Bits but no bats

The Safari had to visit the docs again this morning the old hands are deteriorating again - the consultant and another op probably beckons. The medical centre has surrounding area of 'Sustainable Urban Drainage' (SUDS) that last year was a blaze of colour although there were a load of the regular colourful annuals in the mix and the grasses hadn't become overly established, this year possibly because of the late season it wasn't quite spectacular but we did note that there were a good number of Ox-eye Daisies and our first Black Knapweed of the year. Also in abundance was Cuckoo Spit which we've not seen much of this year. We tried the following macro technique with the phone cam which we've recently read about on a blog somewhere (iSpot?).

Not techy enough to be able to show you the result today cos we've left our phone connecting cable at work...duhhhh
Late Edit - by the wonders of sciernce here it is better late than never..

Not much was about over the sea at lunchtime a few Gannets and Kittiwakes but top spot went to 17 Manx Shearwaters.

Mid afternoon we spotted this female Blackbird having a sneaky preen and shakedown in the Gorse hedge - taken through  a rather dirty double glazed window.

We got out to Patch 2again at teatime and enjoyed watching a dozen or more Gannets cruising around on the stiff breeze occasionally stalling into a steep dive, excellent stuff.

Then it was time to meet the Cub Scouts and let them loose on our pond...it was well and truly ransacked. Another 30 or more 3-spined Sticklebacks were removed to another place - how many more are in there...well we found a big female and some teeny-tiny fry but not the male! There wasn't much else in there a single damselfly nymph, a single Back Swimming Water Boatman and a couple of Front Swimmers and not a lot else apart from snails. Greater Pond Snails are abundant probably cos they are more or less Stickleback-proof, no large Ramshorn Snails, have they disappeared?, but a reasonable number of the smaller Keeled Ramshorn Snails including this mating pair.

Where to next? No kiddies tomorrow but we should be able to get a morning Patch 2 session in.

In the meantime let us know who's having the shake down in your outback.