We've gone twitchy all of a sudden

 The Safari heard news of a Waxwing at one of their favourite sites in nearby Preston over the usual local social media outlets last weekend. Due to serious family stuff there was no way we'd be able to go there an then but we hoped they might stick around a couple of days or so, the strteet it was in has several Rowan trees which often have a plethora of berries. The following day news broke that there were now two birds present; and then three! How do they find these 'regular' places? - we must have stood in that street at least three times over the last 20 odd years. There's no way that it's inherited knowledge as it's often too long between visits for parents to take their offspring, could it be scent that guides them, these berries giving off a 'we're ripe' odour  that the birds can detect on the wind and home in on? Whatever the reason they find the little street their increasing number was the impetus we needed to decide to make the 15 mile trip down the motorway as soon as possible. Tuesday morning arrived and we had a the afternoon available and better still news was now that there were four present. After lunch we picked up CR and headed east. The roads were clear and we made good time but after parking up we were told we should have been there ten minutes ago. Well at least they were about and would probably come back after a short wait and a small group of birders had set off to see if there was any sign of them on any nearby berry laden trees or bushes.

One thing that did strike us as we looked around the trees and rooftop aerials for any sign of them was the large clumps of Mistletoe in several of the trees - don't  recall that being there on previous visits.

The rooftops and aerials gave us a pair of Collared Doves and a couple of Woodpigeons. A few minutes later a small flock of Goldfinches appeared at the top of the furthest tree down the street. It was good to see that all the street's trees had a Tree Preservation Order number on thenm too.

After a good while the local Mistle Thrush showed up, really good to see they're still about as they have become much harder to come by round our way in recent years. It was followed by three Blackbirds all of which came and went as if they had a curcuit they were following. But alas the Waxwings were still a 'been and gone'. 

All of a sudden, after about an hour, DB shouted "that was them" as four birds shot over high above the houses. He went off after them and came back a good while later having found them in some trees overloooking the canal a few hundred yards away. "Rubbish views against the low sun, just silhouettes really - useless for photographs". There were several folk who wanted a look so he showed the way and set off like the Pied Piper with a straggle of birders in his wake. After crossing the road and going down the track to the little marina/stopping point on the canal we scanned the trees opposite where they had been half an hour earlier but there was no sign of them. Back to the street it was just in case they had turned their attention back to the berries. No they hadn't. We hung around a few more minutes and decided to get some pics of the Blackbirds before the light totally went. These short winter days can be a real pain!

And then the light faded too much for pics so we hit the trail back up the motorway to Base Camp. Waxwings will have to go down on the spreadsheet in Bold red letters - a dip!

There are plenty about this year and there does seem to  be an abundance of berries in places so hopefully we'll be more successful with them as the season progresses.

 

The following day three turned on the edge of Stanley Park only three miles from Base Camp but unfortuantely we weere unable to get out when the news broke and even if we had gone it's likely they would have flown off before we arrived as they weren't around long.

On the same day TS texted the Safari to say there was a Long Tailed Duck on Marton Mere, again we weren't able to get out but that did stick and was still there the next day, and the next! Phew, once again we had an hour or more free in the afternoon so went for a shuffy. It was a cool and blustery, bright and sunny afternoon. We arrived on site to the news from some birders that they hadn't seen it from the north west corner, as we chatted a flock of noisy squawking Ring Necked Parakeets flew over from the direction of the Feeding Station. We knew the duck could be elusive so went down to the bench for a look anyway. We aimed to give it at least half an hour but Monty the mutt started to get impatient and wanted to get on the move again. We set off and immediately bumped into TS who told us it tended to hang around with the four Goldeneyes on site and probably got itself tucked in the sheltered inflow channel. We'd already decided to wander round to the bench in the south west corner so that now sounded like a good plan.

A good plan it was, we didn't have to wait too long before the Goldeneyes appeared as if from nowhere. There were four, two females, a male and an immature male. We only managed pics of the two females.

To see over the encroaching vegetation we had to stand on the bench while being buffeted by the 50 mph wind, that Buddliea bush, Alder tree and 'Larry's Willow' really need to go! Not the best conditions to try to hold a long lens steady. We perservered and after a few minutes the Long Tailed Duck came out of the reeds, the last one we saw here was way back in 1998.

It didn't hang around with the Goldeneyes for long, instead started to make it's way across towards the area we'd been at earlier while the Goleneyes moved eastwards along the reed edge and out of sight. It dived frequently and spent minutes at a time under water sometimes moving a considerable distance too. It's appearances at the surface were brief and unpredictable so it was tricky to get any pics of particularly as it was all too often obscured by the aforementioned trees and shrubs. After a while a noisy gaggle of Grey Lag Geese came up from the east and it wasn't happy about their appearance and kept a distance in front of them as they approached before they all sailed past the Heron into the channel and out of sight.

Once the duck was out of sight we thought we'd best give it a few minutes in case the Grey Lag Geese settled down and it swam out again. They might have done but it didn't. However a large female Sparrowhawk flew past at great speed and once again their was a great deal of sqawking from the parakeets at the Feeding Station. She obviously had a plan and a tast for the exotic. Chatting to TS who was at our first bench on the phone the sky behind him blackened and a rainbow appeared.

He was of the opinion that the front would miss us and we agreed because the south westerly wind was taking it away from us, we might just catch the edge of it. We stayed to see if anything would fly in front of the raibow and give us a pleasing arty shot. A couple of Herring Gulls did but too far away and our pics were deleted straight away, then a Black Headed Gull followed suit, this time much closer, and we firred away again.

We totally missed the Stock Dove that flew past towards Stanley Park but did get this Woodpigeon but missed it while it was in front of the rainbow - ah well you can't have everything! It looks as though it's had a good supper before retiring to bed for the night just look at its crop - full to busting!

A few spots of light rain fell, our cue to leave. Unfortunately we'd left it too late to leave - once out of the shelter of the big Bramble thicket behind the bench we realised the wind had changed from south westerly to west north westerly bringing the storm front back towards us and we now had several hundred yards across open country to walk to the car in torrential diving rain - Monty the mutt doesn't mind a bit of weather and wouldn't be hurried - - we got absolutely drenched!

 

Where to next? It could be anywhere who knows? 

In the meantime let us know who's coming and going in your outback.

More news from the mere

The Safari has enjoyed to bright crisp mornings this week. The colder weather has brought a few more birds to the feeders at Base Camp including at long last the first Coal Tit of the autumn. Of most note have been the much larger than usual number of Blackbirds enticed in by the good crop of berries on next door's Rowan trees. The sunny mornings have offered several lovely autumnal photo opportunities.

After many attempts we finaly nailed the berry in the air between the mandibles shot.

A wander over to Marton Mere yesterday gave us a nice Mistle Thrush dropping in from on high on the top of pathside bush right in front of us. We get the impression that they are far less numerous locally than in recent years but in the NW they are about as common as they were back in 1995 but then the population rose by a massive 50% in the early naughties before dropping back to 'normal. Perhaps that's why we think they are less common now - certainly extinct as a local breeder around Patch 1 now especially as their favourite nesting trees have been felled, both for dubious reasons too. We don't hear them singing in the early part of the year from over by the railway as we used to only a couple or so years ago and we've not had one in the garden at Base Camp, actually usually on the TV aerial rather than down on the ground IN the garden, since 2013!

We met up with LR in the Feeding Station hide, still not a great deal happening in there despite the dropping temperatures. Grey Squirrels entertained us with their acrobat antics trying to defeat the anti-squirrrel baffles and Pheasants mopped up the spillage below - bring on the aliens. Natives were represented by a small number of Chaffinches, Great and Blue Tits, a Robin, a Wren, a Dunnock and a gaggle of Magpies.

A look from the Bittern-spotting area didn't give us any Bitterns and not a whole lot else apart from a lorra lorra Coots, maybe over 200 of the the little black beauties, LT picked up a Little Grebe on the far side that we didn't manage to get on.

Cetti's Warblers shouted at each other from the depths of the reedbed, by the time we'd completed the circuit we'd heard half a dozen of them. A couple of them were, as always, at the Fylde Bird Club hide but better than them was a female Goosander that circled round to the left of us and fortunately came in and landed right below us. Our first here for a few years, 2015 in fact.

All too soon it swam out of view behind the reeds.

Leaving the water we continued round to the embankment to have a listen for any Bearded Tits without any joy; everywhere else in west Lancashire/SW Cumbria seems to have them so why not us? Surely it can only be a matter of time before someone drops on them.

Talking of dropping on we watched a male Kestrel do a bit of hovering over the field to the east before swooping round to take up position on the big post a Barn Owl nesting box used to sit on. It didn't stay there long before dropping off and coming up with lunch of hat looked like a Short Tailed Field Vole. Leaving it to it's lunch we pressed on finding the scrub quiet save for a couple of Redwings, we've still not had a Fieldfare over on the side of the country this autumn. Then LR shouted out "Egret!". We looked over towards the water only to see him pointing the opposite way - we spun round with the bins to our eyes and saw that it was quite long winged and definitely black footed rather than yellow-footed - - get in! A Great White Egret which is a site tick for us despite what it says in the birds of Marton Mere 2nd Ed an event we don't recall back in February 2012. Maybe AB can confirm we were with him on that day and we did see it.

Anyway it was good to see on, we think it was a fly-over and hadn't been grounded somewhere round the mere. 

At the Viewing Platform there was still no sign of any Bitterns but we did start to notice some small loose flocks of Starlings going past.

None seemed to turn back so we guess they were heading to the pier to roost. but then we saw more starting to congregate down at the far end, over the reedbed and fields.

More and more came in to join them until the flock became quite a large swarm.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Starlings was that there were two large flocks and individual smaller flocks joining them seemed to know which one they belonged to. The ones at our end spent much less time flying round, well you couldn't call it a murmuration by any stretch of the imagination, but dropped in to the reeds to roost very quickly and newly arriving flocks went straight in to settle down for the night. Whereas the ones at the far end built up in numbers and had a bit of a murmurate before funneling down in to the reeds, not all of them mind and late joining flocks continued to fly round before dropping in, so much so that there were still a lot in the air when we had to leave but the western lot close to us had now gone quiet deep in the reedbed and very few were coming in to add to their number now. How do they know who is who and where they should go to join their mates?

Today's Marton Mere meander was much quieter, we couldn't find anything to point the camera at all the way round. Our best sighting was a Red Admiral butterfly on a sunny but still quite chilly morning and we think we may have heard a Bullfinch but a five minute wait listening for a second call proved fruitless.

A couple of Goldcrests were best of the rest, like we said it wasn't too lively for us today, had we not been dragged hither and thither by Monty we might have had a bit more time to stand and study the surroundings a bit more thoroughly and found a bit more but it wasn't to be.

Where to next? Another safari to the Southside tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know who's swarming round your outback

Bit of a mixed bag today

The Safari has had a mixed end to our first week of retirement. We' been round Patch 1 a couple of times with Monty without seeing too much although two well grown juvenile Moorhens out on the lawn by the big pond was good to see, they probably hatched on the more vegetated and less disturbed smaller upper pond .

One morning we spotted a tiny moth on the outside kitchen window sill. It didn't look quite right for a couple of familiar common species so we took a couple of pics and then had an ask on Twitter who's experts came back with Small Dusty Wave. A common enough species which we'd already tentatively IDd it as, but one that hadn't already made it onto the garden list, always good to get a NFG!

That night we were back in Moth and Bat action leading an event at the top end of the North Blackpool Pond Trail. It was very well attended with over 60 people of which about half were children turning up.

On our bat walk as darkness fell we had both Soprano Pipistrelles, normal Pipistrelles, we heard them referred to as 'Bandit' Pipistrelles for the first time by one of the group - we've only recently seen that name in the literature. The Patent Bat Attracting Sticks came into play and didn't they do well. Everyone had great views as they whirled round the PBASs several times. Lots of people told us they had bats at home or at their holiday homes so hopefully they'll use the PBAS technology there and have great fun watching their own bats close up, Over the lake we had several passes of what were probably Daubenton's Bats, as they were skimming and sometimes touching the water although no-one had a torch quite powerful enough to pick out the white bellies at the range they were at. Turning our attention to the moth trap everyone gathered round the sheets laid on the ground eagerly awaiting the first moths to arrive. Before they did there were a lot of Chironimid midges, all black ones until one young lad presented us with a bright green specimen. There were lots of  Crane Flies of various sizes all called by the alternative name of Bandy Long Legs rather than Daddy Long Legs by one little girl and an unknown beetle wit ha very broad head and a small caddis fly were potted. Eventually the moths began to appear as it became fully dark. Not a great selection but Large and Lesser Yellow Underwings wowed the crowd with their vivid colours and large size. Flame Shoulders were viewed as less impressive but a massive Old Lady had the crowd going "ooohhhh look at the size of that!"

All to soon the evening came to a close as the children's bedtime came and went. A cracking evening was enjoyed by all. Massive thank you's go to the CG and the Grow Blackpool team for the loan of the generator and to G U-P for helping lug the heavy brute around.

The following day we headed to the nature reserve early doors. It was quite a dull morning so we didnt take the camera, with that in mind we were convinced we'd come across something stunningly good and need an image but it wasn't to be. We walked the full length there and back without once needing to lift the camera if we'd have had it...it was exceptionally quiet. The only thing of note was an Osprey that got LR and our pulses racing as it came over the tree tops but was in the end 'just' a pale-ish Buzzard flopping lazily southwards and a very mobile small mixed flock that had at least 5 Long Tailed Tits and three Whitethroats along with an unknown number of Blue and Great Tits and maybe some other bits n bobs too. A bit of a disappointing visit really. The biggy will come it's just a matter of making sure we pick the weather conditions and get the visit in on the right day. What it will be is anyone's guess!

That afternoon we went to the cliffs at the north end of town for the high tide spurred on by early morning reports of at least three Bottlenose Dolphins offshore early morning while we were at the nature reserve. We half expected them to put in an appearance as the tide rose or just after. It was a gorgeous summer's afternoon, warm sun - we half wished we'd worn shorts but then thought if we had we'd have ended up with sore sun-burnt knees - with hardly a breath of wind. The sea was calm with just a very light swell - ideal conditions for cetacean spotting...

The massive waste water pipe engineering works were underway with this barge, the Helge R, being filled by the dredger. It's a bit of a bizarre vessel in that it doesn't sink when it splits in two length-ways to drop its load of sand and mud away from the work site, a bit like the bucket on a grab-hire wagon. It's about three miles offshore.

Although you could see a long way the visibility wasn't brilliant in the haze

At the seawall end of the works there is a short section of the pipe still showing above the high tide waves before it disappears below the surface into a coffer dammed channel. By the end of the coffer dam posts we saw a Harbour Porpoise not far from the shore and definitely over what would be the beach at low tide. Sandwich Terns called loudly and fished close inshore, our maximum count at any one time all afternoon was 14 but there could easily have been many more than that coming and going up and down the coast. A long tailed raptor was too distant to identify and as we were straining our eyes at that we thought we saw the falcate dorsal fin of a Bottlenose Dolphin break the surface with a bit of a splash going the opposite direction much closer in. Well we searched and searched but saw nothing until much closer in still we saw a mother and calf Harbour Porpoises, break the surface several times. We don't think the adult was the same animal we'd seen earlier as we had several good views of it and never was there a hint of smaller animal with it. A couple of  Razorbills (170) were sat on the sea nearby, can't believe they're our first of the year!

Still searching the waters to the northwest waiting for the Bottlenose Dolphins to appear out of the Lune Deeps we picked up another lone Porpoise a long way out, possibly the fourth individual of our watch. By now we'd run out of time and it was time to return to Base Camp to take Wifey and Monty out for a breath of fresh air before dinner.

We went to his favourite walk where he met some friend and Wifey chatted to their owners. A bit of bright sunshine brought a Speckled Wood fluttering our way which landed on some lovely bright red Rowan berries just within arms reach of our phone.

Yet another great day in Safari-land.

Where to next? Anything could happen anywhere this week! And we have a couple of cunning plans...Hopefully with a bit more time for ourselves now the rubbish wot we rite will be of a better quality - certainly hope so!!!

In the meantime let us know who's lurking in the dark in your outback

That wind's still a bit cruel

The Safari didn't get too much on Patch 2 this morning, our first double figure count, just - 10, of Sandwich Terns and only three Sanderlings took the top spots, yes it was that good! The sun was bright but the wind was fiercely cold and yet there was an orrible haze from only about a mile out. 

At lunchtime we were out again and there was even less out there because the tide had come in and flushed what few waders there are still hanging around off the beach. 

The view up the Prom was summery...but that wind!!! And yes that is a hailstorm between the pier and the tower.

Back in the garden we had a look in the sheltered areas for any solitary bees on the Dandelions, there weren't but there was a Red Tailed Bumble Bee. Dandelions are essential for early spring pollinators and other insects helping them get their season off to a flying start - Please do NOT DIG/HOE/SPRAY them - leave them alone!!!

After lunch we were out on site looking at siting some new eco-built bat boxes. If you're doing bat box schemes please consider using these hand crafted items designed and built by a local lass; they're a similar price to the 'market leader'.

Once our site meeting was over and suitable trees selected we had the opportunity to have a look at some newer trees that were planted only a few years ago. We also hoped there might be a bird or a butterfly about in the warm sunshine...but in that wind it was still cruel! There were some signs of spring but then again winter still had a firm grip on the place.

Red Dogwood stems

The ground flora isn't particularly spectacular here except when the Buttercups are out but there was some interest today with patches of Germander Speedwell scattered here and there under the still open canopy.

Of the trees the Silver Birches were the most advanced followed by the Rowans.

But only a few yards away there's no sign of life on the Teasels we didn't see any new rosettes.

So what about the 'Big Two', Oak and Ash? Are there any signs of life and if so from which? If the Oak is out before the Ash we shall have a splash; if the Ash is out before the Oak we shall have a soak - if you believe these old sayings!

Ash - no sign of life yet

 And what about the closest nearby Oak only a few feet away?

BINGO - Buds are opening - dry summer coming???

Many of the Oaks had been attacked by Oak Apple Gall Wasps, the hole shows that the inhabitants have left.

By now we'd realised there weren't any birds around other than the local House Sparrows and Starlings nicking about taking beakfuls of food to their nests in the roofs around the site and gulls going over. We saw no invertebrates at all. And then we heard the gulls start squawking and looking up, hopefully for an Osprey, to find a Sparrowhawk gliding low over the rooftops, probably a local bird rather than a migrant. This site is close to the coast and has a good open vista to the south so should be good for vis migging raptors and finding grounded passerines, maybe we should spend more early mornings here instead of thrashing the nature reserve at every opportunity.

To the east there are restricted views between the houses to the distant hills, the Yorkshire Dales National Park showing a dusting a snow...brrr, told you it was chilly out there.

We just had to get a gull in the pic didn't we!

Where to next? Back on Patch 2 in the morning, will it have improved?
In the meantime let us know who's defying the winter chills in your outback.

Tis the season to be...what season is it exactly???

The Safari set off on a very mild and blustery morning to do our regular Winter Thrushes survey. It wasn't long before we realised we didn't need the hat or the gloves - it was almost tropical out there! But birds were very few and far between on our walk up to our start point, just a few Magpies and the usual Robins. As we got closer we could  hear a Mistle Thrush singing in the tops of the trees but couldn't see him, not a bad start and promise of things to come?

It was but not in the way we hoped. The Mistle Thrushes colloquial name is the Storm Cock and today was a perfect example of how that name came about. As the survey continued with us jotting down just a few Blackbirds the wind was steadily increasing and the sky darkening only to be rent by a huge flash of lightning to the north - the way we were going.

Hang on a minute - are we in the right month? Our calendar and a million Christmas lights are telling is its nearly the end of December but just before sunrise the temperature should be a lot lower than 11C and we don't normally get thunderstorms  in mid winter - do we? Something was telling us we were about to get a soaking...or worse!

The weather thankfully was pushed away by the wind and we stayed dry as the sun came up.  Cormorant flew over breaking the monotony of not a lot of Blackbirds.

A little further along the route we came across Alder catkins and then a few yards further on  Rowan buds swollen and ready to burst.

Round at the isolated pond a trio of squabbling Great Spotted Woodpeckers was heard and then seen and then a little later drumming was heard.

Another couple of rumbles of thunder were heard and the sky was getting as black as the obs of hell, a soaking was looking inevitable and we had the big expanse of the footy field to cross. None of KBs colour ringed Black Headed Gulls were there in the throng of mixed gulls.

It was now a race to complete the survey before getting wet, almost unfortunate we weren't delayed by many Blackbirds and our final bird was another singing Mistle Thrush.

We did make it back to Base Camp dry but only with a few seconds to spare! 

A daytime watch of the feeders gave us a reasonable bag. Woodpigeons, Collared Doves, Great Tits, a Blue Tit, a Robin, a Chaffinch, a Greenfinch maybe more than one and a Dunnock. Quite pleased with that lot. Amazing what's about when it's light enough to see it.

Around Base Camp there was more unseasonality in the form of flowering Quaking Grass blowing around in the now strong wind

and another Ceanothus flower has opened.

As you can see it was pretty dark at mid-day.

Where to next? Might be back in a bit cos we've got to brave the weather and go and lift the stealth-cam for what's happening tomorrow but for the gen on that you might have to wait until Monday, dunno yet.

In the meantime let us know what season it's not supposed to be in your outback.

Almost berry disappointing

The Safari loaded up Frank and headed off in an easterly direction this morning. 20 minutes later we were parked up with a dozen or so other birders in a back street of terraced houses overlooking a small park with some swings a bit of grass and half a dozen berry-laden Rowan trees. Word on the street was we'd just missed two Waxwings but they were likely to come round again fairly soon.

We waited and the local Blackbirds and Mistle Thrush tucked into the food that should have been left for the exotic voisitors. The Mistle Thrush was particularly noughty vigorously keeping the other birds away from 'his' berries.

Time passed and we waited and waited until three more flew over almost immediately joined by nearly two dozen more. They circled and looked like they were going to drop when - whoooosh - a Sparrowhawk tazzed through them - they were off like a shot - - darn it!!!

Nothing for it but to keep up the vigil and guess we'd have to wait about half an hour before they'd show again.

A pair of Coal Tits moved through and the Mistle Thrush continued to defend his berries against all comers. More interesting was a male Chaffinch that dropped in from quite high and proceeded to neck down berries on the most isolated of the trees.

Eventually a flock of 12 Waxwings appeared minutes before we'd planned to leave as we had chores to do....pppphhheewwwww!!!

Sadly they stayed right at the top of the highest tree in the park and refused to drop down on to the eye-level berries.

This is where they should have been...

Still we left well happy..much better views than the bizarre flyover we had at Base Camp in the spring.

Talking of bizarre we were on a forum and the chat concerned Magpies dangling off feeders like Blue Tits. Something we've witnessed at Magpie Wood and the nature reserve but not very often. Frank dragged us past Magpie Wood where luck would have it in the garden of the corner house was a Magpie with its beak stuck in the port of a hanging seed feeder dragging out the contents like there was no tomorrow! How weird was that? 

Also on the walk round Patch 1 - yes he got all the way round the park and played with a couple of long lost friends - was the Peregrine on the tower and a Goldcrest in the line of tall evergreens.

Where to next? The small matter of the Dolphin Watch tomorrow morning, wind permitting.

In the meantime let us know what's swallowing all the berries in your outback.