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.

Another early morning safari

The Safari was once again off to the nature reserve just as dawn was breaking, thankfully there was no thick fog today and it was a little warmer. Leaving the car we soon heard the Wetland’s Cetti’s Warbler he seems to be a permanent fixture there now. Yesterday’s still air and blanket of fog must have been amplifying the horrendous traffic noise as it didn’t seem so bad this morning allowing us to pick up the Grasshopper Warbler from a good way off, a Blackcap was in fine voice just outside the reserve’s main gate. Through the gate we went full of eager anticipation – what would the night have delivered for us? A minor detour down to the Viewing Platform gave us an answer, a Reed Warbler, well away from where we heard the one yesterday and a Sedge Warbler (135, MMLNR #88) were singing when you could hear them over the vocal argy-bargy of two Cetti’s Warblers. The water was very quiet with a Great Crested Grebe being pick of the bunch.

Continuing on our way we heard a second Grasshopper Warbler in one of their ‘traditional’ areas on the other side of the path, good stuff! Song Thrushes were noticeably loud this morning an there were several Chiffchaffs but so far we hadn’t heard a Willow Warbler.

Look - no fog!

In the scrub we heard our second Blackcap of the day, both in the same places we heard them yesterday morning. Other than a noisily clacking Blackbird, the cause of the commotion we couldn’t find, the scrub was quiet.

The scrape could be seen today and held a pair of Shelducks and a pair of Shovelers along with eight Teal but no waders. At the very start of embankment we heard our only singing Willow Warbler of the morning, in the bushes we’d just passed and then our third Grasshopper Warbler reeling from by the new ponds and from the reeds on the opposite side the same Reed Warbler as yesterday then a third of those down by the bridge. A scan of the fields was disappointing with only a Magpie and pair of Grey Lag Geese hitting the notebook.

Once again we didn’t do the full circuit but retraced our steps seeing no dew-laden cobwebs bedecking the Teasels today. 

Three Stock Doves did a couple of laps of the island and looking at the back of the scrape, out of sight from the other viewpoint, there were still no waders to be seen. There were at least a dozen Sand Martins hawking low over the water now but still no Swallows or House Martins for us here.
In the scrub a movement at the edge of the path caught our eye, recently fledged Song Thrush which was a nice surprise. Also on the path there was a dollop of recently laid Fox scat…was the owner of that causing the Blackbird’s anxiety earlier?

A little further up the path a male Linnet sang from a trackside shrub but wouldn’t allow a close enough approach to get a decent pic of him.

It is a Linnet - honest!

See!

By now time was running short and we aimed for the car not hearing the second Grasshopper Warbler as we passed. Outside the reserve gate the Blackcap was still singing and a few yards further on we could hear the original Grasshopper Warbler. We spotted LR coming towards us and waited for him close to the Gropper.

After a chat we headed back to the car passing a non-singing Willow Warbler feeding in the allotment hedge on the way. It was back at the car we noticed that the hedge had been heavily flailed so that there wasn’t twig remaining and no cover or shelter along the roadside at all…Noooooooo who would do such a thing now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Txts from SD about Great Northern Divers and Merlins out to sea had us grabbing the scope as soon as we got to work but it was to no avail we'd missed all the action and the sea was deadly quiet by the time we got there. 
It was little better at lunchtime, the excitement was on the beach where a Ringed Plover was performing a super display flight. It wasn’t until a dog walker went past that we realised there was another bird there too, on the sand. This flushed and our Ringed Plover followed it calling like mad as it towered out over the sea – trouble was this second bird was smaller and slighter so probably not a Ringed Plover…so why was it being displayed too??? Have we missed a grounded Little Ringed Plover or was it something else. Further down the beach was a second Ringed Plover but this one wasn’t displaying and was sat with half a dozen summer plumaged Dunlins.

Where to next? There won't be an early morning safari tomorrow but we'll be having a look at something somewhere during the day that's for sure.

In the meantime let us know who's been displaying to the wrong sorts in your outback.

Very early and very frustrating

We left Base Camp to the nature reserve before 05.30 this morning in fine spirits. But passing the big park it was clear it wasn’t clear there was a thick mist hanging over the lake and where our view opened out after the zoo the field there was similarly smothered in a dense fog.

Through the gate somewhere below us was the wetland lying silently unseen beneath its cold grey shroud. The air was as still as can be and even at that early hour the traffic noise was hindering our listening to the point of being very annoying. How the wildlife hears itself through the ever-present white noise we’ll never know.

Even trying to count how many loud Wrens were singing was proving tricky with the high level of background noise. Every now and then we thought we heard a trill that didn’t quite match the ending of the Wrens’ songs and it wasn’t until we were half way down the track to the nature reserve that we were able to positively pin-point and identify the singer, the reserve’s first Grasshopper Warbler (131, MMLNR #85) of the season. We then listened out for any other new arrivals but had no luck, there was no chance of seeing them visibility was down to no more than 100 yards. A Song Thrush sang loudly almost drowning out the traffic noise but struggling against the sound of an aeroplane somewhere - by eck we're a noisy species! Approaching the main gate we  saw walking down the drag towards us a couple of dog walkers with four unleashed mutts so anything grounded (literally) would have been flushed already and it wasn’t yet 06.00! It was quiet down the main path and we met another pair of dog walkers this time with only three unleashed mutts running everywhere, it’s not as it there isn’t miles of alternative paths and a huge field adjacent they can use but no the numb-nuts have to go through the reserve then get upset when they get told off or make shirty comments when we ignore them like this morning.

We thought we heard a Blackcap so stopped to listen but it didn’t give a clue as to its whereabouts – if it was one! The only birds really going for it were Robins and Wrens and plenty of each. At the gap in the reeds over-looking the back of the scrape we could just about make out the difference between Teal and Moorhens, as far as we could tell there were no waders. We don’t know what possessed us but we walked the length of the embankment, we couldn’t see far over the reed bed and the fields could have housed the Pyramids of Egypt for all we could tell looking that way. But walk it we did hearing a few Cetti’s Warblers on the way and about two thirds the way along our first Reed Warbler of the year (132, MMLNR #86) chirruck chirruck chirruck chack chack chacking away deep in the reeds and enjoyed the autumn-like spectacle of many cobwebs draped across the vegetation and hanging heavy with dew. 

We couldn’t see the wet area and floods in the fields although we could hear a distant Willow Warbler from somewhere towards the hide, so we turned round and made our way back. This time we did hear the Blackcap (133, MMLNR #87) and not far from where we thought we’d heard one/it earlier. Again only Robins, Wrens and Woodpigeons were really in evidence although we did get a strong whiff of 'recently passed this way' Fox.

Just outside the reserve we heard another Willow Warbler and another Blackcap – had we arrived a little too early perhaps although it was still far too foggy to see much.

We got a txt from Young Un AB saying he’d found a Redstart on his patch not far from work so seeing as how it was still early we decided to meet up with him. We’d only gone a few yards when we saw LR coming towards us on his early morning dog walk so we stopped to tell him about the Grasshopper Warbler. Our drive through town was fogless but as soon as we hit the coast the mist dropped again. We wandered through the dunes checking the isolated trees and bushes finding a few Reed Buntings and grounded Meadow Pipits while above the mist Skylarks sang from on high. Another txt from AB – he’d now found two Redstarts but lost track of them both, it’s a difficult place to bird when your quarry dips over a dune and is lost to view, did it go into the hollow or skip two dunes??? In the end we had to call it a dip and head off to work.

Once behind the desk we got a call from LR who was now back from the nature reserve, he’d had a Green Sandpiper calling, 150 or more Sand Martins with a dozen Swallows low over the mere and more Willow Warblers and Blackcaps than we’d had but he didn’t get the Gropper despite us speaking to him on the roadside only 250 yards from where it was singing earlier.

The morning developed bright and sunny so we took the opportunity to check the gardens out for any invertebrates finding a couple of Small Tortoiseshells (ore the same one twice) and an unknown species of solitary bee – time to start swotting up on them with the new book we got a Christmas.

Then we got more information from AB telling us there were another two Redstarts a little to the south. BD txt to say he was going to the big park to look for Willow Warblers and Blackcaps so we suggested he amend his plans - he did and not long after arriving on site told us he was watching the Redstart, we asked him to nail it down as we would finish work a bit early and bob down. A short wait and there it was, a superb male Redstart (134) on the fence only to be chased in to the scrub by a Robin, fortunately it came back out again clinging dexterously to the fence's vertical wires giving good but distant and sadly unphotographable views but hey-ho what a great little bird - a real stonker as they say. And we found BD a female Wheatear, his first of the year. 
Our Extreme Photographer has sent some snaps of his latest sighting, this time not from his garden. He says "

I looked at the map and worked out it’s distance from my location, as it was circling directly over a pointed hill it made the measurement easy. It was just over 2 miles and the light was fading fast."

At one point he tells us he had an Osprey and the White Stork in his bins field of view at the same time -  can't be bad eh!

Where to next? We might well try another early morning safari.

In the meantime let us know who's being far too colourful in your outback.

Yet more invisible owls

The Safari was feeling decidedly liverish did the last of the BTO Goldfinch survey watches yesterday morning. We'd been out until ridiculous o'clock supping copious excessive quantities of fine ale with good friends and Wifey to her favourite karaoke haunt. Wifey is a very good singer, we don't sing, the agonised shrieks and howls of those suffering unmentionable torture at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition are nothing in comparison at our attempts at warbling. Blurred double vision aside we counted four Goldfinches for the survey, one of our higher counts! six Greenfinches was a good count too. This has to have been one of the easiest citizen science surveys ever devised and if there's something similar soon we'd recommend you take part.

Wifey went out swimming and we had a sneaky hour at the nature reserve doing nothing other than looking for the Tawny Owl that had been reported again from the same place the previous afternoon. God to know it's still about. We looked high and low and east and west but couldn't see any sign of it. After a while another birder, from out of town, turned up. He wasn't over-impressed by the mega lurking in the trees behind the hedge but was, not unsurprisingly, more interested in seeing the Long Eared Owls which he naturally assumed we were looking at/for. We took him the extra 100 yards or so along the path and showed him one very easy, one not quite so easy and one very tricky Long Eared Owls. We both then went to look at the mere to see if the Iceland Gull was present, the other of his day's target species. We couldn't see it from the path but as we were now time constrained suggested he go down to the Viewing Platform and see if it could seen from there.

Later in the afternoon we were back for another longer look and met up with PL. We both looked high and low and east and west but again had no success. From not seeing the Tawny Owl we went to the Viewing Platform to try our luck with the Bittern(s). We stood there for the best part of two hours listening to the multitude of Cetti's Warblers, a couple deafeningly close, squealing Water Rails and a hweeting Chiffchaff. Behind us in the trees there was an unseen Goldcrest calling.

In the pool in front of us there was a pair of Teal and pairs each of fighting Coots and fighting Moorhens. The light began to fade and as it did so the Teal became more active and started feeding all around the pool eventually coming right to the bank below us.

By now toes and fingers were cooling down rapidly and with no sign of anything beginning with B, namely Bittern, Bearded Tit or Barn Owl we called it a day.

After breakfast Wifey was able to identify a Wren (Wifey #49) from its song drifting in on the gentle breeze through the bedroom window.

At lunchtime we picked up JH and GB at the prom and took them to the nature reserve for their first visit in 15 years, they have been out of town and ' overseas' for that time though. Indeed while waiting for their tram to arrive we had a scan of the sea and in the distance beyond the windfarm we could see the grey shapes of the tops of the hills of their previous residence, the Isle of Man. It wasn't a particularly birding visit more a social natter and show them what's been going on in the last decade and a half - more reeds!!! said GB.

Our first stop was the lively Feeding Station where there were birds a plenty. Most were flitting around too quickly, it was cold overnight and they were busy piling on the pounds for another cold night ahead. We failed miserably with the Coal Tits and only just managed a almost passable pic of one of the several Long Tailed Tits.

The rotters just wouldn't keep still! We wanted a pic of the Moorhen family that was sneaking around too, but they wouldn't sneak far enough out of the scrub for us, the cracking male Reed Bunting was behaving in exactly the same manner, refusing to come out into the open.

Continuing round we stopped briefly at Ice Station Zebra, it was lovely out on the grass with warm sun on our backs but as soon as we entered the hide there was a temperature plummet of about 50C. Gulls aplenty were on the water in front of us but not the Iceland Gull today. The only noteworthies were the large increase in numbers of Lesser Black Backed Gulls as they return from their wintering grounds on the tips and coasts of Spain, Portugal and North Africa. A Coot came into the reeds in front of us but wouldn't venture into open water, it looked like it was prospecting suitable nesting locations.

Crossing the bridge at the east end the view over the new stream the air was so clear it was almost possible to tick Red Grouse on the Bowland fells (but not Hen Harriers - cos they've killed them all!) 

Looking the other way the light was strong but back lit a patch of Teasels beautifully.

A quick jaunt out of the reserve took us through the sunny glade along the path illuminating a some well opened Blackthorn flowers.

And although it's still winter coming on spring we spotted a nice fungus growing on a broken stump deep in the wet scrub.

A few yards later we were at our target but they weren't showing quite as well as yesterday, Not only that we could only find two of the three.

Can you see the second owl?

We approached the Viewing Platform and rounding the last tree managed to only flush a flippin Bittern (109, MMLNR #76) right from the edge of the pool where we hoped it would be with PL yesterday. Unfortunately our chatter had it fly round to the left and drop into the dense reedbed not to be seen again.

Today it was warm on the bench sat in the sunshine, very pleasant indeed. As usual Cetti's Warblers verbally sparred with each other and Water Rails screamed at each other. The pair of Teal were still in the pool and a Little Grebe called unseen from the hidden pool to our right. After a while the Teal started moving around again, what a difference a bit of light makes.

As ever time ran out and we had to make tracks. On the way back to the car we passed a good show of Crocuses we helped school children plant in the years running up to the Millennium.

Shame the other circle gets trodden on and wrecked by both dogs and humans walking on them - maybe we shouldn't have planted them so near the gate...ohhh hang on maybe the numpties should respect them and keep themselves and their mutts off them.

But enough of the ranting and doom and gloom this was a lovely day out with good company and plenty of warm sunshine.

Where to next? Back to Patch 2 where a couple of days of light winds should have calmed down the sea enough to have a good look at what's out there.

In the meantime let us know who's been showing themselves off in the sunshine in your outback.

 

Beaten by butterflies

The Safari has been doing some sums after the Red Arrows whizzed over Base Camp at the weekend. From what we can gather their 20 minute display of nine planes (and one present on the ground in reserve) along with coming from and returning to their home airfield the team uses enough fuel to keep our Land Rover rolling along for about 15 years! All worked out at our current rate of mileage of course.

We noticed a few bees out today on a variety of plants but the Marjoram was probably the most popular.

The works garden still has a Teasel in flower, or at least most if the head still has some flowers on it.

A look at Patch 2 was disappointing with little out there on a carpet-flat sea, can't believe there wasn't a Harbour Porpoise to be seen, just a distant Grey Seal.

The back green briefly played host to another Wheatear, another couple this autumn and that be more than all previous records put together.

Then our group turned up to have a look at the pond. It didn't take them long to start pulling out lots of Greater Pond Snails and 3-spined Sticklebacks.

When they stopped for their lunch we promised to find and bring them a butterfly or two as we'd seen some Large Whites flying around the gardens. The very warm sun meant they were far too quick for our net.

A Meadow Brown settled for a while but that was after we'd put the net away!

Too busy in the afternoon to spend anything more than a few seconds outside.

Where to next? More pond devastation and we'll go to the park we thought we were going to this afternoon but got our days muxed ip.

In the meantime let us know who's been to quick for whom in your outback.