Missed a tick!

The Safari was looking through our notebooks and spotted a gap on our list yesterday...American Golden Plover; crikey a Lifer and we nearly managed to miss it off our list. Got the Pacific GP a few years ago and can remember dipping the AGP at Blackburn on a really cold and miserable day so this little beauty makes up for that one. Also takes our local Fylde list to 236, (obviously excluding our 10 bad dips!)...nowhere near the top 10, not even in the top 15, but trundling along nicely!

A brief Patch 2 pre-work visit only gave us a very distant Gannet and an unseasonal adult Common Gull.

Mid-morning we played host to the Children of Chernobyl, actually they wer from Belarus rather than the Ukraine but it made little difference as our Russian is niet so goot. However with the aid of a charming interpreter we got by.

The kids done good, finding this shell which we've not seen before, it's a ????? Possibily Fabulina fabula, Bean-like Tellin

Amongst the hundreds of Brown Shrimps and Common Prawns that were wrangled from their hidey-holes were two of these Common Sand Stars.

The fishermen were packing up and we asked if they had any lugworms to show us. They kindly gave us a Green Lug which left its green 'slime' all over our mitts; two washes with Fairy washing-up liquid, two of alcohol hand steriliser and two of standard soap it is still there!

Plenty of Green Shore Crabs were found many alive today and only a few shed skins unlike last week. The top one is about to wrestle the large female from under the Barnacle encrusted male. Hardly a tussle more of a 'move over wimp she's mine'

We saw a small Blenny/Goby in the shallows and offered a prize to the child who caught a fish. Little did we know they'd find a small dead Smooth Hound, type of dogfish shark and then nearly broke the bank with this rather large Spotted Catshark.

Nice set of dentistry!

They didn't get any prizes, we reckoned pointing out dead fish was too easy, what we really wanted was for them to catch some live fish!

Then our own youngsters turned up for a spot of sea watching before volunteering to lay waste to our wildlife garden.

The trouble with 'employing' naturalists to work in a wildlife garden is that they kept finding wildlife and it was down tools every ew minutes as the next moth was spotted. Today's super sighting was of a Hummingbird Hawkmoth laying eggs on Goosegrass, so that won't be weeded!!! Unfortunately thia was the first moth seen and the cameras were still back in the office...b*gger.

Nice Hoverfly for someone to help ID

And if there are any parasitic wasp 'experts' out there, here's one for you...looks a bit funny at the back end as it was meticulously cleaning its back legs. Lost an antenna along the way too.

Where the 'real' gardeners had trashed the Gorse hedge we found this Dunnocks nest lying on the floor. The Gorse was too spiky for the window cleaners to work near so it had to be 'attended to'...at the wrong time of year and without a proper nest search...

Last up are three moths for ID...a Pug

Micro 1

and Micro 2

All goes to prove there is wildlife in our wildlife garden...that's deffo put all the weeding on hold!

Where to next? Normal patch service may be resumed tomorrow. Reports from CR of White Letter Hairstreaks seen on patch 1 today in the afternoon sunshine.

In the meantime let us know who needs the dentist in your outback.

Four letter word

The Safari has come across a few four letter words over the years but one which we had almost forgotten came rattling back with a vengeance this morning – RAIN! Still it’ll do the spuds n tomatoes at Base Camp the world of good even though we watered them before leaving for work.
Despite the much cooler morning with a stiff breeze poor Frank was still suffering from last night’s heat induced lethargy and only made it to the small field on Patch 1. After all the excitement of the last couple of days it was back down to earth with a resounding bump. At the Golden Triangle a Song Thrush sang and another poked about at the bottom of the Philadelphus hedge – have to say the scent off these hedges in the evening is just fantastic at the moment – also singing from the depths of the GT was the Blackcap, a lively pair of Greenfinches made up the numbers. A Dunnock snag its flat little ditty from the inside the smell that has become Magpie wood - the 'gardeners now dump their grass cuttings off the field in there - shame there's no Grass Snakes round here but they do tend to spread it about a bit too much flattening the habitat rather than keeping a snmall neat pile.
On the way back to Base Camp we spotted a dead Herring Gull lying at on the far side of the road. Further investigation revealed it to be an unringed 3rd summer bird. Unfortunately we had neither a bag nor a camera as it was more or less undamaged (apart from being dead of course – flew into telephone cables during the night or clipped by a car) and would have made an informative moult study.
Patch 2 was pretty dire too. The tide was well out and there was nothing on or over the sea. The only thing of note in the sea was a Grey Seal bottling not far behind the surf. At the water’s edge there was a bit of a build up of gulls, more than we have seen for a while and notably a decent number of Black Headed Gulls with a single juvenile.
At lunchtime the tide had just reached the wall and there was nothing happening what-so-ever, we last no more than five minutes in the quite heavy rain.
With nowt doing outside we’d like to draw your attention to inside where a colleague who’s a bit into photography, has a couple of pics up. This one is superb and a piece of ‘extreme digital engineering’ excellence, 360º panorama, 38 frames, 1 picture, 2 sheets of paper and more detail than you can shake a stick at! Well worth a look if you’re in the area. It's of the Inverewe area of NW Scotland. Got to be the longest photograph we've ever seen! And there are a couple of other crackers too!

The skyline was this clear this morning, before the rain, so much so you could almost pick out the sheep (but not the Hen Harriers) on the Bowland Fells with the naked eye. We have some friends who must have the best view in town from their second storey sitting room window when it comes to looking out towards the Lake District; hmmm...wonder if Lonesome George, England’s only wild Golden Eagle, could be seen through the scope from their sofa...would save a few quid in fuel...

Where to next? More beachy stuff tomorrow and maybe a scout round the low water mark for a change.

In the meantime let us know how wet the rain is in your outback

It's just not cricket

The safari thinks, well actually, it could well be...

Can anyone out there give us an ID...or even a clue...looks like a nymph of something, but what? Many thanks to CR for the theft of his pic but it's got us both stumped...

It was in the Butterfly Zone at Patch 1 earlier this arvo.

4th July celebrations - American style

The Safari managed to twitch the American Golden Plover (190) - nice pic by SP here - by the time we'd got to it the tide was hurtling up-river and the near mudflts were covered. Consequently the bird was on he far bank and being edged closer to the salt marsh vegetation all the while - but what a fine and dandy stonker! Just coincidence it's Independence Day today...it did turn up yesterday though so...what the hell it's a real beaut!

After filling our boots with the trans-Atlantic wanderer we decided to have another look for the White Letter Hairstreaks. CR came along and joined us and we had an hour or so in the sun watching a variety of butterflies going about their business. A couple of Commas and Holly Blues, many Meadow Browns some Large and Small Skippers and Large and Small Whites. C found this pair of Forest Shield Bugs on an Elm leaf.

Large Skipper

A mating pair of Meadow Browns, which at first glance may look like Gatekeepers with the double eyespot.

We'd had some tantalising glimpses of a White Letter Hairstreak high in the canopy but as we were thinking about calling it a day one descended to a more reasonable level. Unluckily for C he'd had one on a thistle earlier but when he movd to get his camera into position it flushed.

Where to next? Back to the patches.

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

White letter day

The Safari's moth trap was somewhat disappointing this morning with only three Mottled Beauties, nine Heart & Darts and a very tatty, worn Dark Arches along with these micros...apaolgies if we've shown them before but can't remember their names! Really need to devise some kind of aide-memoir.

Micro 1

Micro 2

Micro 3

Micro 4 is Crambus pascuella, we think...

At least we know this one Phlyctaenia coronata

Small Skipper

Pure gold!

Apologies for the poor pics - blogger has been playing up and this is only a snippet of what was originally ritted .

Where to next? American Golden Plover turned up a coupla miles up the road...too much Sunday evening wine...dohhhh

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

The Safari was in the town centre at an event today - pheww it was pleasantly hot - beatuful blue skies and thankfully, as our tables were covered with leaflets - no wind!!!

We had a lorra, lorra hats on, work, FARG, Naturewatch, National Whale & Dolphin Watch, Marinelife and occasionally helping out with the North Blackpool Pond Trail stand next door.

We were in the new town square which boasts this amazing satute/artwork/feature

Opposite the sculpture is the old church and at about two o'clock a Peregrine flew in and landed in the niche facing us - perfect for all the passers-by but it spent alot of time turned towards the wall.

Apart from a few drunks the only wildlife seen was a somewhat lost Small Tortoiseshell that whizzled through the square heading for the coast.
Where to next? Another hot day, perhaps too hot for Frank so not sure where we'll get to but for starters the mothy will need investigating first thing in the morning.

In the meantime let us know how blue the sky is in your outback.

Half time

The Safari hasn't been able to get out today other than two totally hopeless Patch 2 visits with nothing found at all apart from a blob of Common Scoters in the far shimmery distance.

After tea six Oystercatcer flew over with a seventh bringing up the rear piping loudly -one more than 30t June 2010 -how odd! They took the garden list to 32.

Last year at the end of June the overall year list had reached 167 so we're we'll ahead with 189 - how'd that happen? Patch 1 stands on 60, two less than Patch 2 at which we still haven't had Swift, Collared Dove, House Martin, Robin 0r Wren there yet.

At the nature reserve we've found 89 species so far to date.

Sorry no pics today.

Where to next? Town Centre tomorrow, not sure if we dare take the camera...mothy is likely to go out over the weekend.

In the meantime let us know if your outback has been kind so far this year.