The Safari had a day out with CR and our chums from the South-side on Friday. With poor weather forecast we decided to make for Leighton Moss RSPB reserve where there is a decent amount of shelter in the form of comfy hides in case the impeding inclement weather was as bad as predicted.
With a late morning high tide in the bay we started out at the saltmarsh pools where we hoped the rising tide would push some waders out of the bay and on to the pools - it didn't - they were largely birdless.
There were only a few Redshank and a handful of Greenshank to be seen on the first pool and further out on the marsh mostly hidden in the creeks a small number of Little Egrets showed themselves briefly before disappearing again.
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| Greenshank and sleeping Redshank |
A diligent observer found a small wader tucked well away in the far bankside vegetation. Through the bins it was just a white dot and it wasn't much better when viewed through the scopes. There was some discussion ass to whether or not it may have been a Curlew Sandpiper but no detail could be seen. Once back at Base camp and the day's pics downloaded the camera had picked out some black spotting on the belly to make it 'just' a juvenile Dunlin.
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| 125% enlargement on the original on the SD card |
The second pool was even quieter although IH did manage to pick up a very distant Peregrine that cruised over the marsh disturbing not so much as a single feather until it reached the tide whereupon masses of waders took to the skies in a panic. It had several stoops at them but was unsuccessful as far as we could tell.
Moving on to the main reserve a Garganey was soon picked out from the limited number of ducks present. The light wasn't the best for pics, but you can just about tell it is a Garganey - if you squint!
There are a couple of rafts put out to attract nesting Common Terns and to help matters along there are some very authentic plastic dummies positioned about the place, they haven't attracted an Common Terns yet but they are a handy place for the Pied Wagtails to survey the proceedings.
Still not too much happening so it was time to move on to the next hide via the leg busting Skytower - really must get a bit fitter! On the way JG stopped to admire a timy juvenile newt that almost got trodden on, gently picking it up we turned it over to reveal it had a plain 'fingernail pink' throat suggesting it was a Palmate Newt. A young family coming along behind us caught us up and the children were delighted to have a little hold of the tint wee beast.
The hide was quiet again for birds at least. After a minute or so the back of a Red Deer came in to view just above the tops of the rushes and after a short wait it came out in to full view, a nice young hind.
Another appeared and then another this one was a young stag but it kept its head down enjoying a good feast of rain soaked grass and reeds.
After a long wait it did deign to raise its head and luckily for us looked in our direction.
Over at the Causeway Hide we watched a Buzzard soar over but there was no sign of an Ospreys today.
The little island had been strimmed of its vegetation now that the nesting brood of Great Black Backed Gulls have left, their place being taken by a much more delicate juvenile Common Tern.
There were a few Greenshank mooching about to which were joined by two sizeable flocks of Redshanks.
One of the Redshanks flocks must have held a Ruff we didn't spot flying in with them as one appeared not muh later strutting along the front of the island.
A White Wagtail was with a few Pied Wagtails flitting around the top of the island but we didn't manage to get a pic of the more unusual visitor. We did try to better our Sand Martin pic from Marton Mere the other day to 'upgrade' our post on the Challenge, well over a hundred shots later this slightly better effort was easily the best of the day.
A movement in the reed edge across the pool atttracted JG's attention which turned out to be a Water Rail, just about photographable but we weren't able to get a pic of another mystery wader tucked up in the reed fringe she found a few feet to the right so it remains a mystery.
CR knows we have a thing for tractors, must be the thwarted agriculturalist in us, and called out a yellow one away in the distance. Turns out to be a Massey Ferguson - not often you see them in yellow!
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| Oops - that's not supposed to happen. |
The juvenile Common Tern was flying round here with a shed load of Sand and House Martins, so many it was an 'Attenborough' moment - you could almost hear the great man's voice describing the scene. A couple of Little Egrets and Great White Egrets were best of the rest.
Time was now running short and it was a long gallop back to the car park when the rain we'd successfully dodged all day finally landed on us.
Despite the late rain which didn't really dampen our spirits a good day was had by all.
The following night was our moth and bat night for the North Blackpool Pond Trail. Well attended as usual and after a barrage of fireworks from a nearby garden and a corresponding clatter of Woodpigeons launching themselves from the nearby trees a bat then showed up a minute later - on its way out anyway or frightened by the bangs???
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| Young EM showing us how its done - again! |
The bats put on a super show for us and several of the public got 'hits' on their 'bat-attracting sticks'. Over the water it was bat-tastic, they were zooming about everywhere. One of these days (nights?) we'll have to have go at trying to get some bat pics.
It was when we got to the moth part of the evening it all went horribly wrong. The generator we'd borrowed from our usual source wasn't the one they normally give us and didn't come with a standard plug socket and no adapter either so we weren't able to put the trap on. whilst wandering round the woods looking for/at the bats we'd seen lots of moths so we were hopeful of a decent haul to show everyone. Innovation is the name of the game in these circumstances so we rigged up a couple of white ground sheets to the fence and shone PT's van headlamps at it. but it was to no avail, not a moth to be seen. Not really the fault of the van more likely to have been the position by the lake that was a little away from the best vegetation and shelter from the increasingly strong and chilly wind. Bit of a shame but you can't win em all and at least the bats were superb. JS had brought his professional bat detecting kit and laptop with him now he's a pro ecolgist and hs access to this rinky dinky newfangled stuff and analysing the recordings his detector had made showed there were an awful lot of Common Pipistrelles about. The torches across the lake had shown up the white bellies of some Daubenton's Bats and there were a couple of times when the detectors set at 55kHz were picking up echolocations that those set at 45 weren't suggesting a small number of Soprano Pipistrelles were around too.
Yesterday news broke of a Black Tern at Marton Mere that we had no chance of going to see but foul weather overnight meant it was still present this morning and we were able to nip down for half an hour to have a shuffy. We picked it up straight away as it dipped and rose over the Lily pads but kept losing it for several minutes at a time until eventually a Heron flew in and revealed why we lost it - it had been resting on the Lily leaves.
Not the best of views at range and not the best of pics in the gloom but very nice to see one here as it's been a while since the last once we've seen there. (173, MMLNR #79, PYLC #153)
Where to next? Might get out with Monty for a dog walk and safari somewhere tomorrow.
In the meantime let us know who's doing the headstands in your outback.
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