The beach doth beckon

The Safari managed a couple of pics at the river yesterday afternoon. Three Mute Swans drifted serenely past while a Moorhen skulked furtively in the vegetation across on the far side.

More interesting were the demoiselles which fluttered up and down the far bank. With no bins with us we’d never be able to tell. Then m’laddo spotted one settle on some reeds just beyond midstream and probably out of range, it wasn’t a large river, more of a decent sized stream but still the best part of 20 yards or more wide. The Moorhen bobbed past it and it flushed but returned to settle on the same reed...promising! We wound the lens up to full volume but just as we were trying to find the right reed in the viewfinder another demoiselle fluttered past with our in hot pursuit. Fortunately he returned to his favoured look-out perch and we were ready...click click click...got him. Not the best photo of a Banded Demoiselle  you’ll ever see (it's actually on the reeds you can see beyond the swan's tail) but at least a confirmation as to which of the two species it was. 

Today we had a look over the wall at a very gloomy Patch 2, so gloomy we could barely see the sea across the wide expanse of beach. We did manage a Grey Seal and a flock of Dunlin flew past him and landed on the beach for a count – 24. Three Turnstones were first heard then seen flying from the wall to the outfall pipe. However, easily the best sighting of the short session was of a flock of 12 Black Tailed Godwits (179, P2 #76) (didn't realise it was a year bird!!! - What? Not seen before so far this year - how odd, or how not written down - which???) flying south towards the estuary. Not a species often seen passing this stretch of beach.

After a quick cuppa it was back on to the beach with another group of children eager to explore what the tide might have brought in. A dead Dab and broken piece of Sea Potato were at our feet as we did the obligatory safety demonstration. Once that was over the nets were handed out, trays filled with clean water and off they went to see what they could find.

Quality finds included:-

A very nicely marked Striped Venus Shell which we really should have got a pic of.

Another juvenile Blenny of the same size as Monday’s.

Seven Elegant Anemones including a rather impressive large specimen – really need that underwater camera! And a large Beadlet Anemone waiting for the tide to come back in

Hoards of Brown Shrimps, but try as we might we couldn’t find a Common Prawn today.

Several pairs of Green Shore Crabs and plenty of tiny juveniles.

A couple of Necklace Shells covered with Hedgehog Hydroids.

Many Common Periwinkles, don’t know if Rough Periwinkles are present here but we haven’t come across one yet.

With almost the last sweep of the net we flukily swiped out this tiny sea slug, is it Onchidoris bilamellata again or some other species?

Our marine biologist friend DB appeared with her dog and stayed with us for a while before meandering further down the beach. Later she returned with this rather dapper Hermit Crab tucked in to his/her Necklace Shell.

She also told us of a Smooth Hound her dog had sniffed out and she’d stashed for us to go and find – find we did and believe us when we say it didn’t take much sniffing!!! 

Nearby was a small cluster of Squid eggs, about the size of a tennis ball; don’t know how we’d missed these early not seeing them and not standing on them as there were plenty of children netting in this area, probably couldn’t see them due to all the fine silt they had stirred up.

Yet another great day exploring the beach – every day is different as you just never know what the tide is going to bring up.

Where to next? More of the same tomorrow but on a different stretch of beach and one we’re not so familiar with so who knows what the nets will encounter.

In the meantime let us know what’s being trawled for in your outback.

More surprises

The Safari managed to get out on a full Patch 1 walk yesterday evening and after a day of surprises at work was granted one more by the Surprise Gods! Nothing appeared anything out of the ordinary as we climbed the hill, rounding the corner Frank’s nemesis Blue and his two hench-dogs weren’t at the gate ready to pounce and the Peregrine wasn’t on the tower, all seemed normal. At the Golden Triangle it was good to see a Song Thrush collecting food for hidden nestlings and an unseen Greenfinch sang loudly. We walked into the park and immediately heard a Blackcap and saw a Speckled Wood, nothing unusual there. We watched the butterfly flit along the track in front of us and once at the more open area of the Butterfly Zone it hung a right over the Bramble patch. Something rather large on the Brambles caught our eye...a huge Tree Bee, very possibly Blackpool’s first record (Anyone know any different?). We watched her for a good few minutes but no flamin camera!!! Gee are they a bonny bee!

A Chiffchaff was also singing on and off. Frank decided he wanted to wander round the rough field so we followed him – he dived straight into the filthy puddle – bad dog! After dragging him out (not quite by his ears!) we thought he best have a mooch through the long grass to dry off a bit...but then he found another puddle, again muddy – he did disturb a couple of Large Skippers and a little further on another couple although it could have been one of the first doubling back and a third.

It became rather humid as the evening wore on and after we’d woken up from the dream that Spain v Portugal was a good match we took Frank out. Several moths were seen, one of which was probably a Brimstone.

(Old pic from the moth trap)

This morning saw us back on Patch 2 where there was some of the most ominous cloud formations we’ve ever seen fortunately drifting northwards away from us, we hoped to get a pic but by the time we’d got back to the office and the camera they’d dissipated. Talking of cameras, one of yesterday’s dunked ones seems to be fine (the more expensive) but the handy little compact isn’t responding to treatment yet.

Three Grey Seals and one of the big lumps of driftwood were seen along with the lone male Common Scoter, a dozen or so of his friends flew south at range followed a few minutes later by another 75 or so. Also at range was a skua sp which disappeared once it dropped below the horizon. Three pairs of unidentified terns made their way southwards as did another surprise, three Mute Swans, a Shelduck also appeared out of the gloom to the north – were they all escaping so rotten weather?

At lunchtime we got the periscope from the cupboard and headed off to the beach. No good! Too dull today due to a thunderstorm brewing out at sea. There were some good flickers of lightning including one massive one bouncing along the base of the clouds for about 10 miles and a couple of others that forked into sea.

We tried to get pics of the Plumose Anemone but now think a bright sunny day is needed along with a dark cowl over our head – we’ll get there in the end!

Another anemone was seen in the same pot, this one bright orange, Elegant Anemone, Sagartia elegans - thanks to  DB for the ID. Easier to get a pic of it from above the water surface even if the shutter speed is still too slow. 

A meander along the beach before the deluge arrived gave us plenty of Sea Potatoes, a few more Hermit Crab-free Edible Whelk shells and two clumps of Squid eggs.

With large drops of rain landing with decided thuds on the beach we thought it best to leave and let the fishermen down on the water’s edge be the target for any more lightning that might be around.

Where to next? A day off tomorrow then the weekend so anything could happen! Who knows- even the moth trap might get an airing!

In the meantime let us know how hot n sultry it was in your outback

A day full of surprises

The Safari wasn’t out long as usual on Patch 1 but still managed to get a patch tick when a pair of Great Black Backed Gulls (P1 #36) flew over calling loudly and causing a more than a bit of panic amongst the rooftop nesting Herring and Lesser Black Back Gulls. Just goes to show how little we’ve done on the patch this year if we’ve had to wait a few days short of a full six months to find this species AND we’re still waiting for a Patch 1 Common Gull!!!

The drive to work showed a slightly choppier than of late sea and nothing again on R’ouzel Puddle. Grabbing the scope we headed over the road to strain our eyes into grey murk for...wait for it...a distant Grey Seal and a couple of Sandwich Terns...and a silvery something floating in the distance, possibly some inflatable cartoon character or other – deffo not the driftwood from yesterday which had disappeared off the beach.

We settle down at our desk and began the days toil. Not long after our second brew of the morning we got a txt from a colleague telling us she was at a site and it was a sight worth seeing, a quick conversation later and the Land Rover was out of the car park and pointing north to a new Health Centre complex. Here the landscaping had included much groundworks and some wildflower sowing along with SUDS – Sustainable Urban Drainage – pulling into the car park we were met with a veritable riot of colour and life – WOW – IMPRESSIVE. A school group was also on site planting wetland plants into the drainage swales – EXCELLENT. A PERFECT foil to the doom n gloom about ‘over-tidying’ we ranted on about yesterday.

We met the landscape manager who was really enthusiastic about what he and his team had created. It’s to be hope the site’s top brass don’t see it as ‘untidy’ and order someone to mow it to death although we did discuss management and maintenance options to hopefully head that nonsense off at the pass.

Whilst there we spotted a plant we didn’t recognise – it may be ‘just’ White Campion but we don’t think so the leaves aren’t right. BTW the some of the Red Campion seedheads at work have Campion moth caterpillars in them.  

Yellow Rattle was good to see as it should help keep the longer grasses at bay. 

Although it wasn’t sunny the place was alive with bees and we saw a spankingly fresh Small Tortoiseshell, a Common Blue, a pair of dancing Holly Blues and this rather battered Small Copper.

Back at the office butties were rammed down our cakehole so as we could get on the beach and try to photograph the Plumose Anemone. We couldn’t; our sneaky plan of putting the camera in a placcy bag failed when the bag in question sprung a leak and drowned the camera – good job it wasn’t the new posh camera...have an even more cunning plan involving a periscope tomorrow!!!

With a failed camera we wandered around a bit on the beach spotting goodies like Squid eggs! Nothing for it but to race back to the office and get the good camera. Never seen Squid eggs before although we have discussed with others the possibility of snorkeling around the pier legs in summer if the water ever gets warm and clear enough looking for Cuttlefish.

Plenty of Necklace Shells about and still alive too. 

A few Edible Whelks were found and checked for Hermit Crabs, the last one did have a crab but ‘only’ a very small and shy Green Shore Crab.

More Necklace Shells were found including some with their foot out and a couple with the prickly piggy-back riders Hedgehog Hydroids – at least that’s what we think it’s called.

And we got our best, but not really any good, pic of the Plumose Anemone...

Better luck with the periscope tomorrow? We’ve a feeling it’ll the periscope will make it too dark for photography but we can but try and see what happens.

Where to next? Who’s going to have to try to beat the Germans; Spain or Portugal?

In the meantime let us know what surprises lay in wait in your outback.