Where'd they all go?

The Safari has a little quiz for you first up today, two screen-grabs from Stealth-cam, can you ID the LBJs? They may or may not be the same species. Not the Blackbird silly!

Same or different? - what do you reckon?

Sensibly we didn't bother with the mothy last night so had a lie in listening to the wind hammering rain against the bedroom window hoping Frank wouldn't wake up and ask to go out until it had passed - he didn't wake up...phewwwwwwww!

Mid-morning gave us the chance to get down to Chat Alley and have a look at the rising tide - we were very optimistic about seeing something as reports of unprecedented numbers of Manx Shearwaters from further south were being posted on Twitter all morning.

As soon as we put eyeball to eyepiece a Manxie shot through the field of view...this was going to be a good session!

Oh no it wasn't! We struggled to find another dozen in the next hour and a half, our grand total was 10 north and four south along with four Kittiwakes, while others almost within view to the south - just over the horizon - had QUADRUPLE figure counts along with Gannets, skuas, Fulmars etc. No-one seems to have had the hoped for Storm Petrel yet today, maybe tomorrow but we won't be able to get an early Patch 2 watch in unfortunately.

It was a bit rough out there...

The Beach Patrol guys weren't too impressed with this cyclist, they'd been stopping people thinking about going down to the lower level and even had a word with us while we were getting these pics advising us not to go down to 'nearer the action'. There's usually at least a couple of casualties/fatalities a year in conditions like this.

Back in the safety of  Base Camp the wind was still wrecking the garden so we decided to take a look at the now empty Wren's nest by taking a pair of scissors to the defunct and rotting hanging basket they were living in.

Lovely - about the size of a tennis ball.

Whilst doing all this surgery we noticed that the feeders were low so went to fill them up when we spotted this little lady struggling on the ground.

Apparently we should have given her a drink of two parts sugar to one part water in a saucer and place scrunched up kitchen towel on top so she doesn't fall in.

We struggle to get good pics of bees with their dark unconstrasty faces and their often Frank-like nose down posture - might need a ring flash or something to highlight the minor dimples.

Patch 1 got a new tick for the list this arvo. We were doing nowt in particular just looking out of the window at the garden being ravaged by the wind when two terns flew over just beyond our airspace so unfortunately can't count as a garden tick under this year's rules. They whizzed by that fast we didn't get a decent look and we were so taken aback at them but if we had to plumb for any species in particular we'd go for Common Terns on their slender jizz.

Where to next? Only a slim chance of an early look at the sea tomorrow and the high tide is a high one at lunchtime so we'll probably be sprayed off. Might have an evening look somewhere at Chat Alley after picking Frank up from his minders.

In the meantime let us know who's struggling in the wind in your outback