Hardly mothtastic at Base Camp but...

The Safari has been enviously reading about triple figure overnight moth catches of dozens of species all over social media these last few weeks but unfortunately our own moth trap has produced meagre returns both in terms of nightly numbers and of species involved. That's not to say that we haven't had some fun and are always eager to peer in to the trap each morning just in case there's something different in there - - preferably not wasps!

Here's a trundle through some of the moths we've caught - mostly those that have stayed still long enough for us to get a pic of as it's normally already very warm by the time we're able to get to open the trap and there's always a few escapees, probably the most exciting and/or most colourful ones ie Brimstone moth - they just won't keep still!

Brimstone from a couple of years back

The following are all from this month and in no particular order

Acleris forsskaleana

Acrobasis advenella - New for the garden

Blastobasis adustella

Celypha striana

Clay

Currant Pug - New for the garden

Dark Arches - a rather pale individual and worn too

Dot moth

Dotted Clay

Heart & Dart - self explanatory some of these names aren't they!

Large Yellow Underwing

Marbled Beauty

Marbled Minor

Mouse moth

Pammene fasciana

Poplar Grey

Poplar Grey doing what they do best, can you spot him?

Red Barred Tortrix - New for the garden

Riband Wave

A couple of Rustics - or are they???

Scalloped Oak

Small Magpie

Uncertain - Yes that's it's name - - see Rustics above

Our thanks for the trickier identifications go to Sean on Twitter at @mothIDUK he must have the patience of a saint as every morning his feed is jam packed with enquiries from novice moth-ers like ourselves. He really is a font of all moth knowledge and if ever there's a Twitter award he should get it. He's what social media was invented for and should be all about - none of that advertising, spam and bot nonsense.

In other news we've missed a few Bottlenose Dolphins along the coast - we just don't seem to be able to connect with them and the other day we were at a rainy (the first rain for weeks!!!!!!! Grrrrr) Leighton Moss with CR when news broke of a Risso's Dolphin off our former regular watch point at a time when had we not retired we'd have been peering over the wall at the sea. We had hoped to go to the private reserve a little further north but the rain meant we needed at least some cover which is lacking there. The Risso's Dolphin was the second record in less than a year after a decade of no sightings and perhaps begs the question is it the same individual returning this summer after last summer and will it come back around the same time next summer? The species is an infrequent visitor to Liverpool Bay preferring the deeper water of the western parts of the Irish Sea and off the peninsulas of the Welsh coast.

Our visit to Leighton Moss was rain affected and we were a little unlucky with our leaving and arrivinf at certain hides - you should have been here five minutes ago the Otter caught a massive fish and later we were told you should have stayed a bit longer there were three Marsh Harriers up together...dohhh some days the gods are against you but there's always something to see.Summer plumaged Black Tailed Godwits are always a joy

We got a much better shot of a Snipe for our Year List Photo Challenge which still stands at 147 as no more new species were added on this visit.

A Water Rail showed well close by at the Causeway but was always obscured by either a close to us or a close to it reed leaf when the camera fired and we got no pics with its face in a proper clear view.

An adult Water Rail with a tiny black chick was out on the mud on the far side of the pool but too far away for a decent pic unfortunately.

Much closer and of real interest was a Carrion Crow which had picked up a live Eel, we assume (and you should never assume anything) that the Eel was swimming close to the surface among the rocks at the water's edge and the crow had grabbed it, there were no other birds nearby that could have caught and then dropped it.

A Cormorant was also fishing for Eels.

While we waited for the Otters, Ospreys and Bitterns not to show we were entertained by a family of Pied Wagtails flitting around feasting on the innumerable flies and a post hopping Black Headed Gull.

We didn't spend long at the saltmarshes as the pools had dried up and there were only a few juvenile Black Headed Gulls loafing a around - don't think we've ever seen it so dry or so quiet down there.

Young Black Headed Gulls are very bonny birds and all slightly different as they go through their moults at slightly different speeds/times

So a slightly disappointing day out on safari after 'enduring' weeks of glorious weather, the camera was racked up to ISO Stupid for the first time in months!

The following morning dawned hot and sunny - Bl**dy typical!!! - so we took Monty out early to the Rock Gardens before the sun got too hot for him and hopefully before the masses of  blood sucking Cleggs were on the wing - no chance, good job we had our 50% DEET with us just in case.

There was no sign of any White Letter Hairstreaks around their favourite tree but we did see a good many other butterflies; probably in excess of 75 Meadow Browns and likewise 25+ Gatekeepers

with a supporting cast of 'loads' of Small and Large Whites, but no Green Veined Whites that others elsewhere in the country are seeing in good numbers, a few skippers all of those we could get on to and ID were Large Skippers,

a Small Copper,

a female Common Blue

We tried to get a pic of the upperside to show it was a female but Monty was being a nightmare and kept poking his nose in to the grass too close to it and it kerpt flying off, and a Speckled Wood.

Where to next? We've got a moth and bat night coming up later in the week and the moth trap will be back on at Base Camp as soon as this welcome rain gives over. 

In the meantime let us know who's fluttering around the lights in your outback

A morning's rampage through the Rock Gardens

The Safari apologises for being 'off-air' for so long. We have been out n about on safari but have had serious family stuff to deal with culminating in the not-unexpected funeral earlier this week.

With a bit more time on our hands we were able to join CR at the local park mid-week for a butterfly hunt and arriving there we found former colleague WM already searching for the White Letter Hairstreaks.

By eck it was hot and humid down in the 'Butterfly Zone', the rough un-managed bit of the park. Unfortunately with the recent hot spell all but a tiny few of the Bramble flowers have been pollinated already and are turning in to tasty Blackberries. This along with the total lack of Thistles this season meant there was no nectar to tempt the Hairstreaks down from their favourite tree top so we have no pics of them for you, They did emerge very early this year, looking back through our Flickr site we tend to see them on Bramble and Thistle flowers about now or even later!

Although our quarry wasn't for showing itself other than fluttering around the uppermost branches of their favourite tree we did find plenty of other insects to point the camera at.

Celypha laculana

Field Grahopper - or is it Common Green Grasshopper?

It seems to have hairs on the underside which would make it Field but we're not totally sure

Gatekeeper and common Wasp

The same Gatekeeper

Large Skipper - a male due to the scent lines on the wing

Meadow Brown

Leptopterna dolabrata - female

Leptopterna dolabrata - male

Small Skipper - female - - no scent lines on the upper wings

Definitely a female - she started laying eggs on the nearby grass stems

And then went for another refuel

Common Red Soldier Beetle - not sure hat the white stuff on it's face is

If the White Letter Hairstreaks are the animal speciality of the site then Ploughman's Spikenard must be the plant speciality. This year we can only find a handful of specimens but typically there's a dozen or more. Somehow this site was omitted from the huge and authoritative Flora of North Lancashire.

Our final tally was 13 species of butterflies, including Small Tortoiseshell, shich CR didn't see and Small Copper which WM had seen before we arrived. With a bit of luck we could have added Common Blue, Peacock and Green Veined White but were perhaps just between broods wit hthem on the cusp of emerging.

An Emperor dragonfly was good to see there too.

Pottering around in the garden later that afternoon we were lucky enough to be visited by a Comma, a species seen at the Rock Gardens but not keeping still enough to be photographed - well we made amends!

In other news we've moved our Photo Year List Challenge on by not a lot to 147, adding poor pics of
Red Kite

 and Green Woodpecker

Both a long long way away while on our sunny sojourn to south Shropshire. We failed to see, never mind get a pic of, the Yellowhammer that was singing from the hedgerows almost all day every day!

A wander out along the new seawall at Rossall with GB the other afternoon  gave us distant, but close for here, views of Manx Shearwaters....Stop Press...as we type this rubbish there's a House Sparrow calling in the garden - our 1st of the year!!!!!

And relax...and back to the Manx Sheawaters...

We've been doing a lot of moth trapping in the garden and trapping not a lot of moths but we've had some nice ones and some NFGs (New For the Garden) so hopefully we'll let you know all about those in the net couple of days.

Where to next? This coming Thursday we're joining the Wildlife Trust's Living Seas NW team again for the monthly sea watch at Rossall Coastguard tower, Bottlenose Dolphins were filmed off the prom at Cleveleys yesterday evening) so finger (and everything else crossed) for a good result on the watch. And then we're out with CR again perhaps to the private reserve on the fringe of Lakeland.

In the meantime let us know who's been fluttering round the tree tops in your outback

Struggling

The Safari is struggling to put finger to keyboard at the moment. It's not that we've had nowt to tell you about as we've been doing loads but we've also had serious family issues taking up a lot of our time.

For a quick catch-up we've moved our birds year list up to 166, the last one added being some Bearded Tits at Leighton Moss last weekend on a visit with our Southside mates.

Our Photo Year List Challenge has come on a bit as well, as would be expected in May with many new migrants fresh in from their winter sojourn. Moving our tally up to 144

Tree Pipit

Siskin

 The two above were found on an early morning visit to Beacon Fell near Preston

A better Siskin taken at a private nature reserve in the southern part of the Lake District

Rook taken at the well worth a visit Kelpies at Falkirk in central Scotland

 A visit to the tern colony at Preston Dock with CR gave us some superb photo opportunites

Arctic Tern in one of the nest boxes

Common Tern

And in flight too

For more pics from our morning please have a blimp at our Flickr site linked on the right-hand margin

The safari up to the private reserve was a brilliant day out which started with being shown a trio of (Barred) Grass Snakes, our first in Britain for far too long.

The blue in the eye shows it's about to moult

Redstart

Spotted Flycatcher refusing to sit out in the open

A couple of days later we were with our long-time mates from the Southside at Leighton Moss which also gave us a few more pics for the Challenge.

Scaup

Reed Warbler - by eck this one took some getting!

Osprey - a last minute fluke after waiting for one to turn up all day!

Mediterranean Gull - Top left and superbly picked out by 'young' IH after we'd totally missed it

Great Spotted Woodpecker - down the road in Stanley Park

We've had a bit of joy with dragonflies and damselflies and other winged things too.

4-Spotted Chaser

Beautiful Demoiselle

4-Spotted Chaser again

Broad Bodied Chaser

Large Red Damselfly

Broad Bodied Chaser

Giant Cranefly

A Scorpion Fly

The visit to Leighton Moss gave us this Avocet with an uncomfortable looking broken but healed leg. It doesn't look good but the bird was moving around alright and putting weight on it but still just looking at it again is making us squeamish.

Across the road the local Bee Orchids numbered only one this year.

At the zoo the other day we were shown the Dune Helleborines that were found growing among the Dinosaurs last year.

We'll have to go back next week when the flowers are fully formed just to conform they are actually Dune Helleborines and not something else although that is a little unlikely.

That's about it for now. As the warm dry weather continues we've been trying to get some invertebrate snaps from the garden at Base Camp and although still very poor the moth trap is at last picking up a bit. We can tell you about our finds, successes and failures in our next blog...and Dolphin season is upon us now and we have a Sea Watch coming up at Rossall Tower...Bring on the blubber, last month we had eight Harbour Porpoises but can we better that this week?

Where to next? Tales from the coast if we get a chance as we're waiting seriously bad news from the family.

In the meantime let us know who's been slithering around your outback.