Saturday 3 April 2010

Nothing resembling safari today

The safari didn't set the alarm this morning and of all morning's Frank decided to have a lie in. We ended up with a quick sprint round Patch 1. A clear night followed by a bit of low cloud promised much but failed to deliver. No summer migrants heard at all. The only thing worth noting was the Blackbird with the leucistic head and cheeks.
But some prat of a chav had been steaming around on a cheapo quad bike and made a right mess. Actually it looks worse than it is but the locals are up in arms about it and rightly so; probably an underaged, unlicensed and uninsured rider on an uninsured and unlicensed bike. No doubt it will help give anyone with an off-road vehicle a bad name, unfortunately mud (pun not intended - honest) sticks and we responsible green-laners (not off-roaders as green lanes ARE roads they just don't have a tarmac top on them) we end up having more of the few remaining byways taken away from us.


If only Frank had woken up at his normal time we would have been on the cliffs when an Osprey flew past but although the weather closed in and showers started passage wasn't that brilliant looking at other blogsd from our stretch of coast; must have been some 'blocking' weather somewhere to the south of us.
Only pic is of Frank today guarding his rugby ball from his chum Toby - another, but smaller type, choccy lab - on the small field on Patch 1. standing on the high point of the field and scanning the immediate area and as far to the east as the naked eye could see revealed absolutely nothing.
Where to next?? The safari thinks that Patch 1 will be abandoned in favour of Zilch Alley and Pipit Slab tomorrow morning. Will check the weather forecast in a mo for what it's worth; they do seem to get it completely wrong with monotonous regularity.
In the meantime let us know which bit of your outback you should have been in and weren't today.

Late news - wind looks wrong but we'll give the coast ago...

7 comments:

Craig said...

My male sparrowhawk is BACK HOME....im delighted Dave.
I know sparrowhawks are very common but im very fond of the pair on my patch.
How great it was this morning to see him on one of his fav perches.

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Craig - glad its back - - have a look at Cliff's sprog pic on Fylde Coast Wildlife the eye shows total focus & concentration - a superb flight picture.

Cheers

Dave

Craig said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Craig said...

Hi Dave....thanks about my hawk.
I had a look at Cliffs pics, im very impressed, some of them are fantastic.
Yes...his sprog pic your referring to is great.
My fav of Cliffs pics is the one of the barn owl showing outstretched wings ...heres a link to his stunning pic.
http://www.fyldecoastwildlife.co.uk/gallery/displayimage.php?album=topn&cat=0&pos=0

best wishes
Craig

Warren Baker said...

I got up early Dave - it was crap!! I was back in bed by 1-:30 !wish I had over layed :-)

cliff said...

Craig & Dave - many thanks to you both for your kind comments about my photos (& Craig, the Barn Owl photo you're referring to is one of my favourite photos to date, photographed a few miles up the road at Pilling).

Cheers

Cliff

Craig said...

Hi Cliff,
Your very welcome for the comments, yes your photos are great, you have a good eye for photography.
Regarding your owl photo.....its perfect Jeff, im sure you could win photographic competitions with it.
I might have a look at Pilling, as im a bit of a raptor and owl twitcher.

Hi Dave,
Hope you dont mind me posting a message to Jeff here?

best wishes,
Craig