Frankie goes to Holyoake

The safari set off in thick fog this Saturday morning. The post could have been called 'Yorkshire Fog and Lancashire fog'. Yorkshire Fog is an attractive summer flowering grass that is still flowering, as a weed, in my neighbours garden. Lancashire fog was the weather conditions it was a real 'pea-souper' with visibility down the hill less than a hundred yards. The frozen ice crystals just seems a little unusual on the green flowers of this species of grass.

Just to prove it is actually flowers here are some dead stems with a fresh flowering shoot as evidence.

A safari in to the countryside was called for to enjoy the surreal ethereal surroundings.

The hoare frost had covered all the vegetation like an early Christmas card. And the thick fog was having an effect on new safari guide, Frank. I don't think his eyes were giving him much information as he was quite nervy.

But it was pretty much white-out conditions. That is a person with a large dog appearing in the murk about 30 yards away!

With little to see we had to use our ears to find the wildlife. There were flocks of Pink Footed Geese going over, or maybe the same flock going round in circles, and it was nice to hear the clear whistles of some Wigeon over head. A solitary Redshank 'teuu teuu-uu'ed trying to find some friends in the mist.

Along the track a Wren clung to a tree trunk like a Treecreeper and scolded Frank as we walked by. what a racket by something so tiny at something so much bigger! All of a sudden it started to rain?, but it wasn't rain - it was icicles being knocked of the twigs at the top of a huge Willow tree by a very ungainly and unsure of what it was trying to do Moorhen. It was at least 40 feet up. Had it too been flying around in the fog. I've seen them climbing about in low waterside bushes before but in over 45 years of watching Moorhens I've never seen one that high off the ground and if it needed to hide in cover there was plenty along the edge of the stream, which incidentally wasn't frozen. So it remains a mystery as to why it was up there struggling about in the tiniest twigs so far off the ground. But isn't that the exciting thing about venturing out on safari. You just don't know what you are going to find - it could be something completely new, or something completely ordinary doing something completely new. Like 'they' say - you live and learn.

As it happens today (Monday) after two days of sub-zero temperatures many of the ponds and lakes have started to freeze. After mentioning the Moorhen story to the Rangers I got a call a couple of hours later telling me they were watching 5 Moorhens at the top of some medium sized trees at an ornamental pond near the nature reserve. It seems here that disturbance was the reason; with the pond frozen the only safe place from predators was up!

Where to next? The safari still has an eye on those Waxwings. The numbers seem to be building up, we just hope the berries last until we have a chance to go and get a look at these Scandinavian invaders.

In the meantime let us know what you have found in your frozen or tropical outback.

Why Frankie goes to Holyoake not Hollywood - well, as you might have already guessed, Holyoake is the name of the area we took the safari to. Crickey...literery genius or what!

Nothing out there today

Snow clouds gathering and a cold, cold northerly wind. I like the pinky sheen you get in the clouds before snow in winter and thunder in the summer. But there was nothing of note on the sea this afternoon. A few very distant Common Scoters and a fly past Great Crested Grebe. To chilly to stand there long without a coat despite conditions being quite good for looking for Porpoises. Unfortunately yet another one of these has been found a few miles up the coast dead on the sea wall this week.

Where to next? Frank's first short safari tomorrow.

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

It's not only (Grey) Herons that are called 'Frraaannnk'

The safari gave up the opportunity to have a good look at Preston's Waxwings yesterday. But look what we got instead!

He's a chocolate slobrador...he's traumatised the cat...he's eaten her dinner...he's HUGE...he's Frank!

We think we know how he came to get that name - something to do with boxing.

His safari dutis will to use that finely honed nose to sniff out the best wildlife sites Lancashire and Lakeland have to offer...except of course those reserves where dogs are rightly not permitted.

Where to next? Where-ever Frank drags us. Actually that's unfair because he doesn't pull on his lead and is extremely well trained - a credit to his previous owners. A cracking rescue dog, I just hope we don't spoil his good manners.

Fun in the sun

The Waxwings will have to wait a while. The safari only went as far as the local nature reserve on a cold day with a fierce wind. None-the-less it was a good day. Now that the leaves have dropped we get to see all the summer's secrets. This nest is from a Goldfinch or Greenfinch and is placed high in a bush which I remember planting, when I was Warden at this site, not too many years ago - it's great to know your efforts really do have positive results and make a real difference - conservation in action!

Further round the track we came upon these well chewed Rosehips, the greedy culprits are Greenfinches in this case. Again I can remember planting these bushes.

On the water there were a good many Coots and in the margins a fair few Moorhens. In a recent post I said that Mediterranean Gulls were the best bird in the book - well guess what? - I've changed my mind...it could be Coots or it could be Moorhens (Woggies). The Moorhens have the red beak and the Coots are the ones with the full white face - hence the saying as bald as a Coot. Close inspection at the top of their head will reveal no sign of a bald patch! Hope I've done a better job of photographing these black birds - I do struggle with them and the light wasn't up to much...too many excuses perhaps.

The day was a good one for raptors. We tried to sneak up on a Buzzard sitting minding its own business in the top of a small tree. Just as it was within camera range a Magpie appeared from nowhere and practically landed on its back. The Buzzard took off across the field with the Magpie in hot pursuit and was joined by three Carrion Crows who increased the mobbing to intolerable levels and the Buzzard soared away in to the distance.

The field behind the Buzzard held about 1,000 Pink Footed Geese. We had already missed a photo opportunity with the Buzzard, just missed a Kingfisher by minutes - someone else flushed it accidentally, and the Buzzard had made the Geese nervy. Getting close wasn't going to be easy. Fortunately a thick hedge provided enough cover and we were able to peer through a small gap without upsetting the flock too much although they certainly knew we were there.

Moving quietly away from the Pink Feet our attention was grabbed by a blue bullet. A male Peregrine Falcon sped past us only a few feet off the ground in an attempt to get amongst a flock of Woodpigeons feeding in the stubble. They spotted him and his blast was unsuccessful. He had a couple of half hearted swoops before moving off to terrorise some other flock of unsuspecting Pigeons.

This below isn't him its a male Kestrel hanging in the wind. Don't be fooled by the azure blue sky, it was a long way off summer.

The feeding station held a nice variety of birds, nothing out of the ordinary but plenty of bright male Chaffinches like this handsome chap.

The number of small birds attracted the attention of a Sparrowhawk, which if anything was travelling even faster than the Peregrine we had seen a few minutes earlier. Maybe it just seemed it was faster because it was nearer and we had the bushes as a background. It was certainly shifting, but like the Peregrine it missed its evening meal.

Bumping in to the Ranger we learned that he had just seen two Grey Partridges crossing the track in front of his pick up. Nice to know this increasingly scarce bird is still about. He also told us where to look for the Long Eared Owl as it had moved since the last Safari. Not the best views of it (we couldn't find the other three) but welcome all the same.

In the last of the light we headed back to Base Camp - a good afternoon's safari.

Where to next? Those Waxwings are a must before they eat all the berries and move on.

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

Northerly winds = ???

With the wind in the north and a definite chill in the air there is the distinct possiblity of 'white winged' gulls. Sorry about the poor quality of the photos, they are photographed from slides projected on the wall. The first shows a young 'cafe-au-lait' coloured young Iceland Gull. You can see there is no black in the wingtips. This one I got at the ornamental lake of an hotel in Blackpool a few years ago.

This is the same bird sat on the water. Although further away than the two Herring Gulls in the foreground you can see that it is about the same size but a little slighter. They can turn up anywhere where there are lots of gulls; places like docks, lakes and reservoirs and rubbish dumps either on the coast or inland.

This big brute is a Glaucous Gull, just about as big and bulky as a Great Black Backed Gull, much bigger than the Icelands. This one is an adult - not my picture but again photographed off a projected slide.

You are much less likely to find these inland and are overall less numerous than Icelands, this is certainly true in Lancashire, where they are decidely coastal.

So if you get out into your chilly outback keep an eye out for these white winged beauties hiding in amongst the other 'regular' gulls.

Where to next? Two jumpers on and out into the cold; but are there any Waxwings about and where did the Ross's Goose go?

In the meantime let us know what you have found in your outback...be it tropical, warm, temperate, cold or downright freezing- - - - anyone from Churchill out there with Polar Bears (apparently recorded once in the UK - in Shetland about 1750ish) in their back garden?

Bingo - We hit the jackpot!

A dull, cold, drizzly day. Waterproofs on and the safari set off from Base Camp with a shed load of hope.

No sign of the Long Eared Owls in their normal bushes. We moved on and checked out some of their hang outs from last year. Still no sign. Then at the last chance saloon....Got one....Yippee!

Not just one. We knew there had been two seen from time to time but a thorough check of the bush revealed FOUR! Top count of the winter so far.

A brief look at the water had six Whooper Swans leaving the reserve replaced a few minutes later by 63 Wigeon whiffling in from up high. Their 'wheeooo' whistles are one of the sweetest sounds of the winter. In the bushes behind the hide there was a large flock of Long Tailed Tits, well over a dozen and a crackin' little Goldcrest in with them.

Back to Base Camp for a well earned cup of tea.

Where to next? There's Waxwings about...nice little birds, always worth a look.

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

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.