Arfa milyun up

The Safari has reached a bit of a significant milestone, over 500,000 views - now that's not necessarily 300,000 'reads' but a big thank you to one and all who have dipped a proverbial toe in the Safari's proverbial waters; we hope you have been enjoying the rubbish wot we've ritten and will continue to pop back for some fun wildlife info going forwards.

So what have we been up to this week. A mixed bag of weather has seen us doing some seawatching, twitching and dipping. We did a seawatch with the Living Seas team on a day when there should have been some Leach's Petrels about (one of our favourite birds). There was but we missed it as did everyone else on the watch, the closest we got was a Swallow coming down one of the troughs that got our heart going for a bit.
We did manage to add a couple of new species to our Challenge, Common Scoters and a sickly looking Guillemot that we hope survived but was being pushed closer and closer to the shore with every wave.

On our drive up from Cornwall news broke of a Semi Palmated Sandpiper on the Wyre estuary and as soon as we hoped for a twitch but it had done a bunk. It took another birder to relocate it a few days later so the twitch was on. Unfortunately it was a long way across the mud flats and spent odd times asleep in between feeding bouts - which is when we clicked to shutter button - darn it! Another lifer all the same ( crikey what's going on two lifers in a week!!!) and we did enjoy great views in other folks' generously offered scopes.

It's the left hand fuzzy blob - there's some proper pics on Fylde Bird Club's Flickr site

Then news broke of a new bird for the Fylde, a juvenile Pallid Harrier. We are very time constrained at the mo and the weather is unpredictable. Luckily CR was up for a drive out before (or at least in between showers) and after a short wait where AB told us to sit - there were plenty of other birders to aim for though - it appeared but sadly it didn't come in to the nearest field like it had done on several occasions in the previous couple of days. What a beauty, those cinnamon underparts are something else and that neck collar stands out a mile away. Just a shame the light was so grotty we couldn't get any decent pics as it quartered  back and forth for ages mostly hidden behind a hedge. The pic might be rubbish but the views in the bins were superb.

Over night we listened to the wind whistling round the eaves and dreamt of Leach's Petrels - did we tell you they're one of our very favourites? As soon as could we were out on the prom and the phone pinged our pocket saying a Barolo Shearwater had passed Heysham earlier and could come past Rossall and indeed it did but with the wind dropping rapidly it must have gone straight out to sea from there rather than coming round the corner and hugging the coast - couldn't have us getting three lifers in a fortnight could we! The dropping wind also meant no chance of any Leach's Petrels and indeed we saw very little other than at least 500 Common Scoters bobbing around in the middle distance.

An hour round the Rock Gardens (Patch 1) we don't get to visit as much as we probably ought gave us a load of panicky alarm calls had us looking up to see a Sparrowhawk passing overhead. There was a bit of vis mig in a handful of Meadow Pipits heading south in a mild quiet gap in the grotty weather which closed in horribly in the afternoon.

Again a bit of gap in the grot gave us the opportunity to nip out with Monty and from the cliff top we watched a Little Egret fly over the dropping tide.

It's not that long since these were considered terribly exotic and to some of use oldies they still conjure up thoughts of warm far away places rather than windswept Lancashire saltmarshes. But recent counts of the local root sites suggest there may be almost (perhaps over) a thousand in the county now and it's become an odd birding day in many local areas when you don't see a Little Egret well before coming across a good old fashioned Heron.

Where to next? More wind coming but what will it bring?

In the meantime let us know who's dodging the waves in your outback.