No the safari doesn’t mean the small fish commonly found in slower flowing rivers, more the total lack of anything worth mentioning. Yesterday Patch 1 was visited in almost total darkness before even the Robins had woken up and Patch 2 was dire apart from a smaller-than-of-late number of Common Scoters.
Mid morning, suddenly and unexpectedly there was almost a sniff at some excitement when MJ popped in to work and said he had only just set up over the road when he scoped a small flock of passing Shelducks which included a Ruddy Shelduck. Now these are often classed as being of dubious origin but they are always a welcome addition to the day/month/year/site lists.
Today wasn’t much better although we hit Patch 1 at first light and 16 Robins were counted. They must be local as a trawl through the local obs/ringing blogs hasn’t revealed any concerted Robin passage yet. No sign of the Peregrine on the water tower so I think it likely that it was on passage and has now moved on, our tasty Pigeons were obviously not tempting enough to make it stick around.
Minutes before getting back to Base Camp a Great Spotted Woodpecker called, didn’t see it so it could have been either flying over in the gloom or perched up in the trees at the end of the street.
Patch 2’s pre-work sea-scan was cut short by the simple fact that bar a handful of Common Scoters there was naff all else out there. Mid-morning a Grey Wagtail was heard through the open window behind me - a desk tick! There seems to be a fair few passing through the west coast at the moment.
Can’t stay this bad forever, strong winds forecast for the weekend – will they be strong enough for long enough and from the right direction to bring something worth seeing in…anything will do at the moment.
Wow!!! Patch 2 at lunchtime packs a punch…the giddy heights of a Ringed Plover, first of the season on this stretch of beach…I can hardly contain my excitement! See also Fleetwoodbirder.
A blast from the past occurred when out with Extreme Photographer on Patch 1 at the weekend. Shortly after I recorded the ‘now known to be’ Grey Squirrel sounds we discovered something you don’t see much these days - - white doggy do-do. Bizarrely, foraging around on the bloggosphere last night I found recent reference to said doggy do-do on Of Birds and Pies from the previous weekend…spooky or what…is the stuff back in fashion? Unlike the other blogger neither myself or our Extreme Photographer took a picture, maybe we were so taken aback by its very presence we were stood there transfixed and couldn't get the cameras out.
Where to next? Before the winds arrive I think it will only be the usual short or in darkness (oh for an Owl of some description) visits to Patch 1 & 2. With regard to the little Bleak I’m reminded that I’ve not been fishing for donkey’s yonks, maybe it’s time to blow the dust of the rod and wipe the cobwebs from my reel.
In the meantime let us know what’s not happening in your outback.
BTW where did that Sandhill Crane end up?…Please don’t tell me it’s strutting around Pilling marsh!
Mid morning, suddenly and unexpectedly there was almost a sniff at some excitement when MJ popped in to work and said he had only just set up over the road when he scoped a small flock of passing Shelducks which included a Ruddy Shelduck. Now these are often classed as being of dubious origin but they are always a welcome addition to the day/month/year/site lists.
Today wasn’t much better although we hit Patch 1 at first light and 16 Robins were counted. They must be local as a trawl through the local obs/ringing blogs hasn’t revealed any concerted Robin passage yet. No sign of the Peregrine on the water tower so I think it likely that it was on passage and has now moved on, our tasty Pigeons were obviously not tempting enough to make it stick around.
Minutes before getting back to Base Camp a Great Spotted Woodpecker called, didn’t see it so it could have been either flying over in the gloom or perched up in the trees at the end of the street.
Patch 2’s pre-work sea-scan was cut short by the simple fact that bar a handful of Common Scoters there was naff all else out there. Mid-morning a Grey Wagtail was heard through the open window behind me - a desk tick! There seems to be a fair few passing through the west coast at the moment.
Can’t stay this bad forever, strong winds forecast for the weekend – will they be strong enough for long enough and from the right direction to bring something worth seeing in…anything will do at the moment.
Wow!!! Patch 2 at lunchtime packs a punch…the giddy heights of a Ringed Plover, first of the season on this stretch of beach…I can hardly contain my excitement! See also Fleetwoodbirder.
A blast from the past occurred when out with Extreme Photographer on Patch 1 at the weekend. Shortly after I recorded the ‘now known to be’ Grey Squirrel sounds we discovered something you don’t see much these days - - white doggy do-do. Bizarrely, foraging around on the bloggosphere last night I found recent reference to said doggy do-do on Of Birds and Pies from the previous weekend…spooky or what…is the stuff back in fashion? Unlike the other blogger neither myself or our Extreme Photographer took a picture, maybe we were so taken aback by its very presence we were stood there transfixed and couldn't get the cameras out.
Where to next? Before the winds arrive I think it will only be the usual short or in darkness (oh for an Owl of some description) visits to Patch 1 & 2. With regard to the little Bleak I’m reminded that I’ve not been fishing for donkey’s yonks, maybe it’s time to blow the dust of the rod and wipe the cobwebs from my reel.
In the meantime let us know what’s not happening in your outback.
BTW where did that Sandhill Crane end up?…Please don’t tell me it’s strutting around Pilling marsh!
Apologies for absence of pics AGAIN...one day soon...promise.
Normally they look more like this...
A handful of Black Tailed Godwits gracefully probed the mud, a Greenshank was a rewarding find. Shelducks, Mallard and Teal represented the waterfowl.
More like no hope than good hope.
At brew time Frank didn't get any.
Another pasture field was full of Lapwings, always nice to see good numbers of this bird,
one of the birds of my youth. A Greenshank flew across the river and landed smack in front of us...nice, don't get to see these very often at all these days so two in a day is special. Grilling the few gulls didn't give us any Mediterranean's unfortunately. Walking along the old railway line towards Glasson Dock we had another Greenshank...that could have been a different one to earlier. They're getting like buses now...don't see one for ages then three come along together! But they weren't finished...we went a bit further and then retraced our steps to find two Greenshanks together...and a little further on we got the full house...Redshank, Greenshank and Spotted Redshank in the bins together. Doesn't get much better than that. A huge flotilla of Mute Swans was an impressive sight. A well worthwhile invasion of another's patch, may well do a longer more thorough repeat visit someday soon!
Where to next? Back at work tomorrow so a quick scan off the prom is likely but on Sunday there could be a short safari of sorts.
And Smooth Newts.
You guessed what we were looking for yet? Grass Snakes! Did we find any - you guessed right - a resounding 'no'. There have been no recent authenticated records locally. But at this site a young girl spotted what was 99.9999% deffo one earlier in the year. So it has been a quest to prove it all summer however the weather has been against us all the way. A sloughed skin or hatched eggs would have done us but we didn't see any of these either. 
Sparrowhawk drifted south, resident or local?
To finish with a plummeting Goldfinch from earlier this morning. Pity its not a better quality pic.
As it happened there were more moth'ers than moths. So we took to trying to find the full set of Banded Snails 
The hills of the Forest of 
Sun came up good and bright so I sat in the garden and had a brew while the early morning feeding run started. A couple of 
hot heat, a bit of dust and plenty of warm sea…oh the Mediterranean is a joy to behold.
The darkness was a revelation – a total cacophony of bizarre sounds. Some numpty had put bells round the necks of a flock of sheep. The irregular clonking sounded like the sound track to some strange eastern opera.
Above the din half the known universe’s Stone Curlews wailed away, a Little Owl mewed and shrieked outside the bedroom window and a Fox yelped almost all night – it was actually quieter at home with drunks caterwauling at each other, police sirens, and cars with boom-blasters whizzing past the house most nights.
no chance of getting in the water, so we try somewhere more sheltered.
Nice. No not the place in France although it wasn’t that far away as the Blue FinTuna swims – if they do in the Med anymore?
Picked out a ‘patch’ to walk which had the added benefit of the half way point being at the cliff top to check if the beach was OK for swimming. Got plenty of Stonechats and Cirl Buntings,
OK, OK I know I said buntingS
They are one of only two regular UK breeding species I’ve not got on my UK tick list – the buntings not the chats, silly! – probably cos I’ve never been to south Devon to see ‘em.
…sunbathe or swim, swim or sunbathe - the decisions are endless.
and a Clouded Yellow in the garden is always a joy.
A few sightings of blues were eventually revealed as Long Tailed Blues.
and several others including this dark Hawker. 
Anyone got any ideas? I’ve not got a copy of the European dragons guide. But not a Hobby in sight which I thought was a bit strange with all this Odonata on the wing. Whilst photographing the hawker something crashed into the top of my head. Looking round with a start I saw this bright green apparition tumble into the bush next to me. Nice one – a Speckled Bush Cricket.
The Scorpion was out later that evening, this time with prey.
but it wasn’t until the last day when a pair where in the garden that I managed anything like a half decent shot. Great camouflage when you see like this.
I think I’d missed during the week by being out when they had been most active and least wary.
Lovely sunset made even better by the fact that the car in the bottom right is a Disco just like mine...now who's an anorak twitching Land Rovers.