Base Camp has moved!

The Safari upped sticks and shifted Base Camp a couple of miles to the north a couple or so months ago. What a palaver that was; we found things that were lost, things we didn't know we'd lost, found things we didn't know we had, moved boxes that hadn't been unpacked since our last move 18 years earlier (they have been unpacked and sorted now) and lost things we know we've seen in the new place...how does that happen?

And then only two weeks after moving in we had yet another hand operation that kept us out of action for over a month. That meant the race was on to get the 'blank canvas' of a garden something like before the surgeon got his hands on us. Luckily we'd brought a load of pots from our previous garden so we weren't starting from total scratch. A bare patch where a giant kiddies trampoline had stood was sown with perennial wildflower seeds and another from where we removed a chunk of rotten decking was sown with cornfield annuals. The latter proving us with brilliant views of a pair of Goldfinches while we recuperated from our op.

We now have two local patches to enjoy and work too; Patch 1 is the Promenade with its too often too close mown grassy area and the sloping remnant dunes, beach and sea. and Patch 2 is a small woodland plantation just a few streets inland that we had a tiny part in setting up about 10 years ago.

Already Patch 1 has given us Bottlenose Dolphins, unfortunately our new upstairs windows have such a limited sea view we are unlikely to get them on the 'Garden' list. We've also had our best ever Arctic Skua action from along the Fylde coast so there's going to be plenty of excitement to look forward to.

After we had sufficiently recovered from the surgeon's handiwork LCV took us on a couple of days glamping trip to the east coast primarily to have a look at the Black-browed Albatross that had made its home on the cliffs there with the Gannets.

An 8 1/2 hour wait ensured for the albatross to fly and when it did it went well out to sea and didn't give us the hoped for cliff-top fly-by, only passing fairly close low over the water.

At least we saw it and were able to get lots of other birders and non-birders onto it while it snoozed very inconspicuously on the cliff face amongst the Gannets.

A later trip to the south Lakes with CR gave us the hoped for Adder. About to slough its skin judging by that cloudy eye.

Lots of dragonfly action too, with Golden-ringed being the highlight.

Both Roe and Red Deer performed well for us.

A good day out on safari!

Patch 2 came into its own during the Big Butterfly Count where we had some high scores of Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns but the highlight was this dodgy looking butterfly that the Twitterati plumbed for as a Ringlet in the end. They aren't regular round here indeed this is the first one we've seen on the Fylde coast or anywhere near it for that matter.

Perhaps even better was this Brimstone, nectaring only a few feet away from a row of Alder Buckthorn plants we had asked the planting scheme to include all those years ago...the big question is is it a female and did it find those bushes for its eggs?

A couple of things we had noticed this summer were a) it took us until early August to find a Common Blue butterfly - have they been hard to come by everywhere or was it just us missing the first brood while out of action? and b) we hadn't seen any butterflies on a Buddleia bush anywhere until we hit the south Lakes and locally we only saw our first a couple of days ago this lovely Painted Lady.

A trip out east aways to the hills with old chum AH suggested that the lack of water might be a reason, the bushes were full of scent but held no nectar so the butterflies were avoiding them. The reservoir on our walk was well down like all the others in the region.

That's a lot of water to make up, a dry winter isn't an option!

And finally with a new garden comes a new moth list. So far so good and as we get more plants growing there should be some interesting finds coming along. Pick of the bunch so far, Elephant Hawkmoth, always good to see in the bottom of the trap especially as they went missing for the last few years at the old place. And a pristine fresh male Antler Moth was a very nice surprise one morning.

That's all for now folks, get out and have a look for the amazing wildlife in your outback.

Hopefully we'll be back with tales of more adventures on safari shortly...we'll try not to leave it nearly a year this time!

TTFN.