Anyone seen any butterflies?

The Safari has been wanting to do counts for this summer's Big Butterfly Count but the weather has been constantly putting the mockers on proceedings so much so that we've only managed a couple of counts over the last fortnight and they haven't revealed prodigious numbers of butterflies. Meadow Browns have been the most numerous but well below what we would normally expect on our rough fields, followed by the not counted for the Count Small Skippers.

Small Skipper

Only a handful of other species have been seen, a couple of Red Admirals, a few Gatekeepers and a Common Blue on our second visit not many Large or Small Whites and a single very fresh Small Copper on our first visit.

Small Copper

But where are the Small Tortoiseshells? Are you seeing any round your outback? Maybe all that mowing and weedkillering of the Dandelions is having an effect on the early emergers and they aren't able to get into good enough condition to lay lots of eggs and even if they do the 'Tidy Brigade' lay waste to the all important Nettle patches destroying eggs and/or caterpillars in the process. Or maybe it's just bad luck with weather conditions and parasitoids?

Like the butterfly counting opportunities to put the moth trap out have been sadly lacking too and when it has gone out the catches have been nothing to write home about, mostly a few Large Yellow Underwings with fewer Dark Arches, Common Rustic aggs and Uncertain/Rustics - doubt we'll ever get the hang of separating those too despite watching videos and reading articles on how to do it.

We did get one good night though and that produced the best catchy of the year so far with no less than 53 moths of eight species although 37 of them were Large Yellow Underwings. Pick of the bunch was a nice Iron Prominent.

Iron Prominent - don't you just love that furry face

We took the chance on the weather and did an on-line booking for a visit to Martin Mere WWT and was lucky enough to send round our Scouse mates for JG to also get a place before the day booked up so a great opportunity for a meet up.

The day was a little cool and windy but at least the rain held off. The morning started well with a Common Sandpiper appearing in front of the Discovery Hide.

There were plenty of other birds about to keep us on our toes too. Lapwings appeared to have had a good season with a sizeable flock already building up.

A flock of settled Black Headed Gulls held a fair proportion of juveniles but despite scanning through them repeatedly we couldn't find any Mediterranean Gulls lurking. Over in the distance the Black Tailed Godwits looked resplendent in their bright golden summer garb. Buzzards sat on posts and we had a couple of distantish views of a hunting Marsh Harrier. Our next stop was all the way round to the far side of the reserve to the recently opened Gordon Taylor hide stopping at the feeding station on the way. That was really busy there were birds zooting here there and everywhere. All tyhe common feeding station birds, pick of the bunch being a really bright male Greenfinch. The Brown Rats were fun to watch too until a drake Mallard appeared and shooed them off the fallen seed. At the Gordon Taylor hide we had a short wait outside for people to leave before we could enter socially distanced from the other birders already in there. Everything on view from here was a bit distant, more stunning Black Tailed Godwits and Lapwings, a few moulting Teal but no Avocets, they've already left for pastures new. More birders arrived so no wanting to 'hog the hide' we moved on umming and erring as whether or not to do the Reed Bed Walk time was getting to wards butty time so we opted for the return to the car park option where our butties were still in the boot of the car. A stop at the Unitied Utilities hide was fairly quiet until someone mentioned they'd not seen a Peregrine on site for quite a few weeks and no sooner had they got the words out of their mouth than one appeared - how often does that happen - -  it's spookey!!! We got some more Marsh Harrier action too. Moving on we passed a nice bright largeish orange fungus - we're useless at fungi so if anyone knows what it might be please let us know.

We decided on a quick peek from the Harrier Hide and bumped into KL looking to get to some pics of any butterflies that might be about in the warmth of the sheltered flowery dip behind the hide but he was having little success chasing the few Gatekeepers that were flitting around. There wasn't a great lot to be seen from the hide, best being a pair of Little Grebes, a new species for the day.

A very brief look at the Feeding Station gave us the Mallard still keeping the Brown Rats at bay.

With our butties retrieved from the car we made our way to the relative comfort of the Raines Observatory. Never really understood a hide without opening windows but the full height glazing does give a panoramic view of the site and keeps the wind out, you don't half get a crinkle cut ar*e off those wooden seats though. Anyway while butties were being munched a tractor working in the distance came in for lunch and as it got closer flushed a Heron from the water's edge.

Now as you're probably aware we have a penchant fro agricultural machinery, for more so than the average Joe...but certainly not as much as this odd chap

Stolen from Twitter with apologies to the original poster

We're loathe to admit it but Masseys and John Deeres are our faves too, but NO we haven't got anything like 5000 images of tractors on our PC! 3000 maybe but none are in provocative poses.

Agricultural excitement over our window seat then gave us some avian excitement in the form of a Green Sandpiper landing close by but mostly obscured by a large fence post. We had to wait for it to wander a little further away along the bank of the pool before we could get anything like a decent pic - not that that's possible through the glazed window. Photo Year List Challenge #164.

The glazing also prevented any pics of a really close Marsh Harrier, the third different individual of the day and a very well marked one at that.

After lunch we moved on to the Kingfisher hide where we had superb views of very lively Tree Sparrows at the feeders but unfortunately the light was poor for getting any pics so not waning to hog the best seats we moved on to the Ron Barker hide where little was happening until after a few minutes the lady to our right heard a Kingfisher and then briefly saw it. Not long after it flew to a favoured perch, a branch deliberately poised over the brook. We filled our boots as it repeatedly dived, not for fish but to bathe.

While intently watching the Kingfisher said lady called out a Stork on the bridge. We'd not seen that fly in and only a few feet from the Kingfisher lifting our eyes from the camera's viewfinder we could see no Stork, how did we miss that??? Happens she's said Stoat and we'd misheard here accent. then she called it out again and there it was a Stoat on the bridge and the first we've seen for a couple of years - can't believe we didn't see one at all last year.

We were relieved when it stood still long enough to fire off a few snaps but it soon disappeared under the Bramble bush never to be seen again. Photo Year List Challenge #165.
Then the Kingfisher put in another appearance, a little further aay but did catch a fish which we missed wit the camera as it flew off with it just as we were about to press the shutter...so annoying.

Having a look what else was about we checked through the gull flock as always especially when a large number of Black Headed Gulls flew in from the neighbouring fields, nothing out of the ordinary was with them this time. It was nice to see some July Whooper Swans, obviously not fit enough to make the flight to Iceland back in the spring. We'd have loved to have seen them on their breeding grounds this summer but that darned virus thingy put paid to plans of an Icelandic adventure.

Returning to the Discovery hide we had a few minutes in there seeing another Common Sandpiper

Also close by were two broods of very young Mallards and a well moulted drake Teal.

In the distance we could see the sun shining on a few Black Tailed Godwits and a couple of Ruff - time to move round there to see if we could get closer views in better light.

The waders were having a bit of sticky time wading through the thick soft sticky peaty gloop.

And then a last look at the Feeding Station where we saw our first Green Veined White of the year - how come it's taken so long to connect with one of these very common butterflies?

And with that it was time to say our goodbyes to JG and thank her for the great day out before heading back across the river to Base Camp.
A sunny afternoon in the garden gave us the chance to have a go at getting some bee pics. We've been doing our best to get to grips with solitary bee ID this season and hoped the much needed sunshine might have brought some out but we only saw a female Blue Mason Bee sunning itself on the garage roof and out of range of the macro lens. All the other bees we saw were either bumble bees or Honey Bees.

Honey Bee

Believed to be Bombus terrestris

Male Common Carder Bee

The cliffs on our dog-walks have given us a stonking juvenile Willow Warbler and a couple of juvenile Wheatears. We've also done four, or more accurately 3 1/2 as one was abandoned due to atrocious weather, watches for National Whale & Dolphin Watch. Sadly due to inclement weather the only blubber we got were a couple of Grey Seals and a very brief view of a Harbour Porpoise. The birds weren't too brilliant either, a flock of over-landing Common/Arctic Terns at the very start of the final watch was the  best sighting among distant Manx Shearwaters, mostly distant Gannets and a couple of Little Terns and Fulmars. Annoyingly the weather on the Friday and Monday around both weekend's watches was much better tha nthe weekend s themselves - isn't it always the way! On the first saturday we left the watch with the car's heated seat on and the heater set to 25C we were that cold - it's the end of July for crying out loud that shouldn't be necessary!!!

A sunny morning the other day saw us meet up with CR and young EM to see if we could find any lizards on the dunes at St Anne's. The promised sunshine was actually a bit better a bit earlier than forecast and that had warmed the sand up too much before we got there and so we couldn't find any Common Lizards but it did mean that the butterflies were on the wing ready for our arrival. the site speciality here are the Graylings and this morning they were out in force - don't think we've ever seen so many in an hour or so before, they were everywhere we turned. Fantastic!

One thing you never see are the upper-wings of the Graylings, they never sit with their wings open. We tried a bit of a trick and very nearly succeeded and almost got to show you the unseen but it just needs a bit more perfecting in both camera settings and technique.

Another feature of the morning was the large number of Dune Robber Flies, like the Graylings they were everywhere.

We might get another bash at our tricky trick on Sunday when we have a short window of opportunity to get down to the dunes again, lets hope the sun is shining and the butterflies are out on the wing.

If you fancy a giggle have a watch of us doing our Attenborough impersonation on the beach for a virtual beachcombing kids event. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3720130018015073

Where to next? After Sunday's short safari there may be the chance of longer further flung safaris later in the week if the promised weather holds out.

In the meantime let us know who's been keeping their wings folded in your outback.

Enjoy your local wildlife - Stay safe stay socially distanced.

Week 8 but are the safaris locked down or not?

The Safari has taken advantage of the relaxed lockdown rules available in the second half of this week. 

To start the week we were still only able to do one proper walk a day and Monday saw us have a wander along the full length of the North Blackpool Pond Trail. Both Sedge Warblers were still in song but unseen at the reedbed at the strat of our walk as was a Reed Warbler, our first there this year. Once again a search of the mound revealed no Bee Orchid rosettes. Continuing through the wooded areas we heard but couldn't see a singing Chaffinch, one we frustratingly still need for our 1 Mile Bird Blitz, plenty of Blackcaps were in song too, is it just us or do they seem very numerous this year to you too? 

Getting to the lake we heard a Little Grebe calling from the 'secret' side and a pair of Great Crested Grebes displaying on the public side, no sign of any youngsters, have they nested and failed or not even started nesting yet?

 In its usual place aiting for bread of all things was the local Heron.

Our return journey gave us a couple of Speckled Wood butterflies in the glades bordering the wet woods and what looked at first like 3-Spined Stickleback fry by the bridge turned out to be stripey Perch fry on closer inspection.

The long Blackthorn thciket held a secretive singing Lesser Whitethroat that refused to show itself as did another by the Black Pond; we're now wondering if we'll get these on our vertebrate or 1 mile challenges at all this year or if we do will we have to ait until the autumn when they start eating berries and are a little less shy.

Almost at the end of pur walk at the bottom of the horse fields we heard an unmistakable sound 'prrt prrt'. Spinning round we connected with the white rumps of three House Martins disappearing over the , but still a mile or so further than we've been for a while.cratty hedge that divides the fields - our first of the year. Is it just us or do they seem very scarce this year to you too? 

Nothing was noted in the garden on Monday and nothing hit the notebooks from anywhere at all on Tuesday.

Wednesday was an interesting day! An early morning trip up the garden to the compost heap had us looking up when we heard an unfamiliar call above us. A flutey 'tiuu' sound. We heard it a couple of times more and saw a small short tailed bird circling around not too high up over the roof of the house behind ours before flying off more directly towards the water tower where it appeared to drop possibly in the compound where earthworks have been taking place and there's a few bushes to perch on too. We racked our brains but couldn't think what it might been. A flick through the field guide gave us a bit of a clue but a look in BWP wasn't so informative. Going off the clue in the field guide we had a listen on Xenocanto and found several recordings of flight calls that were bob on - Whinchat almost over the garden - get in!!! Wood Warbler last week, Whinchat this week = Wryneck next week doesn't it? 

Now that the lockdown has eased and we can go anywhere bearing in mind that everywhere is still closed and visitor attractions and beauty spots were imploring folk not to travel we decided to go further afield took the mutt in the car to Woodland Gardens and Heron's Reach. Not far just a dip the toe in the waters so to speak. Our main aim was to have a look for Great Crested Newts in the hot-spots. None there but we did have quite a few Toads under the refugia we peeked under. 

Woodland Gardens gave us a Mistle Thrush foraging on the soon to be destroyed golf course, another species we've had no luck connecting with for our 1 Mile challenge.

Blackcaps were everywhere on our route but the only one we actually saw was this female tackling a rather juicy caterpillar.

On our last visit here not too long before the lockdown we'd found some Bee Orchid rosettes and searching for them again we found they were now quite shaded and not in an optimal place for producing good flowers - we'll try to keep an eye on them over the next few weeks to see how they fare. 

The afternoon in the garden a bit of sunshine had us watching a pair of Red Mason Bees mating and not a lot of anything else. This week's change in the weather has certainly sent the invertebrates to ground.

Thursday dawned sunny but cool. We gave the mutt another change with a visit to Marton Mere nature reserve. e started at Staining Nook and walked in along the Heron's Reach path passing numerous Blackcaps, and Whitethroats, a couple of Chiffchaffs and a Willow Warbler along the way. One Whitethroat was sat up in the sunshine atop a tall tree. We stopped for a pic but it flitted down into the bushes below before we could focus on it. It appeared on the edge of the bushes a bit further down the track but look closely and you'll see this bird is a Lesser Whitethroat - bit of a fluke as it's one we needed for our Challenge becoming #143 on our tally. We didn't see the original treetop Whitethroat again.

On the reserve it was reedbed birds we were hoping to see (and hear). Hearing a Cetti's Warbler was no problem, one was singing loudly in our left ear as we chatted (at a safe distance) to FB and TS. Chatting face to face to other humans outside your home - what's the world coming to? Forgotten what that's like.

A singing Reed Bunting gave good views

Unlike most of the Sedge Warblers, of  which there seemed to be more of than in recent years, but persistence paid off and eventually we were able to get a pic of one that wasn't totally obscured by vegetation for #144.

None of the many Reed Warblers showed themselves for more than a millisceond so they weren't submitted to the SD card. We'll have to wait a while until they're feeding young and can be a bit more showy around the edges of the reedbed. We also had great vies of a Cetti's Warbler but like the Whitethroat disappeared into thick vegetation before we could lift the camera. Another Cetti's Warbler teased us with a game of 'hide and hide' singing here and there as it moved all around its territory without actually showing itself. 

Luckily this Linnet behaved. Nice to see a pair too, fingers crossed for a successful season for them on the reserve

The way back across the fields gave us a stonking male Chaffinch landing just above our head. Why won't they do that on the Pond Trail for our 1 Mile Blitz?

A Grasshopper Warbler sang from the field just beyond the Chaffinch. We had a good listen but weren't able to see it in the dense clump of Brambles it was singing from. Meanwhile a Kestrel hovered over the far end of the field and Swallows raked the long hedge for insects all in lovely sunshine and out of the cool wind - a cracking morning's birding.

Back where we'd parked the car there where several House Martins skimming low to the ground aroiund the horses in the paddock - a lovely summery scene.

After lunch the weather closed in a little but another trip to the compost heap had us come across this 14-Spot Ladybird taking advantage of a break in the clouds and sunning itself on a Nettle leaf. We'll have to check our records but we think this is the first record for the garden.

Friday saw some early sun so we hit the dunes to see if we could find any lizards. A search of the usual bank was disappointingly fruitless. As was an hours tromp through the sandhills. we did see some good insects though with some of them even settling for a few moments like this Common Blue

and this Small Copper, both butterflies looking very fresh and dapper.

Much more static was this large fly sitting motionless on the sand for ages. Had it got cooled and was warming back up? No - it's a Robber Fly which we could tell with our naked eye and was sucking the innards out of an unfortunate Crane Fly - - awesome find. We didn't realise it had prey until we downloaded the pics on the pc back at Base Camp.

Not much else in the dunes just a handful of Meadow Pipits, the odd Skylark and a pair of Linnets, but to be fair we were concentrating on finding scaly things rather than feathered friends.

On Saturday we made the fatal third time error of  not taking our phone out with us early morning. Two  Bottlenose Dolphins close in was the news from SD (he'd also had a distant one a couple of days earlier too) when we got back to Base Camp - dohhhhh what a numb-nut!!!!! Three times!!!! Note to self - JUST TAKE THE FREAKIN PHONE

The moth trap was out for the first time in the week but was empty yet again.

Saturday is also check the stealth-cam day. Not a lot to report apart from a plethora of cats using the garden like their private motorway.  Sadly no Hedgehogs nor Foxes using the garden but thankfully no nocturnal visitis to the pond by any Herons.Best of the rest were this pair of Dunnocks that we rarely see at the moment, they've gone very secretive, must be nesting not too far away though.

We have a Great Tit that comes to the feeders very regularly but prefers to expend his energy manipulating and opening a Black Sunflower seed when there's pre-opened hearts two feet away. Interesting  - and he almost always faces away, probably because that's the way the closest and densest cover is for a quick getaway if needed.

Never mind the Great Tit a real garden rarity turned up - Starling!!! We very very rarely get them actually in the garden although while we were emptying the moth empty moth trap there were two adults and a juvenile sitting on the top of our roof.

This was one of a family party that were taking advantage of our suet pellet feeder and a bathing in the ornamental waterfall. Let's hope they return - might be time to invest in some mealworms which we're sure Starlings can smell from some distance away as when we've fed them in the past Starlings have appeared out of the blue.

With Bottlenose Dolphins in the offing Sunday's early morning dog walk had to be down at the cliffs as the tide rose. Several scans of the sea revealed no seabirds at all never mind any fishing in association with blubber.

Eventually we had a few Gannets passing, a solitary Sandwich Tern dived once while a flock of nine Shelducks flew south west out to sea

We nearly missed a passing Little Egret

and did miss something fairly unusual, a second summer Common Gull, there's not many of those round these parts at this time of year.

Not a dolphin in sight - dohhhh.

It was the mildest night for a some time and next door's stadium quality floodlight wasn't on. That meant moths - at last! And it as a good catch, by far the best of the year so far. 

Here's the full list:-

4 Heart & Darts - yes FOUR!

2 Shuttle Shaped Darts - spot the shuttles below

2 Light Brown Apple Moths

1 Bright Line Brown Eye

and a Turnip Moth

Another real (back) garden rarity turned up in the form of a male House Sparrow. Regular visitors to the front garden they aren't even quite annual in the back. It didn't hang around for a pic unfortunately. We've got everything crossed that it develops a taste for suet pellets and brings the family next week. Less than an hour later a Coal Tit turned up, our first in the garden for ages and again we missed getting a pic - it's a species we haven't yet got for our 1 Mile Blitz..
As Sunday evening drew on this cheeky little blighter was helping him/herself to the bird food.

A mixed week with some superb wildlife - if only we'd got the blubber too.

Where to next? More more distant safaris, hopefully scales ill be involved if there's some sunshine

In the meantime let us know who's passing through your outback.

Stay safe, stay socially distant enjoy the wildlife around you it's good for your well being whether only on your doorstep or further afield if you can get out and about. The world is still turning it's only us humans who aren't.