Didn't happen

The safari can't believe it! As reported earlier I was out in the garden having a brew earlier this morning and just two Meadow Pipits went over in about an hour and a half. But reading other blogs especially Fleetwwood Birder and Heysham Bird Obs there was rakes of stuff moving but it didn't move over me, JD on the south side a few miles down the other way didn't have so much either - so where did it all go? An Osprey was moving through the area along the coast mid morning, missed that too, would have been a good patch/garden tick.

This arvo's special safari was always going to be a very long shot. The Toads below are our quarry's food.

As are Frogs.And Smooth Newts.You guessed what we were looking for yet? Grass Snakes! Did we find any - you guessed right - a resounding 'no'. There have been no recent authenticated records locally. But at this site a young girl spotted what was 99.9999% deffo one earlier in the year. So it has been a quest to prove it all summer however the weather has been against us all the way. A sloughed skin or hatched eggs would have done us but we didn't see any of these either.

In the course of turning over every rock, log, sheet of plastic etc etc we came across several small mammal nests, some had been raided with the bedding being out from the under the cover. One of the nests had these two headless babies - what was the culprit here? Weasel? Gruesome what ever has done it.Sparrowhawk drifted south, resident or local?
The field we were investigating has a diverse range of wildflowers - it is one of the best areas in town but earmarked for development. A single specimen of Common Centaury was trying to avoid the heavy horse grazing pressure. That's heavy grazing from heavy horses. Few butterflies were about, a Large White, a Red Admiral and this flighty but fresh looking Small Copper was pick of the bunch.

Whilst investigating the dykes that run along the edge of the site a call went out - 'dragonfly'! Looking up a large dragon whizzed past along the length of the dyke. It didn't half look like a Golden Ringed Dragonfly, well it was big with black and yellow strips and I didn't get any blue on it. We charged after it as that would be a real local rarity but we weren't able to relocate it...what a shame that would have been a big bonus find.
We used to call these berries Deadly Nightshade as kids but now know them as Bittersweet from the same family, of course.

To finish with a plummeting Goldfinch from earlier this morning. Pity its not a better quality pic.

Where to next? Well I didn't get a chance to go twitching and most of them have done a runner now anyway but the Green Woodpecker (least exciting of the bunch by a mile - typical) might still be about.

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

It's all happening

Bit of a mish-mash today I'm afraid. AND within a stone's throw of the Safaris front door there are some real quality bird. Green Woodpecker, Great White Egret, Yellow Browed Warbler and a Long Billed Dowitcher with a Nightjar a bit further afield - what is it doing on the Bearded Tit's grit tray??? -so a UK bred not too distant but really rare round here, a couple of southern Europeans, a Sibe and a Yank all within 10 miles of each other if that - we must be at the crossroads of the planet!

Last night was National Moth Night and in true NMN form it peed it down just before dark to dampen everyone's spirits! But the rain stopped and we headed on out to the nature reserve. As it happened there were more moth'ers than moths. So we took to trying to find the full set of Banded Snails ie pink, brown and yellow forms with 0,1,3 and 5 stripes of both the White Lipped and the Black Lipped species. Didn't do too bad on the Blacks but the Whites are harder to come by on the reserve.

The moths were very disappointing for a mild, muggy dark night but strangely they did a Noah's Ark for us and came in in pairs. We had 2 Snouts, 2 Silver Ys and 2 what I'm pretty sure were old worn and tatty July Highfliers, a couple of as yet unidentified Plume Moths and a single specimen of the ubiquitous Light Brown Apple Moth. Chuck in a sackful of Daddy Long Legs and a few Caddis Flies and that was about it, not all that spectacular.

The bat detectors were quiet too for a long time. Then we started to get hits and a walk to the bushes at the water's edge eventually gave us three Pipistrelles flying around together. I tried the wobbly bit of grass head held high trick to no avail. Toads were a bit easier to find especially as two had climbed up the straining struts on a nearby fence post - why? By the time my camera was sorted the larger had jumped off. Our intrepid Junior Ranger disappeared in to the darkness and came back with a small Frog, but with still no sign of any more moths we called it a night.

Dawn this morning was a glorious affair as Frank had his morning constitutional.. But I missed the best bit by five minutes. The bizarre huge white building at the end of the road is 'affectionately' known as Mount Fuji!The hills of the Forest of Bowland can just be made out above the roof tops. But we couldn't see the Lake District fells to the north for the haze. My brother is there today running the Langdale Marathon, allegedly the hardest road marathon in the world.

The park had only a few Robins this morning compared to the other day but a good number of Wrens which I was unable to count by being distracted by other dog walkers (got to 7 but there were probably at least half that again). A Mistle Thrush half-heartedly gave a snatch of song, the first record since the late spring after the breeding pair moved on. At least 15 Long Tailed Tits zipped from bush to bush but too awkward to hold a dog, a bag of doggy do-do and a camera all at the same time particularly with a bitch in season in the area over exciting Frank. He may have lost his nads but he sure still knows what to do!

A lone Black Headed Gull dropped in to see if the overnight druggies and associated chavs had dropped anything worth eating.Sun came up good and bright so I sat in the garden and had a brew while the early morning feeding run started. A couple of Goldfinchs and a Blue Tit was all I could muster. A Painted Lady nipped through before eight o'clock - must be quite warm for late September if they are out and about that early on a Sunday morning.

Not the world's best pics I admit.

Where to next? Later this arvo is mission impossible - 0.00000000001% chance of success. Then I'm off twitching!

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

Robins, robins, robins

The safari got to 'Patch 1' - aka the park - just before sun-up this morning and the only noticeable wildlife was the ticking and warbling of Robins...lots of Robins. It seemed as if almost every clump of bushes had one hiding in its darkest recesses. There was a minimum of NINETEEN in total. Despite a bit of hunt round for anything else nothing popped up as being out of the ordinary. But are there nineteen Robins normally or was that a bit of a fall...I was a little earlier than of late. What will the count be tomorrow morning or will it be the turn of Blackbirds...or something else?

Back home for brew and brekky the kitchen window Garden Cross Spider was sat in the middle of her web and with enough daylight by now I was able to get shots from both outside and inside i.e her upper and undersides.

A fearsome beasty which wifey hopes will stay on that side of the window and not venture indoors!
Earlier in the week Blackpool played host to the end of one of the stages of the Round Britain cycle race. I set the alarm on the mobile and when it went off I dashed outside with the camera hoping for a fist full of action shots. No chance! The police outriders on the motorbikes with the blue flashing lights should have stopped the lot of them and booked them all for speeding - they were doing well over the 30mph speed limit.

Consequently I only got a couple of shots away as they zipped through - the noise was like an enormous Starling roost swooping in to land on masse.

I quite like this blurry rider shot - gives some arty impression of the rider in full flight with the finish line only a few hundred yards away. Total fluke though!
Where to next? Don't forget it's National Moth Night at the weekend so there could deffo be something nocturnal in the offing. And there's more...hoping beyond hope for a warm and sunny day on Sunday for...you'll have to wait and see...if we're successful and that's no way guaranteed - rather the opposite - I'll be well happy, overjoyed even...so cross everything including yer buttocks for us!

In the meantime let us know who, or what, has been whizzing past in your outback.

PS Just found out today that one of my 'chums' from Aus has just been given AU$895,000 (about £11.56 hahahaha) to spend on MOUSETRAPS of whatever type he chooses to rid some of the Western Australian outlying islands of feral rodents...go Keith - somewhere in my boxes of old photos I 've got a picture of him holding a very rare but very cute looking Greater Spiny Stick Nest Rat, he couldn't hold a Lesser SSNR cos sadly they are now extinct.

One for The Abbott

Not the world's best picture of a Red Deer but that's what it is...Enjoy. Hope to better this in the next few weeks with the new(ish) camera - this was taken a while ago with the digital version of a Box Brownie.

On the patch today

The safari was out at first light this morning and bagged a Peregrine Falcon followed by a singing Chiffchaff - which was nice! Still waiting for the biggy or a fall of Blackbirds etc.

Patch two before work provided a Grey Seal and not a lot else...somewhere out there is a Velvet Scoter with my name on it but only distant Commons today and a couple of scurrying Auks.

There is a Garden Cross Spider with a huge web across the side kitchen window just itching to be blogged but he is all curled up in a tight ball at the moment - as soon as he sits in the middle of the web I'll dash out with camera and snap him - he's probably a she!

Where to next? Long, long day at work tomorrow so may have to wait 'til the weekend - which just happens to be National Moth Night. And maybe a surprise on Sunday.

In the meantime let us know what's lurking outside your outback kitchen window.

Soz - no photos today. Didn't post any on yesterdays rant 'cos I didn't want to patronise all you wildlife experts with pics of the plainly obvious what they are Bluebells, Oak Trees and Red Deer etc.....

Wifey made me re-do my rant!

The trouble with surveys is you might not like the results. I found such a survey in this month’s edition of British Wildlife magazine. A quality read which I recommend anyone who has an interest in our wildlife to subscribe to.
The survey was undertaken by a leading chain of h/motels and 3000 adults were asked what they knew about our marvellous British countryside.
Now 3000 is not a big sample but is probably reasonably representative of travelling reps and families.
So what did the survey say you are asking yourself well here goes be prepared to be shocked and aghast at the result:
Frighteningly over half thought our countryside was boring with nothing to see (the ignorant fools to admit that I ask you!). I almost blame the great Sir David Attenborough – you can see swarming hordes of Wildebeests stampeding across the Serengeti or rivers full of Hippos and Crocodiles at the touch of a remote control button.
Obviously the thousands of us the wildlife Bloggers are wasting our time or seeing things that are not really there!!!!!
An astonishing 83% could not identify a Bluebell - THE iconic flower of our woodland - how can it be iconic if 83% don’t know what it is I ask you?
27% thought a Hare was a Deer – what on earth do they think Deer are? Elephants!!! Giraffes!!! The mind boggles.
12% identified a Red Deer stag as a Reindeer – an easy mistaka-to-maka - hmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
Somewhat worryingly 10% could not identify a Sheep & 44% could not identify an Oak Tree. How???? It’s plastered over pub signs the length and breath of the country. The tree that helped us keep our monarchy and the Spanish and Napoleon at bay should be shown a little more respect than that.
Then 71% didn’t know what a Pine Tree was. No, surely that can not be right!
There were a couple of other trickier questions which only a tiny proportion got right and all this goes to show how far removed the urban population of this county is.

The safari'll take em out and get them cold and muddy and show them some superb wildlife - for a price of course, gotta make a livin' yer know.

Later dudes...

"Our survey said..."

I pressed something and lost the lot so you'll never know
Took me ages too!- -BUGGER
Where to next? No idea and I'm peed off now!
Did get a Guillemot early doors and a Med Gull at lunch time off the prom, but even the Med is no compensation for losing an hours blog rant at the touch of a button!
In the meantime let us know whose been surveying what in your outback.
I'm off to find my Kalashnikov to go and reduce the UK population of thickos by about 30/40,000,000 - bye for now - - might not be back mentioning the 'k' weapon on the interweb will probably bring MI5 knocking at the door in the small hours.