Good grief - shock, horror probe!

The Safari just came across this
New hides at the saltmarsh - whatever next!!!
Went out for a couple of hours sans Frank looking for the White Letter Hairstreaks - no joy with them but lots of other good stuff seen including two more Tree Bees, but again no chance of a pic.

Tried to find one of the Meadow Browns that have the double eyespot but none seen today. Other butterflies included lots of Speckled Woods, Holly Blue, Green Veined White, Large Whites, Small Skippers and a Small Tortoiseshell.
Lots of other good stuff saving them to show you tomorrow in case we don't get anything in the morning.
Where to next? Not sure what we're up to tomorrow, could be on the beach.
In the meantime let us know if it was warm enough for butterflies in your outback

Thunderous moths

The Safari took Frank out for a very slow and short amble last night, as soon as we'd closed the door on the sounds of the Olympics on the telly we heard at least one Whimbrel flying over in the darkness a bit to the east.

The cloud had broken, a few stars could be seen and the moon was rising behind a hazy veil of light mist...we chanced putting the mothy out.
Fortunately it didn't rain overnight and the trap wasn't full of water and shorted out electrics this morning. It wasn't particularly full of moths either but there was enough in there to keep us occupied for a while.
The  final tally was as follows, in no particular order :-
Marbled Beauty - 11 including some much larger and smaller than the norm
Celypha striana - 2
Blastobasis adustella - 1
Willow Beauty - 1 first for the year but flew off before pic could be taken
Scalloped Oak - 3
Bee Moth - 1 seems to be a good number of these this season
The Fan-foot - 1
Large Yellow Underwing - 2 well down on previous years so far and where are all the other species of  yellow underwings?
The Rustic - 1
Codling Moth - 1
Dotted Clay - 1
Buff Arches - 1 shame it was slightly worn - a real looker!!!
And a couple for confirmation of ID if anyone would like a stab at them...

Probably Acrobasis advenella?

Which Yponomeuta?

Double Striped Pug?

Another Double Striped Pug?

Same individual as above - about 20% smaller than the first one

Marbled Beauties - a small one and a large one

Buff Arches - What a beauty

A helluva rainstorm with a couple of rumbles of thunder thrown occurred  not long after all the kit had been safely put away - phew!
Where to next? Might get out later this arvo/evening for an hour or so once Wifey is back to baby-sit the invalid.
In the meantime let us know how heavy it rained in your outback.

Seaside sunset - sort of.

The Safari is sort of confined to barracks at the mo due to Frank's incapacitation. This morning we had a fit of gardening turning our front garden's tiny patch of crazy paving in to a tiny lawn for the big fella to hobble round so he's never more than 10 feet from the front door.
Yesterday's Peregrine brought the Patch 2 total to 79. The lists stand at World 195; British Isles 175; Patch 1 - 38; Patch 2 - 79; Garden - 36 and Marton Mere LNR - 88.

This evening we had an hour on the prom at the start of Chat Alley. Looking out to sea it looked idyllic but there was only a few Common Scoters and Sandwich Terns mooching about.

Three pics immediately one after the other but on different settings on the camera

A Grey Seal was seen briefly way out but dropped below thee surface and despite severe scanning was not seen again, perhaps not surprising as they can hold their breath for up to a whole hour!

The Emily J was trawling the life out of the seabed again.

To the west over the sea the sun shone summery but sneaking up behind us it was a little different.

We tried taking some pics of the passing Herring Gulls stark against the darkening sky, not the best of results...

With all that weather looming it was time to be prudent and skidaddle back to Base Camp. One the way back to the car (Wifey's this arvo, not the Solihull Special) we had the camera out ready to snap the forthcoming storm when this happy young lady called out 'take my picture take my picture' so we did!  They were having a BBQ by their bus in the car park, hopefully it didn't rain on their parade even if the girl behind her was caught picking her snozza.

A rainbow, with subsidiary, developed over the nearby park - pot of gold? well there was once for a certain JP when he found a Pallas's Warbler in there!

We got back to Base Camp as big heavy rain drops began to fall. The light was just plain weird!

Where to next? Little chance of putting the mothy out this evening and not sure if we'll be able to get further than the front door tomorrow...have to see if there's anything knocking about in the garden.

In the meantime let us know if you've been able to get out n about in your outback.

Only a brief update

The Safari didn't see much on Patch 2 this morning mostly because a large Peregrine was bombing up and down the beach about a foot off the sand trying to flush something tasty out off the gutters. It did three or four passes without venturing as far as the 400 or so Oystercatchers further down...maybe Oystercatchers don't taste too good. A Grey Seal bobbed around offshore to the north and a Curlew called bringing it to our attention as it passed southwards along the water  line.

We'd not long started the last of our hour long extra National Whale and Dolphin Watch watches when we noticed a fair few Common Scoters on the move, we started counting and got 180 or so but then got distracted by a little girl wanting to know about the dead whale that was on the beach earlier in the week. We resumed scanning after answering her questions and found this morning's Grey Seal and then a second one in the opposite direction.

Towards the horizon  a great cloud of large white headed gulls surrounded the trawler Emily J and this seemed to have the effect of flushing another group of Common Scoters giving rise to a domino effect as one flock lifted and passed so another followed shortly afterwards - in all at least 450. Making a minimum of 630. There were probably more but a colleague dashed over to tell us that we'd had a call from Wifey saying Frank was really struggling today. That meant it was time to nick off early go home and call the vet for more advice...poor boy is having a torridly uncomfortable time and it's looking more and more likely he's going to need the big operation.

Where to next? Seems like the Turtle Dove has done one so no early morning twitch tomorrow and the overnight weather doesn't look good for the mothy to go out; even if Young Un AB found north Lancashire's first Small Ranunculus this morning.

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

Pretty rubbish really

The Safari saw precious little on patch 2 early  this morning, a distant Grey Seal bobbing about well to the south and three dozen Oystercatchers on the beach was about the best of it. we were hoping for a fly-by Little Tern and/or Pomerine Skua as both have been reported from the South-side in the past few days, but we failed to see any thing more than a handful of tern sp feeding in the river mouth although the view across the river was crystal clear for a change, the Sefton Ranger's base and adjacent holiday camp/stalag being easily seen with virtually no shimmer this morning.

mid morning we had cause to go outside and passing the wildflower (=punter unfriendly untidy garden) we saw a Meadow Brown, a Large White and Small White as well as a teneral damselfly, probably Blue Tailed Damselfly. Three species off butterflies in the garden at the same time is good going! Shame one wasn't a Grayling.

Then we saw a weird looking bee crawling around the Perennial Cornflower flowers, about the size and shape of a Honey Bee with a similar pattern but with vivid yellow sides to it's abdomen, this yellow colouration may have extended to the ventral surface but we couldn't see that. Back in quickly for the camera - we never saw it again...will look tomorrow though. Anyone got any ideas?

We did take some pictures of a Honey Bee giving a Dandelion a right good going over but they weren't particularly good so you ain't seeing them!

Talking of Dandelions yesterday afternoon we saw there was an excellent show of Rough/Autumn Hawkbit (possibly even something else) on the bank approaching the railway bridge near Base Camp although today we note that the mowers have been out so it may have been destroyed. And talking of destroyed, the reason we were passing by that way was to take Frank to the vets, seems he's ruptured his Cruciate knee ligament and if it doesn't heal quickly or well he's looking at an op...whichever it is his football career is well and truly over, poor old boy.

At lunchtime conditions were good for an hour's watch but the birds and mammals didn't respond. Probably the same Grey Seal was still lurking distantly and there was the same lack of Little Terns and Pomarine Skuas, or any other terns or skuas or any other seabirds for that matter!

Where to next? More of the same, hopefully something of note will magically appear tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know what the mythical species are in your outback.
Did see an ad for these though and thought they look pretty nifty...or will do once the technological glitches have been ironed out, 3D tellies/puter monitors are good quality and readily available and the price has dropped a bit...sorely tempted particularly if they have 'live-view' which would have been really useful for the kiddies the other day.

More marine musings

The Safari was back on the wall at Patch 2 today. Not a lot happening on the early session a distant Grey Seal and fourteen Oystercatchers roosting on the beach that had somehow picked up a juvenile Sandwich Tern. The wind was just east of southerly and was quite strong giving just too much chop to be able to see any Harbour Porpoises, not that were going to today as later we heard news of a herd of 22 of them just over the horizon off Hilbre Island at the mouth of the River Dee. That's the largest concentration in the northern Irish Sea we've come across.

At lunchtime it was still choppy but we soon found two Grey Seals and later possibly had a third. 

Terns passed by in ones and twos, mostly Common Terns with a few Sandwich Terns thrown in including a juvenile or two. One of the Commons dived three times right in front of us and each time came out of the water with a small fish of a couple of inches long, possibly a Sprat or a Smelt.

We picked up one at range and it came ever closer even over the wall at one point, most unusual. Then it broke all the rules of being a tern - it landed on the wall not 20 feet (6m) away from us and we enjoyed scope filling views as it preened for ages. Risking flushing it we eased back a few yards then cautiously headed for the office an our spare camera. We approached carefully as there were other people about but fortunately they only went as far as the Mirror Ball before coming back roadside. Luckily it was raining quite heavily and that was probably keeping many of the multitudes at bay.  We took one distant quick snap just in case we flushed it as we too approached the Mirror Ball. Carefully we walked down the slope away from it but towards the spot we were at when it landed...Damn of damns a Lesser Black Backed Gull winged up from below the other side of the wall and flushed it!!! The eeeejiittttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good job we got that dodgy first record shot off...

Where to next? More of the seaside same tomorrow. When will that pod of 5/6 Bottle Nosed Dolphins reappear?

In the meantime let us know what's landed where they don't normally land in your outback
LATE EDIT - It seems that the 22 Harbour Porpoises were actually 22 Bottle Nosed Dolphins.  A real Harbour Porpoise was found dead on the beach nearby, a victim of the BNDs?

Two new to 'science'

The Safari saw the sea was almost flat calm this morning and could hardly wait to get the scope out. Unfortunately there wasn't much doing, a distant Grey Seal and a dozen Gannets was all we could muster.

At lunchtime we must have had the best part of a 100 whale and dolphin watching helpers most of them children too small to see over the wall. A/the Grey Seal was no much closer, only yards from the wall,  but playing hard to get by only popping up for seconds before disappearing beneath the tiny waves for long minutes at a time. Distantly we had about 150 Common Scoters but they too were hard to get the multitudes on to.

All the while Sandwich Terns mooched about some quite close in but these probably looked too much like 'seagulls' to be 'interesting', a few Common Terns were in the mix too.

We managed to wangle a pic of yesterday's dead Harbour Porpoise off AB's phone but the injury marks are inconclusive, the large square graze in front of the dorsal fin could have been made as the carcass rubbed on the sand as it washed in...always sad to see them like this though.

After the watch we had a quick lunch while the hordes descended on to the beach. This is jut some of them...

 And some more...we've never had to entertain so many before!

All those eyes nets were bound to find something interesting...and they did.

A nice but small Compass Jellyfish.

After hundreds of Brown Shrimps, several Common Prawns and a few Sand Gobies were identified the less numerous species came to light, tiny 'new born' Blennies, the smallest Green Shore Crabs you ever did see and a Lion's Mane Jellyfish.

And then the biggies appeared, first up a Chiton, apparently there were a fair number in one pot - never seen one before and told Monika a while ago we didn't get them on our shoreline = ooopps!!! Being an American hers was far larger than ours!

Which species? One for iSpot we think!

Then in one of the trays we saw a little white thing like a piece of white plastic but it was swimming. We're pretty sure it's an Isopod; another for iSpot!

This is how it swam round, like a folded upside-down paper dart, flicking out those paddle-like legs.

A fascinating day on the beach was topped by the discovery of Gammerid type shrimps, very similar to the freshwater shrimps that swim on their sides and not at all like the Brown Shrimps.

All this new stuff was due to the fact we were looking in a slightly different place along the wall, the tide had left runnels too deep for the small children to cross in our usual places - thanks very much Mr Tide you've played a blinder!

Where to next? More flat calm sea we hope.

In the meantime let us know what's waiting to be discovered in your outback.