It's cooling down - it's not geting any 'otter!

A fine day beckoned so the Land Rover was filled with recycled chip fat and pointed towards north Lancashire. First stop was our deer zone. It didn't appear to disappoint, before we got to the wood there was a couple of Fallow Deer grazing out in the open.

A little further along the footpath we discovered why. Their favourite woodland had been fenced off. someone has spent a lot of time effort and money to keep them out. Not sure why; but with deer having no natural predators now in the UK over grazing by them in woodlands can have a detrimental effect on the flora and ability of the woodland to regenerate.

There are some very nice old trees in this area. This one is a Scots Pine, not a native this far south.
On the other hand this striking Oak has some age to it and will be reported to the Ancient Tree Hunt (see links on right) . The left hand trunk is over 15 feet (5m) in circumference just above the fork - we didn't measure the smaller trunk but it's still pretty big.



Our second venue was to the nearby wetland. I always enjoy these Tussock Sedges. There was an old Tarzan film (Johnny Weizmuller I think) in which the baddies dressed up as plants similar to these and from their camouflaged position on the edge of the track they blow darted the passing safari parties - very scary for us!!!!


Tarzan's path looked just like this!! Hope there's no-one in there with poison darts today!

Sneaking safely past the Tussock Sedges we come into an area of Alder Carr. This is wet woodland. Alder trees are adapted to growing in waterlogged conditions - they have nitrogen fixing bacteria in their roots. Carr is the first stage of the woodland succession of wetland areas. Eventually they will dry the wetland out enough for Oak and other trees to be able to grow, by then no-one would know the area was once a lake. Without the intervention of man or a natural disaster setting back the succession all still or slow flowing waterbodies will eventually become woodland.

Out on the open water there were plenty of Coot, some 200 of them. A nice male Goosander was fishing in between them, swimming along with its head under water spying for unsuspecting fish. A few Teal, Tufted Ducks and a couple of Goldeneyes completed the count of the water. Overhead a pair of Buzzards took advantage of the fine conditions and participated in a beautiful skydance. A Bittern took a very brief flight low over the tops of the reeds before crashing in, never to be seen again.


Earlier in the day we had met a couple who had been fortunate enough to watch the warden ringing some Bearded Tits, along with a couple of Goldcrests and Blue Tits. We heard the distinctive 'pings' of the Bearded Tits deep in the reedbed but did not manage to see any. As the sun dropped lower in the skythe light spangled through the silvery tops of the reeds.

The Starling roost at this reserve is impressive, probably over 50,000 birds. Today it was just a bit too far to our left to be able to see properly. But the roost wasn't today's main target.

Darkness fell and at last the hide became quieter - this is usually a place of solitude, almost loneliness - but not today. Coach party after coach party ambled in crashed about got comfy then left. At last there was just us and it was getting nicely darker and the water became as still as a millpond - perfect conditions for our quarry.

In the gathering gloom there were a couple of Ravens flying over to roost and a fair few invisible Snipe were revealed by giving their 'skkrrr' call. The thin 'ssips' of Redwings were also heard.A Sparrowhawk perched up. probably waiting for the Starlings but was 500 yards away from the main action/dining area.

Any Otters? No not this time - they are becoming a bogey mammal on a par with the Long Eared Owls. But again on the walk back to the Land Rover in the dark we disturbed a small herd of Red Deer which we could hear splashing about in a panic deep in the redbed.

Where to next? An impromptu day off tomorrow so the Long Eared Owls are definitely on the agenda...fingers crossed.

In the meantime let us know what you have seen in your outback.

Forest, moor and lakes. (Updated 02/09/08)

The safari visited the wilds between Blackburn and Bolton on a warm muggy day this weekend. We had a traipse around one of the many reservoirs in the area before heading back to our temporary Base Camp for a superb full English breakfast...fried bread and all!

There wasn't much around. The forest was very quiet, the only birds calling were Robins, Wrens and a few Coal Tits. A Great Spotted Woodpecker was heard calling near the dam.

There almost no fungi to be found under the trees despite the recent warm wet weather, but the wild flowers did not disappoint. A reasonable selection were still flowering. A damp patch had Common Bistort and wild, rather than garden, Yellow Loosestrife while higher up the hill on drier ground was a large patch of Field Scabious.

I've no idea what species this little Weevil is but he looks quite cute.

The pink flower is the very invasive alien Himalayan Balsam. Beautiful but trifid like. It has colonised huge lengths of watersedge in this part of Lancashire to the detriment of the native flora. However the bees like it and smells good but they aren't good enough reasons to keep it. I doubt very much it could be eradicated now even if we wanted to.

A large pile of old quarry stones surrounded by a fair sized patch of Bracken suggested Adders. We had a poke about and turned some of the smaller stones but didn't find anything of note. From research later that evening it transpired that there are no Adders in that whole area. If anyone knows different please pass on the information. There must be one somewhere; there is a huge amount of potential habitat to search through.

Along the side of the paths the Bilberry bushes had been picked clean, the only berries remaining were either very new or just out of reach.

Bilberry is the food plant of the spring flying Green Hairstreak butterfly.

The warm day had butterflies flying. Speckled Woods, Large Whites and a Peacock were seen. The only dragonfly spotted was a Brown Hawker.

The black spots on this Sycamore leaf are Tar Spot Fungus. This species is very intolerant of polluted air and its presence shows that the air quality in this area is very good.

This bumble bee is the Tawny Backed Carder Bee on Rosebay Willowherb. Several years ago I was with a very well known botanist, a large, jolly fellow with a beard, who mis-identified Greater Willowherb as this plant...hmmm..elimentary my dear Watson!

Below is another alien plant, Turkey Oak, however recent studies of lake and peat sediments seem to show that this tree was native beween the last two Ice Ages, about 150,000 years ago and wasn't able to recolonise after the last Ice Age. It is easy to tell from the two native Oaks by its fully cut leaves and the acorns sit in hairy cups.

Sneezewort is one of those humourously named plants. I suppose it was once used to cure colds and sneezing. It looks superficially like the more common Yarrow but has fewer larger flowers.

The Rowan berries aren't a sign of a cold winter to come, but evidence that the weather was fine when the flowers were out in the spring and there were plenty of insects about to pollinate them.

These Mallard ducklings are very late but should survive the winter. There are plenty of people about with bags of bread for them.

And finally..at last... some think...the only Heron we saw all day.

And I never realised the Strawberry Duck pub is actually the Strawbury Duck! Would you credit it!!!!!

Where to next? A mid-week jaunt could well on the cards. And there is now the added pressure of getting certain 'target' species on camera...could be a new site or maybe return to a previous haunt.....not sure yet let's see what the weather is going to do.

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