Taking you to the best wildlife sites in Lancashire and beyond.
The lower one was asking to be gently handled.
This is the one the paparazzi were homing in on. Well we had to join in didn't we.
Mating Robber Flies, Raf thinks they're Scorpion Flies...he could well be right.
Where to next? The safari still has something up its sleeve for the weekend.
This little fella is Rock Rose but most of the yellow in the picture is Birds Foot Trefoil.
Some extensive scrub clearance work we saw will benefit the rare Fritillary butterflies next season, but at the moment the bare area look perfect for reptiles. But despite the warm sunshine we saw no sign of the elusive critters. While we were looking for them we saw this stunning Cinnabar moth, its bright colours warn potential predators that it is extremely poisonous and they shouldn't be temted into an easy meal.
While we were get close up and personal with the Cinnabar a spanking Pearl Bordered Fritillary landed almost on the adjacent flower demanding our attention and lenses!
why do they have/need such a bizarrely patterned eye. During the course of the safari we saw a few Green Veined Whites and Large Whites, and this rather early Painted Lady - there seems to have been a huge invasion of these that day with many blogs all over the country reporting them in numbers -
Other butterflies included a mating pair of Wall Browns and the most Small Heaths the safari has seen for a good few years. This is one of the Walls.
Having said all that the most numerous butterfly of the day was the Pearl Bordered Fritillary and probably outnumbered all the others put together, excluding the abundant day flying moth Yellow Shell -very welcome news.
Throughout the woods there were individual Early Purple Orchids and the odd nice patch of them too.
A Sloe Shieldbug was a good find, probably looking for any Blackthorn bushes that hadn't been cut down to open the habitat for the bigger, brighter Fritillaries.
At the very top of the hill, which was an Iron Age fort, there is a beacon. This was erected in 1988 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Before the Armada sailed hills across the length and breadth of the country had beacon fires built on them to be lit if the Spanish landed an invasion force - of course Drake made sure they didn't and the beacons were never lit. 
The ditch running through the edge of the meadow looked perfect for Grass Snakes but by lunch time on a warm Sunday to many heavy footed people would have walked past and any self-respecting snake would have made itself scarce - that was our excuse for not finding any! We did see a mating pair of Robber Flies though.
Time to visit one of the UK's rarest plants, the Lady's Slipper Orchid. There were only two of these left in the country. The other, in Yorkshire, I visited slightly illegally many years ago - still got the photos - this one may well have been planted here in Victorian times (the same Victorians who 'collected' = dug up, all the others). There are moves afoot to make them as common in Lancashire, Cumbria, and Yorkshire as they once were. Excellent news!
It is an absolute stonker.
Along the path to the orchid a princess was giving the paparazzi somewhere to point their long lenses.
So where is it and what is it? Here...
And this...
A rather nice female Broad Bodied Chaser. Very nice. There were several flying around in the afternoon heat.
This is the furthest north I have seen this species...gee it's getting warmer all the time...
Below is a pale pink form. The green wings refer to the stripes on the sepals.
A great day's safari-ing with a supporting cast of ultra close views of a Raven chasing off a Buzzard, Roe and Fallow Deer in the woods, but unphotographable thanks to hordes of holiday weekend daytrippers, and even a Great Spotted Woodpecker hopping around on the ground frustratingly like a Green Woodpecker.
Beach litter soon turns into marine litter and becomes a serious problem! If anyone is considering having a ballon 'race' please, please, please don't.
For any one wanting to know more about what is regulary seen on our beach please go to
http://www.fyldecoastmarinelife.btik.com/
Where to next? The sky is getting darker and squallier and lunchtime approaches..the sea is beckoning.
In the meantime let us know how many turtles there are in your outback.
PS did see one once - Shark Bay WA.
As for real aliens probably the one people are most familiar with is the Eastern Grey Squirrel. A lively addition to the garden but has managed to displace all the native Red Squirrels in this part of the world.
Many people don't realise that Rabbits are an introduced species. Recently it has been discovered that they were brought by the Romans in the early part of the 1st Century AD. The earliest remains being found in Norfolk and dated with pottery to c2000 years old. Previously it was thought that they were brought in shortly after the Norman Conquest in the 11th C.
Are they a good or bad addition to the UK fauna? Farmers don't like them for obvious reasons but they do provide food for Red Kites, Buzzards, Stoats and other larger predators. Their grazing also keeps vegetation low allowing birds like the rare Stone Curlew to nest. But the can change the composition of wildflower areas by selectively grazing out the more palatable species.
All manner of species have been introduced. The Rainbow Trout is a popular sport fish but has escaped from fisheries and is now common in many lakes and rivers.
My favourite introduced species is tha Mandarin Duck for several reason. It is from China hence the name but it also looks like a Mandarin Emperor, and face on it has the comedic look of Yosemite Sam with those huge gingery whiskers. Unfortunately it wasn't tempted by the loaf of bread I threw at it and stayed rather aloof from the ensuing melee of Mallards.
The ornamental waterfowl theme continues with a grotty pic of a sleeping Egyptian Goose. This species hasn't taken off in such away as the Canada Goose has and probably has little environmental or ecological impact.
On to plants. Below is the infamous Japanese Knotweed. Capable of growing through solid concrete including roadways and footings of houses...it'a almost indestructible! There are several patches on the local nature reserve but thankfully it seems to be spreading only very slowly.
Himalayan Balsam, on the other hand, is a much more recent invader to just one waterway but has spread along it at an alarming rate. It has beautiful pink flowers which have a heady scent of honey and are well liked by bumble bees which are currently having a torrid time. The problem with Himalayan Balsam is that it out cometes the native bankside vegetation and quickly creates a monoculture. In the second picture you can see it has ousted a patch of Nettles, no mean feat but no good for native bugs...and it is currently Be Nice To Nettles Week. (16th - 24th May each year)
With HB one years seeding is certainly seven years weeding!
The north American Water Fern was introduced as an attractive pond plant for gardens and very quickly escaped. This is only a small patch as a weevil has been discovered that eats it and is commercially available to control it. The pond where the pic was taken was infested with it last summer so the weevil must have done its work well. 
The last pic I have of an alien invader is one of the safari's favourite 'target' species Fallow Deer, how fickle we are! We like this one because its big! Brought in to be hunted by those Normans again now fasirly widespread across the UK.
Where to next? That sea looks good today but I'm stuck behind the desk at work...doh...
