A week of wild wet n windy safaris

The Safari has been busy 'enjoying' the wintry weather as storm after storm lashes our coast. We've had a day out with CR and then LCV came to stay for the best part of last week so we've been out every day far and wide in search of the commonplace and the exotic for our 2018 Year Bird Photo Challenge with varying degrees of success. We've had a sunny frosty day or two but mostly dull days with strong gales and heavy showers.

A crisp day at Marton Mere gave us some good views across the mostly frozen mere

Teal

But the feeding station is in deep shade

Dunnock

Chaffinch

From there we headed south on to the beach at Starr Gate to try to find the Snow Buntings, it didn't take long they were only a few yards away along the beach as we dropped off the dunes. Carefully walking past them out further down the beach we were able to watch them at a safe distance and work out what they were doing. Then by getting in front of them all we had to do was to sit quietly and wait for them to approach - which they did - - down to no more than six feet at one point, far to vlose for the long lens could almost have got a decent pic with the phone they were that close but that would have meant moving to reach into a pocket and probably flushing them.

The following day was our safari out with C to Mere Sands Wood and Martin Mere WWT. At MSW we waited at the feeding station enjoying great views of a Brown Rat and a multitude of Robins but alas no Willow Tits.

The first hide overlooking the pools gave us a cracking but distant drake Goosander and a very close Canada Goose, which does actually have two functioning legs.

We moved round to the next hide to try to get better views of the Goosander, passing on the way a very close Treecreeper doing what it says on the tin and a Jay taking seeds left on the path by a previous passer-by, C managed a through the twigs shot but we weren't able to raise the camera before it flew off. A huge shattered Oak tree looks like it's going to provide of multitude of niches for a multitude of species from tiny microbes to bigger things like bats n owls. 

At the hide the Goosander had gone the opposite way and further in t the edge under the bank so was in an even worse place for a pic. There was a good selection of dabbling ducks closer but not quite close enough and the light was still on the poor side of grotty but we fired away anyhow. Duff pics can always be replaced with better ones later on in our challenge should the opportunity present itself.

Shovelers

Drake Gadwall

Drake Teal

With no sign of the hoped for Kingfisher we moved on and then had the best sighting of the week when we heard a commotion in the tree tops just behind us. Two Great Spotted Woodpeckers were having a right go at each other flying around the uppermost twigs calling loudly when two more joined the fray. Then all of a sudden all went quiet and they evaporated into the tangle of branches. 

The next hide gave us cracking close views of a Little Grebe that was catching small fish, possibly juvenile Rudd or Perch from the red fins we saw. Trouble is it was so close as to be just behind the narrow fringe of reeds outside the hide window.

With not a lot doing at the hide we had another shuffy at the feeding station.

Great Tit

The Coal Tits were smash and grab artists as as wary as a wary thing from Warysville, Arizona, never staying more than a milli-second at the table before flying off especially if they saw or heard a hint of something untoward like a camera being slightly moved...or can they hear the ultrasonic focusing motor???

Shoulda bumped the ISO up wadge to get a better shutter speed although it was already getting towards high enough!

Still no Willow Tits so we left this lovely little reserve and headed round the corner to the much bigger Martin Mere.

Here there were plenty of subjects for the Year Bird Challenge to point the camera at.

Drake Pochard

Jackdaw

Black Tailed Godwit

Whooper Swans

Wigeon

Ruff

Pintail

A flock of distant Woodpigeons going to roost

Buzzard

Drake Reed bunting

Cormorant

Misty late afternoon Lapwings

Shelduck

Kestrel

Sleepy Black Tailed godwit

Buzzard with prey in the dark

Gadwall

Kestrel on a Mole hill

Lapwing

Lapwings in flight

Pintail

Juvenile Whooper Swan

Whooper Swans

Wigeon

All good stuff apart from our inability to get any pics of the numerous Tree Sparrows and the no show of the site's only Brambling. We also saw an ultra brief Kingfisher that C missed this time. 

A breezy walk with Monty up the coast and came across one of the Stonechats, we also saw a large flock of Linnets but Monty was being a nightmare as he wasn't able to see over the seawall and getting impatient and uppity so we missed getting any pics of them.

The next day LCV came to stay for the week and we had a great time driving around a selection of local sites.  We tried for the Snow Buntings a couple of times but with no avail although we did get totally sand blasted in the wicked wind. We had no luck with Purple Sandpipers either.

Oystercatcher

Pied Wagtail

Red Breasted Mergansers

Ringed Plover

Sanderling

Knot asleep

Turnstones and a few other bits n bobs

Bewick's Swan & Whooper Swans

Dunlin

Twite

Twite again

Curlew

A hail stone dodging visit to the awesome Lunt Meadows with LCV and meeting JG there was a pic free affair - didn't want yet another camera to die due to water incursion on a rain sodden day but it did give us no sign of the Red Kite that's been hanging around but that was almost bettered by the fantastic sight of two (one v v v brief indeedy) Roe Deer only 2 1/2 miles from our childhood front door; we couldn't have imagined seeing one of those when out birding those fields on our bike in the mid 1970s. So somethings wildlife have changed for the better over the last 40 odd years.
So where does all that digital malarky leave us. 

Well so far we've managed to reach the giddy heights of 95 species on our year list with a late Mediterranean Gull along the prom yesterday afternoon. 

Of those 95 we've got photographs of just 64, although we've had plenty of opportunities to get pics of several more species we've declined waiting to get a 'particular' shot of them.
Our garden at Base Camp has had just 12 species and Patch 1 is hardly faring any better with only 17 but with lighter mornings coming soon that tally should start to grow a little more quickly. The first Song Thrush since last summer was a nice early morning find the other day.
Our Marton Mere list is looking healthier at 48 species not quite half our hoped for 100 for the year.
Where to next? No doubt there'll be more shenanigans on safari next week but where?
In the meantime let us know who's doing well to avoid the lens in your outback.