Wednesday 20 January 2010

Wanted…but not like this.

The safari issues a warning to the squeamish…don’t look down if you are of nervous disposition or not too happy with gory stuff.
Patch 1 early doors gave us a fleeting glimpse of the Fox again. They’re like buses – don’t see one for ages then two come along one after the other! Mistle Thrush singing at the bottom of the hill and a Robin doing likewise in the light from the street lamps round the corner. No Peregrine this morning but the wind was in the wrong direction.
Patch 2 was more interesting a quick scan revealed a good number of Sanderlings straight out but scanning round before we started to count them revealed a couple of Great Black Backed Gulls laying in to something fairly substantial. It looked white from where we were standing, possibly a large fish. Moving closer to get a better angle it was obviously black and white and we could see black fins – now thoughts were of Harbour Porpoise. Back to the office for the camera. Once approaching it on the beach it was definitely a Porpoise but not much of one. Just the remains of the head and upper chest with a blob of sand covered innards hanging out. Attacked by Orcas or a Great White Shark or cut out of a fishing net? Not sure; we’ll probably never know.
The pictures aren’t pretty.

Birds on the beach included a tasty flock of 12 Ringed Plovers and over 40 Redshanks. There were a lot of Oystercatchers but not counted and we totally forgot about the little Sanderlings…shame on us. Five Cormorants stood on the outfall pipe drying their wings, which is unusual, although you’d think the structure would be perfect for them. Never any Purple Sandpipers there either, unfortunately.
One of our business tenants reported a Heron in the gardens here at work which is a first, apparently it was seen off by a pair of aggrieved Jackdaws (they are not particularly regular in the garden), followed by a mob of Black Headed Gulls, why is there never a Mediterranean Gull with them looking for worms on our lawn?
Nothing out on Patch 2 at lunchtime on the rising tide apart from three Great Crested Grebes and about 50 Common Scoters in two flocks.
Where to next? All we can muster this week is more of the same.
In the meantime let us know what’s been left for dead in your outback.

3 comments:

Warren Baker said...

poor porpoise!

Thanks for the naturenet site tip dave. It was very helpful.

Zac Hinchcliffe said...

i like the addition BFC ruler haha

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Nowt wrong with BFC Zac - apart from last night's result :(. Photos include the ruler cos they got sent to the NHM strandings scheme - no chance of a post mortem was there!