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 best laid plans scuppered by the weather again

The Safari was up at Leighton Moss with CR again after a weather induced decision took us away from our prefered venture into south Cumbria where we had hoped to fettle out some scaly things. The weather forecast had other ideas though and told us to expect wintery showers thick and fast throughout the day. So change of venue it was and not to worry as Leighton Moss had a pair of Garganey recently arrived and the prospect of smaller arrivals in the form of Willow Warblers and Blackcaps to look forward to as well as the possibility of an Osprey going over and the resident Bitterns, Cetti's Warblers and Bearded Tits and maybe even a Jay (no chance!) to add to our Challenge tally.

News on the street was that the Garganey were at the Grisedale hide so that's where we set off for first. Once at the hide we learnt we'd arrived about half an hour after an Osprey had passed through...would there be another one later?????. But there was no sign of the Garganey. In fact there wasn't much sign of anything although to be fair Cetti's Warblers taunted and teased us by signing from invisible locations and Bitterns boomed similarly invisibly. The light was atrocious too, those regular showers didn't materialise and we had bright sunshine all morning making viewing  in to the light awkward and uncomfortable at times with the glare off the water. Then something unseen flushed a small group of Teal from the left which flew across in front of the hide and landed away to the right, but following them, swimming rather than flying, was the pair of Garganey. Why the shout hadn't gone up from the left hand side of the hide we don't know but they were getting to the point of no return into the bad light when we picked them up and spread the word.

They sailed passed us and settled in a really bad patch of glare, impossible to get any more pics. #128.

A quick look from Tim Jackson Hide wasn't up to much so we opted to head for the causeway and break open the butty box there passing through Lillian's Hide on the way. Again there wasn't too much to be had at Lillian's and looking anywhere right of straight out was difficult due to the glare, we tried to look through the diving duck flock to see if the female Ring Necked Duck was still present but to be honest it was hard enough to tell Pochards from Tufted Ducks the light was that bad. 

As usual while we're on safari we keep a tally of Egrets v Herons. By now Egrets had a slight upper hand by now but for a change Herons weren't going to beaten easily today although they are hard to keep a track of as they move around a bit and accidental double counting can easily come into play. With not much to aim the camera at here and Heron's being big and slow we tried a bit of BiF photography, one day we hope to get the hang of it!

A bit nearer were a few Black Headed Gulls coming and going from the nesting platforms put out for the Common Terns.

Away in the distance and sitting alone, all Billy No Mates, was our friend the Cinnamon Teal x Shoveler hybrid. We thought we'd seen him earlier at the Tim Jackson hide but that must have just been a moulty normal Shoveler showing a large white facial crescent.

Bitterns boomed and Cetti's Warblers cettied but still unseen. Distant Marsh Harriers harried the ducks in the pools at the back side of the reedbed but nothing was really close to keep us entertained to we moved on, those butties now trying to break out of the box! The walk to the Causeway Hide past the wooded area didn't provide any Siskins as it had on recent visits and nor were there any fresh-in Blackcaps or Willow Warblers. We were hoping for a butterly or some solitary bees too but despite the sunshine neither were on the wing. From the Causeway Hide we could see the water level had dropped a bit since our last visit but was still a good bit higher than normal. Small numbers of Tufted Ducks and Pochard were the main event.

Again the walk through the woods down to Lower Hide was disappointingly quiet, no longer being allowed to chuck bird seed down willy-nilly has meant you're not being accosted by Robins and Great Tits for a free hand-out but has made the bird life in the woods much harder to find. And the 'Jay field' was devoid of Jays, no change there then! 

From Lower Hide we heard yet more booming Bitterns and even more singing Cetti's Warblers, one was right outside the back of the hide but whenever it struck up and we poked our head out of the window or door it was nowhere to be seen.It comes to something when you're reduced to taking pics of immature Mute Swans sailing by, there wasn't much else to see never mind point the camera at; no amount of willing got a Bittern to come to the edge of the reedbed.

It was that bad we were reduced to aiming at a small clump of Marsh Marigolds in front of the hide.

We were about to leave when the first of the day's showers struck. We stayed put and waited for the Sand Martins to drop out of the sky - none did! The rain didn't last long and now that our butty boxes were empty we set off back towards the Garganeys. The woods were still quiet, no Willow Warblers nor Blackcaps had arrived. But just as we got back to the Causeway a Blackcap briefly sang a few notes, good to get one on the day list but no chance of a pic of it in the dense Blackthorn thicket. The Causeway hide was full to busting so we went straight through even though there were point blank Tufted Ducks in nice light right outside the window. A quick look from the screen outside the far door gave us a consolation not too distant drake Pochard.

Along the causeway a male Marsh Harrier began to come into range but veered away rather than posing for pics, we did get our first (and only as it happens) Water Rail of day, sqealing from the reeds to our left. A brief stop at the feeders had a camera-shy pair of Bullfinches and a brief view of a Treecreeper but not much else. Continuing directly to the Grisedale Hide we passed a singing Chiffchaff along the path just past the visitor centre.

On reaching the Grisedale Hide the light wwas better than earlier, or at least not so much in your face, hard right was harsh light. But there was a bit more activity. A couple of Marsh Harriers cruised around

Grey Lag Geese noisily came and went

And in theafternoon sunshine the Teal looked particularly splendid.

The males are easy to appreciate with their colourful heads with the gold pencil lines and their filigree vermiculated flanks but the females are also striking in a more subtle way with spots and speckles in a multitude of hues of brown and cream.

The Osprey nesting tower has once again been taken over by one of the resident pairs of Great Black Backed Gulls - woe betide any Osprey that tries to displace them! It might be wise for the reserve to cover the the platform until the Ospreys start to arrive in numbers but even then there's no guarantee the gulls wouldn't get there first. Both, however, are Amber Listed in the UK although the Great Black backed Gull population is about 15,000 pairs compared to only 250 pairs of Ospreys, the latter are rapidly increasing while the gulls are just about stable with maybe a slight increase in recent years.

Meanwhile a female Marsh Harrier refused to do the decent thing and come close.

We always like to get a pic or two of the Gadwall but today although there were several about they weren't for showing particularly well. Still it's always good to admire their vermiculations

A splendiferous drake Teal came by and had a little preen and wash n brush up

Before hauling out in a patch of reeds and settling settling down for a nap

Grey Lag Geese continued to go back and forth while the crowd in the hide waited for the garganeys to reappear - word was they were far to the right in a little bay behind a small bush but also in very glary light so spotting them was really tricky.

Eventually, we think by fluke, we spotted the Garganey coming out from behind the tree and managed to get most folks on to them although views weren't that great. After a few minutes they did the decent thing and started swimming across the pool in our direction giving most people much better views though often obscured in the cut reeds.

They swam a little firther our way but stopped short of passing in front of the hide where they would have been in much much better light.

The pair began to pick flies that must have been hatching both off the water's surface and the vegetation.

Great to see them, somehow we didn't come across them at all last year.

We left them to the rest of the crowd, without about an hour of our time there remaining we thought we'd have a look at the saltmarsh pools. We successfully traversed the very pot-holed track without losing an exhaust pipe or wheel for a shuffy. At the Allen Pool there wasn't a lot to shuffy at but we did pick out a gorgeous adult Mediterranean Gull from the throng of Black Headed Gulls. If our soundtrack at the Moss was the booming of the Bitterns here it was the cacophony of the Black Headed Gulls, there'll be no break in their noise for the next three months - a constant 24/7 barrage of strident sound. The Med Gull was very rude and went and sat on the furthest island from us so no way we could get a pic and it must have snuck off while our attention was focused on whatever else was on the pool cos when a family of young birders came into the hide we couldn't re-find it for them.

From the hide we could see many more birds over the embankment and better viewed from the Eric Morecambe Hide so off we went. There we found lots of Redshank, including this one having a good old bathe.

One swimming

And several mooching around looking for a bite to eat

Birders with scopes found a Peregrine sat on a fence post miles away and we found a couple of Goosanders tucked under the bank of the furthest pool but it was the  that were the main reason for us to brave the track from hell. There were plenty about but none particularly close and they were scattered all across the marsh in small groups. These were about the nearest

And were joined by a couple of others from further away across the pool.

There were some on the nearest vegetated island that appeared to be feeding, on what exactly???

A large flcok of Black Tailed Godwits in the middle of the pool was disturbed by something unseen, or they had just managed to frighten themselves, but once in the air it broke up into smaller groups ansd a couple of them landed quite close. Great to see them attaining their brick red summer plumage.

We were told of a Green Winged Teal that had been seen earlier but hadn't been seen since a passing Marsh Harrier had spooked everything. We failed to find it, there's more than plenty of places it could have been hiding. There'd been a second Mediterranean Gull earlier too but we still couldn't find the one we'd originally seen from the Allen Hide.

Then all to soon it was time to brave the Bank Holiday traffic and head back to Base Camp. We needn't have worried the traffic going our way wasn't too bad but we certainly wouldn't have fancied being stuck in the miles of dead slow tail back heading up to the Lake District or Scotland.

Back at Base Camp we've been keeping an eye on the local birds, here's one half of one of the two local pairs of Dunnocks that came for easy pickings while we had taken a break from topping up the feeders and left them stood on the potting bench/moth trap table at the bottom of the garden.

We've got about three dozen House Sparrows eating us out of house n home. They must have been enjoying having a dust bath as the ground has been absolutely saturated for months - breaking news...it didn't last long, yet more persistant heavy rain has saturated the ground again.

Then our phone pinged a WhattsApp message about three Red Kites heading south a few miles away...with the wind direction they could well come our way so we went and stood in the garden waiting for the rooftop Herring Gulls to go ballistic and let us know they were on their way. In the meantime we took some gull shots to get the camera settings right and practice panning and focussing n stuff and fluked this Lesser Black Backed Gull going over the garden. They're outnumbered hundreds to one by the Herring Gulls here still.

Almost two hours we waited, camera poised for an instant strike but to no avail; the Red Kites didn't materialise.

We'll leave you with last week's pic of the Sandwich Tern we told you we wouldn't post cos it was so dire...you can judge for yourselves.

 

Where to next? Hopefully the weather will improve and we'll get out on safari and find something that isn't birds for a change.

In the meantime let us know what the soundtrack of your outback is.