Off to the bank

The Safari was out early this morning joining the Dunes Project Officer and co for a spot of small mammaling.

We arrived in good time and the early morning sunshine was very pleasant. Several Whitethroats were very entertaining doing their dancing song flights, which proved impossible to capture on 'film' - shoulda used the video mode perhaps.

A pair of Wheatears were kicking about in the dunes near the road, the male setting off on short song flights

Skylarks were everywhere, mostly giving it plenty aloft! Except this one.

In the small patch of scrub we saw a couple of Dunnocks and heard a Chiffchaff and best of all a Garden Warbler (172).

Near the Warden's Hut we found this impressive Drinker caterpillar.

Any way on with the mammals.

Longworth Traps were set over night with a handful of hay some seeds and mealworms to keep any trappees happy overnight.

They were subsequently checked early in the morning before the sun gets too hot. They have bubble-wrap around them to keep them warm during the small hours.

Just one of the 22 traps had been triggered. The contents, including maybe an animal - occasionally the traps 'trigger themselves' - are emptied gently into a plastic bag.

 And there he(?) is...but what is it?

That fur on the flanks looks quite reddish and that's a clue. Is it a male or a female. Trap it in a fold in the bag and getting a look at its underside becomes a little easier than trying to wrangle it upside-down in your hands.

Answer - female or juvenile...unable to tell more than that.

It is a Bank Vole - much longer tail than our little friend from last weekend and the fur is obviously redder

 And once we'd finished with him/her it was time for release back in to the big wide world unharmed.

A lunchtime safari with Frank to Patch 1 - yes he got there again! - gave us a singing Lesser Whitethroat, singing in full view from the edge of an Apple tree and a Chiffchaff.

Very good to see were several butterflies on the wing, a couple or three of Speckled Woods and distant unIDd whites.

Large swathes of Sweet Vernal Grass and Meadow Foxtail are now in flower too.
Where to next? Hopefully a bit of warm sunshine this week for Wifey's birthday.

In the meantime if you don't hear from the Safari for a few days don't panic - all will be revealed in due course.

Woolly hat and gloves required

The Safari didn't get out as early as we might have liked although Frank demanded to go out at 05.15!!! My was it cold then! Needless to say we didn't stay out long and went straight back to bed.

We got out on safari mid morning but the wind was still very cold and had picked up a good bit. A search for yesterday's Whinchat proved fruitless and we met CR who had just been similarly unsuccessful! Didn't look good. We then spotted PL who had been on site a while but had little to show for it. He went one way and we went another then met up again he having found another Whinchat but it was flighty. He went off alone again and found three together but these were flushed by an ignorant dog walker who flushed the birds while he was obviously trying to get a pic - or at least he was obviously trying to get a pic of something on the path between himself and the dog walker.

We went down for a look but found nothing of note and decided to give it up as a bad job. 

The wetland nearby has a stunning show of Water Crowfoot at the moment

 And there are still a few Marsh Marigold flowers to be found too.

A heavy prolonged shower after we'd been home a couple of hours tempted us to go back out again to see if anything had been forced down.

As far as we could tell it hadn't! In fact it was so 'interesting' we had to enjoy more tractor action, this time a New Holland TM125 pulling a four furrow plough - not over the Lapwing nests we hoped.

No Mediterranean Gulls in the flock :-(

Tried a few Swallow in flight shots without much success and no this isn't a Red Rumped Swallow - apparently one was reported not so far away the other day. There were at least five Sand Martins, three Swifts, later four, but no House Martins.

Leaving the hide the lady who was also in there spotted something move on the path in front of us. We looked down and saw this juvenile Short tailed Field Vole. It seemed disorientated and cold but soon revived once we'd held it in cupped hands for a couple of minutes. after a few mug shots we put it back in the grass and it scurried off in the depths of the greenery like a rocket.

A tragedy waiting to happen was seen on the way back to the Land Rover - we thought it was a Helium balloon at first heading out to sea but looking at the pic we can now see the flame of a Chinese lantern

Dohh a Chinese lantern - even worse than a Helium balloon in that it has a wire frame and strings to entangle marine life as well as filling their guts with indigestible pseudo-jellyfish. we really hate the totally necessary things!!!

Where to next? Back to work and Patch 2 tomorrow...will we get any of the Black Terns that failed to drop in to the nature reserve in the showers.

In the meantime let us know what didn't drop in to your outback.

Shocking weather produced THE bird of Patch 2...ever

The Safari's drive to work was interesting with an 'alba' Wagtail in the puddle where the alleged R'ouzel was, for once in a blue moon we were in Wifey's car and sat too low down to be able to see it  properly...but another one goes on the R'ouzel puddle list. After a few minutes in the office we braved the soon to land with a vengeance weather and was out on site with the Rangers and super local naturalist MS. We were looking for recent signs of the Water Voles and invited him to come along to search for Common Meadow Rue a plant that is so common round here that any site that has it automatically qualifies for County Biological Heritage Site status.

We donned the waders but the prospect of getting in the rather full and uninviting looking ditch didn’t appeal...and that water was cold!...so we checked for feeding signs from the top of the bank occasionally slithering into the slimy shallows for a closer look and/or to retrieve a specimen of chewed grass. We are pleased to report that the Water Voles are still in situ and we found signs right into the depths of the adjacent area too.

While we bumbled around the ditch and had a shuffy across the field MS checked out out the rough area for Common Meadow Rue – yes he found it...he found in spades not just hanging on in this part of town but obviously finding it to its liking and doing very well thank you!

Next time we go alooking in this area they should be in flower and a full six feet (2m) tall and not so easy to step on/over

Our turning over of things gave us a few Frogs, one Toad and one Short Tailed Field Vole, with evidence of recent activity by several more voles but no snakes, lizards or newts.

One thing we did find that we weren’t so chuffed about were these tiny fry in the amphibian/snake pond. We hope they’ll only grow into 3-Spined Sticklebacks and not anything larger with a bigger mouth and appetite – the Sticklebacks are bad enough as we know only too well from the pond at work (Still at least seven remaining uncaptured in there!).

Only inches from where the fry were hanging out the Ranger found this...

Bingo double bingo – a Great Crested Newt egg. Further searching didn’t give us any more but they must be there somewhere! Not a bad morning’s work and our 'candidate' CBHS must surely now be declared as the full monty!

Not content with all that joy we pulled up a wet work, the promised rain had now started in earnest, and heard a hweet call from the bushes in the garden. Luckily we had our bins with us as a Willow Warbler or Chiffchaff would be a good bird here. But it was seriously better than that, our ‘hweet’er was a cracking male Redstart tucked away under the Tamarisk bushes hopping around on the floor poking about through the woodchip. What a great bird for Patch 2, (#65). Unfortunately we got the camera too slowly and it did a flit and wasn’t seen again despite some searching in between the showers/downpours. Wasn't expecting to see two grounded migrants of this species within a few days  of each other that's for sure!

At lunchtime – yes  all that happen before lunch! – we met up with our friend from the sanddunes for a bit of sea watching. Not a great lot going on with a strong easterly wind and ropey weather although a few Sandwich Terns were diving not too far out and a single Guillemot was a little further away. Much better was the Grey Seal only 50 yards off the wall. We dashed back to the office for the camera but it must have got wind of our intentions and by the time we’d got back – 2 minutes – he’d done a bunk and wasn’t seen again. It’s not often we get close encounters like that, usually a seal is just a dot in the distance.

Where to next? Just checked the weather and more overnight showers and easterly winds are forecast so what might be in the Patch 2 garden tomorrow

In the meantime let us know what vivid coloured thing brightened up your outback.