Nearly didn't get out

The Safari didn't get far today with things to do far removed from safari-ing.
Frank has just turned 9 YO recently and passed his 4th Gotcha Day so we took him to the beach for his first time since July and his knee injury. Needless to say he loved it!!!

We did have a reason to go down there - we have to collect enough shells for a school geography & art project in the week - 30 students are gonna needa lorra lorra shells - no idea what they are going to do with them...all will be revealed on Thursday no doubt, providing we've collected enough shells.
Most of the usual suspects in the shell-line were collected but there were a good number of Curved Razors, not something we see too many of, a single undamaged Iceland Cyprine and more than usual Common Otter Shells were eclipsed by a small Sand Gaper, rarely see those on our beach. Couldn't find any Tower Shells though - where are they?
SD had had a Harbour Porpoise earlier in the morning but a couple of quick scans with the bins rather than the scope at low tide only provided us with a Grey Seal.

Back at Base Camp a big flock of Long Tailed Tits went through the garden on their way to roost completely avoiding the feeders :-(

Nothing from British Columbia yet this evening.

Where to next? A date with a pond tomorrow, one of the best ponds in Lancashire that requires a bit of de-Willowing...see you there?

In the meantime let us know what's roosting in your outback.
Late Edit:- Nice group of Stellar's Sealions on the webcam this evening - no pic/screengrab sorry.

Two new mammals on the list

The Safari went to the dentist this morning which is in the same town as the plethora of Waxwings and after the pain of emptying the wallet we should have gone and collected a bag full of berries from the visiting beauties favourite trees.

Back at Base Camp we spent the remainder of the morning cutting wood in the back garden and heard a Goldcrest - very nice, flushed a Chaffinch when we put some kitchen bits in the composter and a heard a Dunnock. Overhead a Collared Dove whizzed between the houses so the garden isn't quite as dead as we thought.

A short walk with Frank was bins-less but not birdless. We found the finch flock on the North Blackpool Pond Trail but could only see and hear Goldfinches and Chaffinches - how we wished we'd taken the bins with us. Also present was a Coal Tit and a small flock of Long Tailed Tits.

Much later while waiting for the oven to cook our chips we decided to have a look at the Orca webcam, out in the channel off the northern end of Victoria Island British Columbia; usually by the time we get to it it's gone off air (7pm our time) but today we were much earlier and in luck!!!

As soon as we tuned in we saw a blow and minutes later several more but way off in the distance - well 10000 miles is quite far away. Before long an Orca breached and after a bit of practice we managed to get a 'reasonable' screen grab. How many of you have seen a live Orca in your sitting room?...and without getting wet!!!

Think we can just make out a tall dorsal fin which would make this tiny speck a male - it's a long way off as they are significantly heavier than African Elephants!

Also seen was a Bald Eagle and a lot of little blobs which were probably gulls.

All of a sudden the operator panned the camera round and zoomed in; this web cam has one of those the old Orca-cam we used to use could be manoevered from this chair although we never saw an Orca from it.

Not Orcas this time but two Humpback Whales, at least that's what we think they are (are we right Monika? Any around at the moment, or are they something else?)

Two Humpback Whales(?) and a Glaucous Winged Gull(?)

Swimming from right to left

Swimming from left to right

Unfortunately we narrowly missed a great tail fluke pic.
Where to next? Not sure what's happening tomorrow and we might not get anywhere near a safari...ohh dear.
In the meantime let us know what;s huge and swimming through your outback.

How rank can a day get?

The Safari looked at  the weather this morning with disdain - simply awful! We tried a look at Patch 2 but gave up in the murk with very little visibility. On the bit of beach there was a fair sized flock of Sanderlings but we only got to 15 when the nearby dog walkers pesky mutt charged at them and they all took flight away from us landing well down the beach over our southern border...freakin numpties - some dog owners not Sanderlings.

The only thing we have for you is some more Starling action from yesterday afternoon with Young Un's AB and JS, joined a little later, by CR

Where to next? Nowhere if this rotten weather holds all day again. Still we've seen an optomistic blog today which noted that it's only a month until the nights start drawing out again and spring will be round the corner - still seems a long way off though.

In the meantime let us know if the rain eased up at all in your outback.

Murmurations from this evening

The safari has a second post for you this evening.

Not the best director in the world but hey this is one of the world's best wildlife spectacles and is so accessible to almost anyone - no need for expensive flights to the Maldives or the Serengeti - it's here and now at a pier/reedbed/woodland/town centre near you!

Enjoy

See yerz tomoz

Not a bad day after all

The Safari had a bad start today dark and dank and busy  in the office first thing. Then the rain fell heavily during the morning making us pessimistic about getting out at lunchtime. Luckily the rain had abated and we got out and soon found a a nice female Scaup sitting with a handful of Common Scoters...a good start but there wasn't anything else of note.

Just before going home time the clouds broke and a bit of a sunset started to appear which by the time we got to the pier was coming along nicely and showed off the Starlings murmurations to best advantage.

Pity there were no predators about to make them bunch up a bit more

Anyone fancy hazarding a guess as to how many are there - plenty more were arriving as we drove along the Prom.

 The the sunset started in earnest as we stopped off at the Post Office

Like we said not a bad  end to the day.

We got some video of the Starlings which may well appear on our Flickr site a bit later after we've faffed around a bit with  them.

Where to next? Wonder what Patch 2 will bring tomorrow - probably no lunchtime visit as we have a group in so the morning better be  cracker.
In the meantime let us know what's throwing the shapes in your outtback.

Wrong type of dolphin

The Safari looked somewhat despairingly at the sea today, far rougher than we had expected given the offshore wind direction, looking the other way the sunrise was quite spectacular but we couldn't find a decent location along the Prom to stop to get a pic.

We got the scope and went out but only lasted a few minutes - by eck that wind was cold!

Back in the office we had an email from an unknown person about a dolphin he'd found dead on the beach at the top end of town . Quite wrongly we assumed it was something to do with the local Bottle Nosed Dolphins that are being seen off Patch 2. His attached pictures, taken last night on his  phone showed it certainly wasn't one of the Bottle Nosed Dolphins. 

Blimey a Common Dolphin!

A sad end to a marvelous creature and wheels were set in motion to see if it was still on the beach or had been collected for an autopsy.

Searching through the records (only available to the end of 2001) we discovered it is only the ninth record of a stranded Common Dolphin along the inner Liverpool Bay coast since 1879, involving 10 animals! 

We're not sure about the Cheshire situation but can't think of any strandings along the Lancashire coast since then.

Live animals aren't that much more common. There being only three records from the various whale and dolphin websites between Cornwall and the Isle of Mull in the last six months! Off north Cornwall in the mouth of the Bristol Channel, off the Calf of  Man and off Ardnamuchan in Scotland.

So where did it come from, are there anymore as they are usually social animals and if there are more where are they now? Is this death something to do with the Bottle Nosed Dolphins, well the do do in Harbour Porpoises?

Must be still be some serious amounts of fish out there. By the close of play it still hadn't been found unless someone from the Strandings Scheme has already been down and taken it for analysis, colleagues will be checking the tidelines tomorrow just in case it reappears.

Not a lot else happening today but the sunset on the way back to Base Camp is a lot easier than sunrise to photograph from the Prom so we stopped for five minutes.

This chap must have seen it all before as he walked the entire length without looking anywhere else other than the toe of his boots.

In the end it sort of brightened up and faded out to nothing to write home about...five minutes enjoyed and well spent.

On a much more importantly sad note we read today that there are now 44 million birds less in our countryside than when we first picked up a pair of bins. Really feel we've cheated the young generations out of their inheritance. Something needs to bed done so that 44 million more aren't lost on their watch. The farmers incentives look like they may be lost or severely cut and that's going to be the start of the next 44 million :-( Maybe the farmers should be paid more for positive results, not getting anything until, for example, they raise the number of successfully breeding Yellowhammers on their farm by 50% or whatever - but who would be able to monitor that? We had the perfect workforce until very recently - the FWAG officers...boy do we need them back now! We've stepped up - have you?

The Peregrine was on the tower during Frank's walk.
Where to next? What'll be in the inbox tomorrow morning?
In the meantime let us know what's catching the last of the rays in your outback.

We watched while the willow wranglers worked

The Safari had a late start this morning - well we didn't get in until the wee small hours last night - but by mid-morning we were out on site with the Rangers and volunteers who were wading in to the ponds at the little wetland to remove as much of the invading Willow as possible.
A large piece of Bog Oak was half buried in the long grass, we put a fork under it and prised it up to see who if anyone was underneath...just one rather large Frog.

Several Snipe flew round as the ponds were relieved of their young Willows. It looked hard wet work getting the drag rakes and spades under or through the roots.

This pond had been worked in for most of the morning when a Jack Snipe (W 275, BI 189, MM LNR 96) came up from almost under a foot, we missed another at lunchtime. Also at lunchtime a Reed Bunting dripped in to investigate the freshly turned mud and  Mistle Thrush flew over.

Only one 'sitting down on the job casualty' - can you guess which volunteer just had to sit down on  in the job?

A Kestrel hovered over the drier parts of the field for much of the time we were there and dived into the long grass once but we didn't see what, if anything, it caught. Very annoyingly our camera batteries died while trying to get some pics of it hovering...no problem spares were in the pocket - but they'd been in the pocket so long they were dud too...doooohhhhhhh.

Frank was acting as foreman making sure that everyone was doing what they should have been and enjoyed a right royal slosh around in the water, something he's no been able to do for months, not that dogs should be in these ponds at all!

Before too long he got tired and had to be taken back to Base Camp and dried off...he's on the mend so will be enjoying more watery mayhem in the not too distant future.

Where to next? Back to that well known Bottle Nosed Dolphin hotspot; Patch 2.

In the meantime let us know who's up to their necks in it in your outback.