Too busy today

The safari has had a hectic day today with no wildlife to report other than a Fox at 06.00 and a Peregrine roosting on it's ledge 12 hours later at 18.00, both whilst out with the big fella.

Where to next? Hopefully normal service will be resumed tomorrow with the usual visit to a nice calm Patch 2 and the (remote?) chance of a cetacean or two.

In the meantime let us know what's sneaking around the pre-dawn suburban street in your outback.

Females of the species

The Safari was back on the nature reserve this morning and for some reason females seemed to be order of the day.

The first birds we noticed were a huge flock of Starlings and Woodpigeons in the field to the east. Also there were two Mute Swans lying dead under the power wires which wasn't good - the wires do have bird 'deflectors' fitted but they hadn't worked in this instance.

At the corner we had our first female, a Reed Bunting...not this one, which is one we forgot to post yesterday.

 Around the reed bed we failed to hear any Cetti's Warblers or Water Rails but noted a flock of at least 75 Fieldfares arriving from the north west. Altogether we reckon we must have had over 200 moving through during the time we were there and a fair few Blackbirds coming actoss from the north too. Only a few Redwings and a single Song Thrush.

There's still plenty of Apples on the trees, somehow the Apple-picking thieving humans had ravaged the crop so badly this year. The Hawthorns also have a good crop still left, as for Rose hips - how many d'yer want - another 'female'

We went to see the owls and met RD and CB on the way, but didn't meet any Long Eared Owls again despite extensive searching - where are they and why have they moved?

A possible answer would be revealed a few minutes later. We walked back down the track and tied Frank to a post where he'd be able to see us and he soon settled down in the long grass for a snooze. We walked left and we walked right looking for the elusive Bullfinch(es?). They/it were still around as CB's much young ears had picked out a distant call a few minutes before. A Buzzard circled close overhead, a large flock of Lapwings we estimated at at least 150 flew round before heading off to thee east and a nice flock of Long Tailed Tits made their way noisily through the scrub.

Poor pic of a Lottie but is it  a female

Strange to think that just 20 years ago these were almost a 'description' species at the nature reserve they were that infrequent!

Eventually a couple of Goldfinches appeared not too far back in the scrub and as neither ourselves or RD had seen any birds other than a pesky Robin for a good few minutes we lifted our bins, almost simultaneously, and both said ...Bullfinch! We had a good gawp at this truly infrequent visitor to the reserve and although this one is MM LNR #98 for us we have seen a small number over the years but probably not for at least ten years, might even be 15 now - doesn't time fly when you're having fun!

We got this very shaky pic in the dark - it had been lovely and sunny for ages and just when we needed it it had gone in behind a big black cloud.

Bet that's hurt your eyes!

With that rubbish on the SD card and the sun coming out we decided to wait around for a better photo opportunity. That rubbish above could be the only pic of a Bullfinch taken at the reserve, unless someone has an old fashioned slide from the old days. No doubt someone will say they've got one but at time of writing we've not heard of any. Note that she is a female, and the other one with her (still present?) is also a female so despite the habitat being absolutely bob on for them they aren't likely to breed - anyone ever tried cloning Bullfinches?

We waited and waited and waited until at last we heard a call or two and really concentrated on find in the bird, another call made us look up and there it was right in the top of a nearby Apple tree but obscured. Very cautiously we inched to a better spot for an obscured pic, set the camera to rapid fire, pulled the ISO down to sensible and adjusted the exposure control...aim focus...GONE...a flippin spaniel came charging up the path running in and out of  the bushes with no sign of its owner! A couple of minutes later a vision in pink came in to view with no idea where her dog was or what it was doing...and not a care that it was rampaging around a nature reserve...She was the first of a procession of women with loose dogs over the next half hour...and we wonder why the owls have gone. seems like some people get a dog and lose the ability to read the signs with big letters on them on every gate saying NO DOGS UNLESS ON A SHORT LEAD...not an invisible unlimited length non-tangling lead.

Anyway rant over we didn't think we'd get another chance at the Bullfinch so we went back to the Bird Club hide to check out the gulls - there were very few.
On the way one of the dead swans had recovered and sat up and flapped two big white unbroken wings, so was it just sitting there or had it suffered some other unseen injury? The other was certainly dead as a Carrion Crow had its head up somewhere we doubt you'd want to put your head...still it's all recycling! Also in the field and far from dead were a dozen Pink Footed Geese, don't often see them in this first field.

The Teal were checked, no luck and 29 Wigeon were counted but later we learned there was a similar number at the far end out of sight from the hide.
A Sparrowhawk waited at the base of tree preparing to ambush something unwary, but it had no chance with the two Snipe that flew out of the reedbed.

Getting cold and Frank tripping people up in the hide, can't see him in the dark when they come in from outside and he ALWAYS lies right in the way we almost called it a day when this female Shoveler came very close in to the little bay.

So not a bad day but this evening we discovered we'd left too early as a Little Egret was seen in the afternoon, never seen one at the nature reserve but they still weren't common in the area when we finished working there.
Will we get the 100? If so what will they be? There's some 'horrors' missing off the list, checking our spreadsheet there's no Meadow Pipit or Skylark, have we totally missed them or just 'managed' to not record them???

We called into Comet to see if we could pick up a 'better' camera at an knock down price but got there far too late as there was nothing left at all...a bit disappointing but we feel really sorry for the staff though and trying to steal a big bargain somehow felt a bit ghoulish; not that that would have stopped us had the price been right.

Where to next? Little chance of any safari tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know what mischief the females are up to in your outback.

A glorious winter's morning

The Safari was out on the nature reserve not long after the sun eased over the eastern horizon away, white frost made the grass crisp and it crackled underfoot, the many puddles were treacherously frozen. Frank was on a go slow shiff-athon  along the embankment but that allowed us to hear (probably) two Cetti's Warblers, one at the bridge and the other(?) about half way along - we actually SAW this one flit briefly across one of the recently dug gaps in the reeds.

A check along the still unfrozen dyke didn't give us the Kingfisher that us been seen a couple of times recently.

Once we got behind the island something flushed a lot of Teal from their shelter in the margins of the North Reeds, if only what ever it was had done it a couple of minutes earlier we'd have known what it was.

Our objective, as usual at the mo, was the elusive Bullfinches and the now 'regular'-ish Long Eared Owls. Meeting a group from the east wasn't encouraging - they'd seen neither! Once again as usual they turned round and followed us to the 'regular' owl spot - it/they weren't there again and plenty of searching other bushes in the vicinity didn't reveal them or the Bullfinches. The owls were probably low down and out of sight due to intervening vegetation but were the Bullies still on site or had they shipped out over night?

Lots of Blackbirds and Fieldfares were feeding on the berries and Apples but even flightier than yesterday and gave no chance of any pics. On the drive in we flushed a good number of Redwings which had we seen them in time we may have been able to roll to a stop and get some pics from the Land Rover.

Reed Buntings and Goldfinches also gave us the photography run-around while Frank pulling the other way on his lead prevented us getting on a small bird which flew across the track in front of us and looked very much like a Chiffchaff...maybe we should ignore the dogs on leads in the nature reserve rule like the majority of other dog walkers! D'yer think if there was a total dog ban (not unreasonable in a nature reserve) they'd still come in but keep them on their leads...nah we didn't think so either...

CR arrived as expected and we both wandered down to the Viewing platform where the low sun in our faces more or less prevented viewing so we didn't stop long but made our way to the Feeding Station which was lively but Bulllfinchless. Cold forced us out after about half an hour.

We went back to the 'owls' photographing some nice Goldfinches feeding on Teasel seeds on the way.

All hand-held @ approx 1500mm zoom - GET A TRIPOD - got one but it's just another thing to carry!

Cliff's pics will be an order of magnitude better when they appear here so keep checking.

Almost back AB caught up with us after seeing a couple of Siskins in the Alders on the other side of the track to the Feeding Station - we'd looked up there but seen nothing! AND he'd had a fly-over Redshank!!!

We did have something to show AB - a frozen slug. It must have been out when the weather briefly warmed up and got caught by a sudden drop in temperature.

Not often you see a Black Slug (Arion ater) or any other slug for that matter, with ice on its back...it was a hard as a sherbert lemon - poor thing. We found a couple more Bee Orchid rosettes too when we started looking around where we'd found them yesterday.

Again no owls or Bullfinches and by now we'd run out of time.

AB had the last laugh though...a txt when we got home told us he'd seen one of the Bullfinches...you can really go off some people.

Where to next? Back again tomorrow morning/lunchtime, but we can only stay out until mid afternoon - will it be long enough.

In the meantime let us know who had all the luck in your outback.

Lost an owl found an orchid

The Safari had an hour between finishing in school and the sun going down so we headed round the corner from the school to the nature reserve.

We wanted to find the Bullfinches but had no success. We couldn't find the Long Eared Owls either but enjoyed some nice views of a small number of Redwings, quite a few Fieldfares and a lorra lorra Blackbirds enjoying the apples still on the trees.

Turning round to wander down to the view the water something, lordy knows what, made us look down and that had the strange result of spotting a Bee Orchid rosette! Looking more closely we soon found another five, can't remember if we've ever seen them before the New Year before. Good to see the grassland management there is working as it should be.

We've absolutely no idea if they'll be seen flowering in June though.

On the water a nice count of 31 Wigeon was made and a good number of Teal flushed off the island by something unseen, no sign of any Green Winged Teal - they have been seen 'this week' in the past.

Overhead about 150 Lapwings was a nice sight, a bit of cold weather movement perhaps?

Where to next? Back there again in the morning.

In the meantime let us know if there's any 'Yankees' in your outback.

Nice day to be out

The Safari was able to get out for a couple of hours this arvo. A site visit was needed to have a check of a site the BEAT NatureWatch are hoping will become a County Biological Heritage Site in the near future but some remedial works have become necessary.

Obviously we weren't going to see any snakes, if indeed there are still any there, and we struggled to find any signs of Water Voles but the water level in the ditch and pond was high and frozen.

We checked under the only refugia and found Short Tailed Field Voles have been very active but more exciting was this blob of ???? Is it a fungus or is it a slime mould?

And what is the skeleton of, frog, mammal or something else.

With a little time left we headed to the nature reserve before it went dark to see if we could find the Bullfinches, we couldn't, the Long Eared Owl(s) weren't showing either and there was no sign of the morning's Waxwings we'd been told about by the Ranger.

The sunset made the reeds a rich hue but no Bitterns emerged to take advantage of the last of the day's rays. A good count of 300 Coots was made.

We'd already met up with PL earlier on our walk and then saw him again with some other birders as we got back to the Land Rover. It would have been rude not to saw cheerio but better than that he said the Barn Owl (MM #97) had been showing so we hung around with him a bit longer and there it was again peering out in the gloom.

Not the best pic of a Barn Owl you'll ever see. Thankfully it looked a lot better through the scope.

Our toes dictated we left before the owl left the box to hunt...by eck it was cold once the sun had gone down!

Could have done with the Bullfinches as when we got home we check the bird club website and saw they'd been seen sometime today...hopefully they'll stick around til the end of the year - should do there's plenty of grub and cover for them. But which other two species do we stand any sort of a chance of to get to the magical 100...that Redshank we missed by minutes in the spring would have helped!

Where to next? More Patch 2 chills tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know what's hiding in boxes in your outback

Death and new life

The Safari went to the wall this morning as usual and peered over at the wide swathe of sand in the dull early morning light. The tide was well out and a quick scan of the very lumpy sea didn’t give us anything other than a few Common Scoters and Cormorants.

The beach was more interesting with a count of 89 Oystercatchers and we’d already noted the large number of Sanderlings in amongst them.

But wait what was that dirty white lump lying on the sand not far off the water’s edge – part of another dead sheep? Three were washed up on our southern border at the weekend, probably victims of the floods in North Wales last week.

With the tide on the turn we scuttled back to the office for our wellies and camera while there was still time before the tide reached whatever it was.

It took a few minutes to cross the beach where we noted good numbers of Common Otter Shells lying on the sand – always just one of the valves we never ever find them sill joined together. As we neared the dead thing it was obviously now a bird and not a mammal or part thereof. It turned out to be an adult Great Black Backed Gull.

These are big birds close up; those wings are not fully outstretched and still measure 45 inches (1m 15) across. 

And that beak is hefty piece of weaponry; no wonder they are able to tear Wigeon limb from limb while they are still alive – never a pretty sight to witness.

We didn’t get to count the Sanderlings in the end.

At lunchtime the tide was almost full and the sea just as rough if not rougher. We didn’t see anything other than similar numbers of Cormorants and Common Scoters that we’d noted on the morning’s watch.

It was on the way back in to the office we spotted something that we hadn’t expected at all, we checked another location and sure enough the same thing was happening there too.

What is it that we’re on about? Flippin Daffodils starting to show, that’s what! – do they think winter is over? What’s going on? Do they know something we don’t? Is winter over? What do you think?

Where to next? Might be a nice day tomorrow and we have a site visit in the afternoon.

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

Weekend roundup

The Safari's brother's  big day over on the South-side was preceded by a rather unusual event for the 1^st of December. Just as we were closing the front door to leave a White Tailed Bumble Bee flew past us and landed on the weirdly still in flower ‘spring flowering’ Ceanothus bush...to say we weren’t expecting that as the temperature couldn't have been any more than 4°C.

Driving to the venue we pasted the big marshland nature reserve (the ‘latest sightings’ info is  little late on here so for up to date info check out GC  and CB (when he's not in South America) which was mostly frozen but the grazing areas on both the inland and coastal marshes held large flocks of Pink Footed Geese. A Little Egret was seen in one of the coastal gutters.

A bit of a fuzzy head greeted us the following morning but we were still on site on the North Blackpool Pond Trail to do the BTO Winter Thrushes survey. A crisp and frosty walk started off with a drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker, just what you need with a hangover,  and then had us meeting a friend we’ve not seen for awhile out with his dog who told us he’d just passed a large flock of mixed finches on the other side of the railway line – just outside our survey square. Blackbirds were already in evidence and once on our ‘square’ hit the recording sheet on the clipboard with sustained regularity.

Also notable were the numbers of Grey Squirrels which included one busily chomping away at Field Maple seeds and another pair adding more dry leaves to their drey in a large hole in a Sycamore tree, unbeknowingly being eyed up by one of the local cats.

A Siskin flew over calling and had we been at our vis migging position at the railway bridge would have passed low over our head.

A pair of Moorhens fed in the open on the pasture to our left probably forced out of the cover of their ditch because it was frozen.

The cemetery was dead, nothing moved at all apart from a Heron flying over. We would have expected something, at least a Blackbird, Robin, Wren, or a Dunnock to be in the leaf-litter under the dense boundary hedge but there was nothing!

More Blackbirds were found in the industrial estate feeding on Cotoneaster shrubs planted to brighten the austere surroundings – the Blackbirds don’t care what the buildings look like provided the berry trees and shrubs aren’t pruned so heavily that the all important berries aren’t lost.

A Meadow Pipit sprang up from a weedy area of one of the units’ car parks.

In the nearby housing estate the House Sparrow flock was about 30 strong which is always good to see and cheery to hear.

Beyond the end of the survey but within spitting distance there is the remnant hedgerow and again this was crawling with Blackbirds, at least 25 were plucking berries from the tall Hawthorns or feeding in the leaf-litter.

There was no sign of the finch flock this morning so it may be that the recent Brambling has moved on, unless the flock has found some feeders in a local garden.

After lunch we took Frank to the nature reserve where he was able to walk all the way round...at last!!!

The mere was partially frozen and there was a decent sized flock of gulls to look through later – first we had an appointment with a Long Eared Owl. We sort of knew where it would be but met some visiting birders coming from that direction who hadn’t been able to find it. They retraced their steps with us and fortunately the owl was easy to find but well secreted in the scrub. 

Can yer see 'im?

Our Extreme Photographer joined us (without camera today) and we had a look over the water and ice from the hide. Nothing untoward in the gulls but at least three dozen Shoveler flew past us, something unknown had flushed them from further up. A few checks of the Teal didn’t give us the Green Winged Teal we would have liked but most were sheltering out of sight in the reedbeds.

The Feeding Station was lively and we could work out if there were two or three Coal Tits. 

Beneath the feeders lurked three female Pheasants, what exquisitely marked creatures they are, waiting for the smaller birds to throw unwanted seeds to the floor.

A female Great Spotted Woodpecker came in and promptly made a vicious stab at a Coal Tit that dared land on its feeder.

A Woodpigeon tried in vain to get a the feed, it is well guarded from the dreaded Grey Squirrels, we noticed that bullgog clips have had to be used to thwart their attempts at entry!

 

Two passes were made by a male Sparrowhawk, the first blitzing through at breakneck sped less than an inch off the ground and a little later another ambush from the scrub at the back in which he narrowly missed a Blue Tit as he sped past the feeder flying side-on with a taloned leg outstretched.

Time was pressing as we had a quick look at more gulls from the Bird Club hide and here heard a Cetti’s Warbler calling. All too soon it was time to go and a bit too early for any Starlings to start coming in or the Barn Owl to think about coming out. 

Another family visit saw us driving down the motorway this time where somehow the impossible happened and we forgot to look for the Roe Deer in their usual field although there was a Buzzard in a tree when we realised we had to turn round quick for a last chance look – Wifey was driving!

On the way back rain was falling quite heavily and this prevented any chance of any chance Barn Owl sightings...until we got to the Roe Deer Zone, where on the opposite side of the motorway an owl was sat on a post but it was dark so not a Barn Owl and could have been any of the ‘big, brown three’.

Nothing from patch 2 today other than a male Eider and a soaking from a large wave that over-topped the wall – yuk.

In the darkness of early evening Patch 1 gave us the roosting Peregrine.

Where to next? More shenanigans from a wet and windy Patch 2 probably.

In the meantime let us know who's peeping out of where in your outback