Coots there's inevitably Moorhens

A young father and his very young son had tipped out what looked like some porridge oats, neither the Coot nor the Moorhen could pick up the small pieces left after the Mallards had had their fill of the choices and largest flakes in the conventional downward pecking manner we're used to seeing birds do but resorted to this unusual sideways forceps pincer peck to glean the pickings from the hard concrete.

Ever cautious at any hint of danger or anything untoward even if totally not dangerous the Moorhen would scurry to the water's edge where it waited a while before taking the plunge if necessary, which it rarely was.

From the scrub we heard Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Blackcaps and watched House Sparrows collecting feathers for their nest in the houses across the road.

Wandering around the lakeside path we came across our first Speckled Wood butterfly of the year and then spotted this collection of still sleepy Garden Snails.

Back at the viewing area chat had got round to news of a strange video of a deer sleeping on a dumped sofa - how comfy but how odd. Well knock us down wiff a feaver not twenty yards further on was a dumped sofa but this one had a one eyed cat sleeping on it. You couldn't rite it - well errr - we just did!

After giving us the evils for disturbing it it went back into comfy cat mode

Good to see someone has provided a ramp so it doesn't have to leap so high to get on the arm rest - fly tipping at its most considerate?

Further on out of the woods and back in the sunshine a big queen Red Tailed Bumble Bee was giving the pathside Dandelions a good going over.

Dandelions get such bad press so much so that they are the 'weed of choice' for the garden herbicide advertisers and yet they do so much good for the early pollinators enabling them to build up their populations - we should be celebrating them rather than demonising and obliterating them. Us humans really can't stand anything that thrives amongst us we didn't put there can we. Just think of all those expansive and expensive swathes of yellow Daffodils along the roadsides, we could have Dandelions, Lesser Celandine, Cowslips and Primroses for free - but no we'd probably mow and spray them off as soon as they appeared in the name of 'tidiness' -  what a ridiculous species we are.

Rounding the corner our group stopped to let this female Blackbird finish her ablutions.

Back at the viewing area the Common Sandpiper was still flying round and eventually settled on the remains of an old Willow bush. Not where you'd expect to see one but apparently they have been know to sing from the branches of riverside trees on their territories up on the hillside streams and smaller rivers.

A morning's birding in the sun wouldn't be complete without a raptor or two and we had three...a big female Sparrowhawk soared overhead before disappearing only to be found by the local Magpies in the wooded area when we walked through that way. A Buzzard gave a good display of 'skydancing' as it mooched sort or northeast wards and then this came over. At first when we first picked it up coming towards us being mobbed by a throng of gulls we hoped it might be an early Honey Buzzard, but the jizz wasn't right, then as it drew nearer it looked Osprey-ish for a moment but then was obviously far too long tailed. We tried to get some pics but it was quite high and the camera refused to pick it up against the sky until it was annoyingly well past us. we only got this one poor usable shot and now we're pretty sure it's a immature male Marsh Harrier - answers on the usual post card please.

Right at the death a family did turn up but only to feed the ducks...and the Heron!

Isn't urban wildlife great!

Yesterday we had a mooch round Marton Mere with CR calling in at the Woodland Gardens first to see if we could find the male Pied Flycatcher LR had told us he'd found there a couple of hours earlier. Needless to say it had moved on and with not a lot else on show in there we did too.

Our mission was to get some pics of the summer warblers for our challenge but they weren't playing ball, singing yes but showing no. Grasshoppper Warbler, Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler all noisy but invisible. The first bird to hit the SD card was a Linnet swaying away in the cold brisk wind on a thin stem poking out above the Bramble thicket.

At the Bird Club hide interest was provided by the first family of Coots we've come across this spring. Our first Swift (155) of the year dropped in with a few Swallows too.

The embankment was cold in the wind and again the Reed, Sedge and Cetti's Warblers were all keeping out of sight, fortunately a Reed Bunting bucked the trend and sang from an exposed perch.

The scrub taunted us with mostly invisible Blackcaps and Whitethroats. C managed a couple of snaps of a Blackcap and a Sedge Warbler deep in cover but try as we might we couldn't get the camera on to anything at all.
That said when all seems lost nature pulls a blinder for you. After seeing not a lot from the viewing platform we turned to leave and C spotted some bee activity around a patch of Nettles catching the sun. Patient watching revealed them as a species of Nomad Bee, we don't think we've ever seen any species of these here before. wit hour birding 600mm lenses getting pics was tricky to say the least. But we both were able to get a few and they look like Nomada flava (based on this one being a male [pale yellow eyes] having all dark antennae) but we could be wrong, they're not an easy group to ID

If the are N. flava they've not been recorded locally before according to the NBN map, Preston 15 miles away being the closest dot. Happy days!

Where to next? Family day on the Southside tomorrow but we might see something if we get a chance

In the meantime let us know who's buzzing around for the first time in your outback

National Whale & Dolphin Watch 2016 so far

The Safari has been doing an hour's watch midweek during lunchtime for National Whale and Dolphin Watch but without success. Indeed we've probably had negative success when we recovered another dead baby Harbour Porpoise which is now awaiting a post-mortem. Today we learned of another youngster dead on the beach 'one day last week' which was found on the tide-line to the south of us along the toe of the dunes - what's going on with them? There does seem to be an awful lot washing up. Best of the rest has been daily Grey Seals, two today but always distant and not so easy to get the generally inexperienced at using telescopes volunteers on to them. Eventually everyone got at least a few seconds look at it/them. Thursday morning also provided a decent birding session when at least 20 Sandwich Terns and 10 Common Terns were fishing quite close to the wall. It's a pity it was so dull as they were probably just in range of the lens. Today bird excitement was limited to a brief build up of Gannets at a small bait ball just this side of the horizon to the south west early in the watch. There were never more than 20 and they soon either dispersed or drifted back over the horizon...it didn't amount to much at all and that was about it bird-wise for the next three and a half hours. Apart from the rather strange sighting of a pair of Common Scoters coming over the road from inland and landing on the sea just behind the surf - never seen that before!

Here's some pics from our trip north of the border to the capital of Bonny Scotland last weekend.

Edinburgh Castle with flaming torches

Late 16th century building skills - engineered onto the solid basalt rock The original 12th C castle was destroyed during a siege in 1570s

We were there to enjoy what may or may not have been Runrig's last UK gig after 43 years on the road. If it was the last it was an absolute cracker to end with and we can say "we were there", if it wasn't we'll have to go back!

Bruce - Canadian from Nova Scotia...New Scotland; so we suppose that's OK then

Here's Wifey's pics of the Greyfriar's Bobby pub we found by accident after the gig. What a dedicated doggy he was.

Oh and on the drive up we saw a real choo-choo train with smoke and all!!! Chooowwooooo. In Lancashire too! Showing our train-spotting 'knowledge' it might have been a Black 5.

After watching no whales or dolphins this morning we took the camera into the garden at Base Camp this arvo but there wasn't really that much to point it at.

A Small White butterfly was fluttering around Wifey's Nasturtiums so we went to have a look for any eggs finding some tiny already hatched caterpillars had started muching holes in the leaves - they'll be defoliated before too long!

Also lurking on the underside of the leaves were a few Blackfly, but with Aphids a few can very soon become very many!

The big one in the middle is exuding a drop of honeydew from its backside

On the upper surface of a nearby leaf an rather nicely marked dipteran fly of a totally unknown species was taking in the afternoon sun during a welcome break in the clouds. It's possibly a parasitic Tachinidae maybe Dexiosoma sp??????

Far easier to identify was this 'Batman' hoverfly, Myathropa florea. It's a whopper and an excellent wasp mimic.

Even easier to ID were the Red Tailed Bumble Bees  on the Thyme flowers. Plenty of Honey Bees on there too.

Where to next? The last throw of the Whale and Dolphin dice tomorrow. This time we're up at the start of Chat Alley - wonder  if there'll be any migrant birds on the cliffs below our watch point.
In the meantime let us know who's playing hard to get in your outback.

More gore

The Safari took a call while setting up on the morning of the family event mentioned in the previous post. It was from British Divers Marine Life Rescue local contact TH telling us there was a Long Finned Pilot Whale washed up dead on the beach to the south of Patch 2. It had been all over social media earlier in the morning but being busy we'd missed the news.

Not sure who's pic this is - lifted off Facebook, apologies to the photographer

Look at those scratches, is it a Risso's Dolphin, they get tooth rake marks from their social interactions or are they marks of aggression from a Bottlenose Dolphin or scratches from netting or ropes? TH sent some close ups later.

The teeth are inconclusive, if there are any (or if there are tooth sockets if the teeth have fallen out) in the upper jaw then it is a Long Finned Pilot Whale, if there never were any teeth up there then it would be a Risso's Dolphin.

The tangled fishing gear around the pectoral fin is a bit ominous but could have become attached after death.

We didn't get to see it in the end as it was removed from the beach to landfill. 

TH also told us she'd seen a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins not far off the prom earlier in the week too and has some pics looking back towards town we hope to be able to share with you soon. not only that she made a very generous offer to find out more keep an eye on our social media posts there may be the chance of some exciting opportunities coming up.

In other news on Tuesday we didn't see much from Patch 2 but that little was pretty good, a Little Tern (166, P2 #65) flew north dropping to catch fish occasionally with five Common Terns, a good find for our short visit  as they aren't guaranteed along our coast.

Our evenings have been taken up leading Brownie groups on bug hunts and pond dipping. The first night one of the Brownies came up to us saying she'd caught 'Stripe'. We lifted the pot and saw nothing! And then it moved - tiny! About the size of two large Springtails we could hardly see it without our specs on, and not much clearer with them on and the magnifier on the pot's lid. We'd no idea what it was, it ran rather than hopped. We tried to get a photo which was nigh on impossible with the wrong lens on a gloomy evening while being hassled from all sides by a gaggle of inquisitive Brownies and the darned thing just wouldn't keep still.

The pot is 5cm diameter and the line it's on is about 1mm wide

To be honest we don't even know which group of insects it belongs to, bugs, beetles or something else. Whatever it is it's distinctive so has anyone else ever seen anything like it before? There was enough sunshine to bring some other insects in to play too.

Small Tortoiseshell

And again

Small White

Common Wasp on Figwort

Red Tailed Bumble Bee on Ragwort

The following night wasn't quite so productive for bug weirdness but the Brownies did pull three Common Darter nymphs from the pond. It's not a species of dragonfly we see very often around the work's pond.

They also found a couple of damselfly nymphs, probably Blue Tailed Damselfly. 

We saw a nice grass that wouldn't have interested the Brownies. We think it could be Small Timothy, it does look pretty delicate compared to 'normal' Timothy even where it's growing quite tall.

While we were trashing the pond the green was being used for a most unusual sport, well a most unusual sport for round these parts. We see footy every day, cricket quite often, rounders fairly frequently but never have we seen hurling - until now!

Patch 2 gave us a distant Grey Seal today but not a lot else other than a nice fly past of four Manx Shearwaters together.

After work we had a quick nip down to the marine lake where we dipped a female Mandarin Duck that's been seen a few times since the weekend. Don't know where it was hiding this arvo but we sure couldn't find it.

There was some other interest though, we particularly liked seeing the family of Tufted Ducks, would have been better had they come a little closer.

Resting on the lawns were plenty of Canada Geese, Mallards and many Black Headed Gulls.

Away over on the edge of the island we spotted a Lesser Black Backed Gull poking at something. It turned out to be an almost fully grown ex-Cootling. It took a while but it went down whole in the end!

The feet are on their way down!

Where to next? We've got another children's event tomorrow, hope it doesn't rain.
In the meantime let us know who's got the brightest stripes in your outback.