Another visit to Leighton Moss

The Safari had seen that there were big roadworks planned for this week down towards Martin Mere so with that in mind CR pointed the car  northwards, only to find that serious roadworks are planned in a couple of weeks time along our route out of town that way too. Leighton Moss was our target venue with some good sightings being reported recently on the usual social media info lines. Of most interest to us was news of a Purple Heron which had been seen a couple days earlier but had had no subsequent reports, gone or just hiding in the extensive reedbeds??? Not to worry there were Bitterns, Opsreys, Hobbys and Otters all to be enjoyed. To break the habits of a lifetime we took the long trail up to Lower Hide first, as this was where the Purple Heron had been last reported from. noting the lack of isect life on the way we were pleased to see this Migrant Hawker dragonfly perched up on the edge of the path as we neared the hide.

On entering the hide we were told that we should have been there ten minutes earlier when a Hobby shot past but hadn't reappeared, no signs of any Bitterns, Ospreys or Otters during the morning so far either - not what we wanted to hear really. Only one thing to do - sit and wait for all the action to happen, which eventually it did in the form of a Heron flying in with a big Tench.

It's tempting to think it landed on the drier ground where it could wrangle the fish into a position it could swallow it from rather than risk losing it back into the water where it had caught it. it took a fair bit of wrangling before it went down the hatch but that happened behind the intervening reeds so no photo of the dastardly deed was possible. With its belly full the Heron flew off away to our left and out of sight. It was replaced, much more distantly, by a Great White Egret arriving from the far left. That flew into the favoured roosting spot, the dead tree dead ahead of us beyond the far side of the pool. 

The field on the other side of the road was being cut, probably for silage, and gave us the opportunity to get the tractor in the frame with the egret. Two of our favourite things at the same time!!!

The egret sat up there doing nothing much for ages before dropping down into the far side of our pool, still a long way off, and stalking around slowly for a while without any success. We don't normally see herons/egrets in the water here but after a bit of a dry spell water levels across the reserve are lower than they have been for a long time.

Neither the hoped for Bitterns, Hobbys, Ospreys nor any Otters showed up so we slowly worked our way back to the Causway Hide where we hoped at least one of the aforementioned species would put in an appearance for us. At least we hadn't missed any action was the essence of the news we received from the birders already present. Action was about to follow though when another Heron flew in and began to hunt.

Before long an submarine movement caught its eye and it went into strike pose.

A couple of minutes of ever so carefully adjucting its position followed then....whammmm...a splash...and...gotcha!

It had caught a small jack Pike.

Somehow we missed the action shot whereby the fish is tossed up and is swallowed in mid air. 

Time had flown even though we thought we hadn't seen much so we wandered down to Grisedale hide for our lunch, passing very little at Lillian's hide on the way. For what must be the first time ever we opened the door to find the hide empty so we went to take advantage of 'photographers corner' only to find the pool there was dry and mostly obscured by tall intervening vegetation so we opted for the right hand end instead. Good move, there were three Little Egrets and another Great White Egret stood in the water in front of us and five Red Deer hiding in the tall vegetation on the bund at the back of the pool. There were three hinds, a young stag with rather dangerous looking anters despite the fact they are still covered in velvet, and a young very spotty fawn. With no tines to interlock straight antlers become two daggers which can inflict serious or even fatal wounds on an opponent, unlikely in a proper fight with a dominant stag as our youngster would just run away if challenged but in a practice bout with a stag of similar age the outcome might not be good.

He melted into the thick vegetation leaving the hind he was with listening to our camera shutter clicking.

By this time two of the Little Egrets and the Great White Egret had also done a bunk leaving just the closest Little Egret to fish the pool alone as the  rain began to fall five minutes earlier than forecast. useless these weather forecasters, can't be trusted to get  anything right! The egret was very active, dashing hither and thither after small fish but always seemed to catch them while facing away, it had probably pinned them up in the shallows agains the roots of the reeds rather than being less able to catch them in the open water facing us. his/her need for food outweighs our need for a pic.

Eventually more birders arrived an we were able to point out one of the Red Deer hinds that had re-emerged from the vegetaation after they'd all disappeared, it's amazing how something so big can vanish without leaving a trace, you can't even see the tops of the Thistles shaking where they are moving about. This one came out had a little graze on the Reeds and then lay down in a hollow behind some very tall Water Docks and more-or-less out of sight.

That left just the egret to concentrate on. Again it was darting about after small fish.

After stirring them out of their hiding places with is shivering foot technique.

Several minutes later the Great White Egret came back, swooping in low over where the Red Deer had been stood and landing in front of us.

One of the Little Egrets also returned 

and promptly started to give grief to our resident friend who flew off in a huff.

The newcomer then took up the vacant position where the fish were - it's evil masterplan successfully carried out!

Having exhausted all the possiblities and the weather turning very iffy so no further chance of Hobby for the day we left the main reserve and went down to the saltmarshes. There was little to exhaust here, the mud in the pools was very dry and uninviting to feeding birds and some management works had recently been carried out creating a more varied topography with deeper holes and shallower areas. It'll be good when it fills with water but today the the lack of water combined with the disturbance meant that there was very little on offer. The decision was made to cut our losses and head back towards Base Camp stopping at Conder Green on the way.

From the shelter of the shelter there we had a look at the pool, again the water levels were well down. All the Common Tern nesting rafts had been vacated leaving just a coupleof pairs of Black Headed Gulls with very young fledged offspring and a solitary Avocet with a youngster in tow. In the deeper water away to the right half a dozen Little Grebes fished for 3-Spined Sticklebacks, a small flock of Tufted Ducks floated in the lee of one of the islands trying to get a bit of shelter from wind and driving rain and a couple of dozen Mallards loafed on the far bank.

Across the road the creek was as low as we've ever seen it with barely a trickly running past. There were plenty of Redshanks with a few Curlew and Lapwings but we couldn't find the Spotted Redshank that had been reprted the day before. As CR watched the pool waiting for the Kingfisher to arrive and perch on the brick drainage structure we continued to scan the creek finding a Ruff and then a Greenshank. After a while the Avocets left the pool and came over to the creek, we don't recall seeing them in there before but then there's usually too much water for them to be able to wade in it.

The rasping calls of a Common Tern alerted us to two arriving on the pool, one carring a fish. The second one was disinterested in the potential gift and soon flew off to the south. The fish carrier landed on the point of the island close to the Tufted Ducks and proceeded to eat said fish, a Sandeel, itself and then settled down for a rest.

CR was still waiting for the Kingfisher so we returned to scanning the creek for any sign of the Spotted Redshank. Still no  joy but there were now three Greenshank, one of which had come a little closer.

Back on the pool a small flock of Linnets kept datring back and forth between the nearest island and the roadside hedge to our right and then a larger bird joined them, a Collared Dove, a bird we don't see around Base Camp these days and rearely photograph anywhere so here you go...

Not sure what plant it's picking the seeds from but it certainly had a taste for them. You don't normally associate them being in any shape of form camouflaged but on that muddy background with the pebbles lying around it was quite hard to see with the naked eye from our vantage point about 50 yards or more away.

All good things must come to an end and so this safari had run its course and the time had come to hit the road back to Base Camp.

Where to next? (Minor) Car troubles transpired to us missing a couple of safaris but we'll be on the road again somewhere soon.

In the meantime let us know who's hiding in the tall grass in your outback.

Back to the Southside

The Safari has just about recovered from our hand surgery and we are now fit enough to try some longer shorter drives, if that makes sense. So rattling with Ibruprofen pills we picked up CR and made the hour's drive over the river for a day at the splendid Martin Mere WWT reserve, easily the furthest we've been since getting back behind the wheel. The day was supposed to be sunny but ominous clouds developed right over where we were heading, thoughts of why didn't we bring a waterproof went through our head - well it is the August and supposed to be summer so we didn't grab our jacket on the way out. 

The previous day there'd been sightings of a juvenile Black Necked Grebe, a Red Kite, Hobby and when we arrived and read the sightings board a Curlew Sandpiper, a couple or more of those would be good for our Challenge.We figured that the grebe would still be on site after last night's very heavy rain, the kite could be anywhere in the county (or beyond), the Hobby wouldn't show unless the sun appeared and brought the dragonflies out and the Curlew Sandpiper might still be about so we'd wait for news. The moth trap was advertised as being opened at 10.30 so that gave us just short of half an hour to look for the grebe. We went straight to the Harrier Hide and were immediately told a Bittern had flown past not long earlier; doh if only we'd not been stopped by those traffic lights or that rediculous speed restriction hadn't been imposed we'd ahev seen that. We've been coming here for the best part of 50 years and never seen one here. We were also told the Black Necked Grebe was on the pool but diving repeatedly, we looked in the general direction of where the chap was pointing and voila up it popped in our bins. before we could swing the canera into action it dived. We missed the opening of the moth trap in the procvess of trying to get a decent shot and although it came nearer it never really came near enough so this  is the best we got. Still it's #158 for our Challenge and a 'bonus bird' as it wasn't on the radar to come across between now and the end of the year.

A few Little Grebes were on the pool as well and often confused us by appearing in the field of view where we were expecting the Black Necked Grebe to. One even came up with a small fish, we got a decent pic but then deleted it by mistake while going through the out of focus or dived out of view shots of the Black Necked Grebe. 

From there we went to the 'new' Rees Hide where there were several Lapwings loafing about

and a Green Sandpiper that we probably flushed from very close when we opened the door to enter the hide. It was a bit further away than we would have liked for a such a small bird but did give good views in the bins.

Much further away were a few Ruff moulting out of their breeding finery.

A much closer Snipe proved to be too camera shy, being not very showy to start with then getting up and moving right behind a thick tussock of rushes. We took that as our cue to move on to the next hide. Here we found another Green Sandpiper again a little distant across an arm of the pool.

There's a small island in the pool which today held a family of Black Headed Gulls, we followed the two youngsters begging for food from the adult for ages waiting for the moment of delivery...and missed it when we took our eye off the ball for a second. Here's the one that didn't get the food squealing with rage.

And here's the one that did get fed keeping well out of the way of its peeved sibling.

With possiblities here now exhausted we moved on again on the long treck round to the final hide. We saw the cattle were safely ensconsed in the field to our left not stampeding up the track towards us this time - which was a relief! We chatted about the possiblity of seeing some Stonechats up by the corner and noted that they often sit on the wrong side of the light on the fence, it's much better for pics if they go the other side of the track into the natiral habitat and on the 'right' side of the light - would we see them today and which would they do? They often flush into the dense vegetation behind the fence. Rounding the corner it wasn't the Stonechats atop the fence that caught our eye but three bright orange butterflies at the bottom of the fence, one settled and two whizzing around each other in a blur of wings. Wall Browns, a species we no very very rarely see on the Fylde nowadays.

The stationary one was a female so we assume the other two were battling male sutors. Above them the Stonechats were atop the fence as predicted.

Luckily as we approached they flew to the right side of the path which is the left-hand side and perched on natural vegetation in good light.

It was while taking snaps of the Stonechats we spotted a juvenile Kestrel sitting on the nearby gatepost through the tops of the reeds. Getting a clear shot was tricky and involved a lot of waiting for the breeze to blbow the intervening reeds out of the way.

Once in the hide we scanned around for any sign of the Curlew Sandpiper to no avail, there were no small waders to be seen. The only close birds was a small flock of Black Tailed Godwits most of whom were asleep, especially the most brightly coloured and nearest as it happened.

We waited for it to wake up but it was spark out so we had to make do with a couple of preening birds stood a little way behind it. We waited for these two to do some synchronised or mirror image preening but they didn't.

There's a bit of synchronised preening going on with the one at the back

Time for lunch so we hit the long trail back to the car to retrieve our pastry-encased scran which we ate in the deserted Discovery Hide, deserted inside and out with only a handful of tatty moulting Mallards on offer and a distant Cormorant sat doing nothing much in particular. The only real action was provided by a few Swallows skimming fast and low over the water before shooting over our heads possibly to a nest(s) in the staff area behind us. All the distant md was scanned for the Curlew Sandpiper but again we had no joy.

From there we wandered up to the Ron Barker Hide chatting to a very enthusiastic and knoweldgeable young lad on the way - good to know our brilliant wildlife is being enjoyed and appreciated by the younger generation, lets hope there's a big recovery in our wildlife so he sees more than we have in the last few years. At the hide it was pretty quite, the flooded marsh had been drawn down to reveal lots of oozy black mud but again no Curlew Sandpiper so we assume it had done an overnight flit to the coast or even beyond. One species the youngster is likely to see more of than we could ever have dreamed of when we were his age is Cattle Egrets, there were 17 of them until more than half of them flew off, and nowhere near the cattle either.

With not a lot happening we cut our losses and headed back to the Rees Hide passing another Wall butterfly by the bridge over the big dyke. This one has the big bold black mark on the wing, the scent brand, so is a male.

At the hide we watched a female Black Tailed Skimmer doing some serious ovipositing.

There were several males around keeping a watchfiul eye on proceedings too.

Close to all this action we spotted some small blue damselflies which kept coming out from the bankside vegetation to our right and settling for several minutes on the floating green stuff. Through the bins we could see they had dark eyes so weren't the norrmal Blue Tailed Damselflies we're very familiar with. If truth be told they were too small and too far away to have any chance of a pic but we fired a shed load of shots off on the off chance one or two might be just about useable. In the end they were all as bad as each other, this one being being the best by the slightest of margins.

If you look very closely you can just about see three blue segments at the end of the abdomen which makes them Small Red Eyed Damselflies, a Lifer for us having not long since colonised our region. We scanned again for the Curlew Sandpiper without any luck and in the distance a Kestrel hovered, possibly the one we'd seen earlier. All of a sudden a falcon was really close and high up, not the kestrel but a Hobby which took a dragonfly as it carreered over the hide and behind us, just a really fleeting glimpse for us and some in the hide didn't manage to get on it at all. That was enough to make us get back outside and do the Reedbed Walk who's wide vistas would offer us the best chance of catching up with any more Hobbys and we might even see the Bittern flying back from its morning outing. The sun had brought out many more dragonflies, hence the sudden appearance of the Hobby, and more butterflies, including a few Peacocks, our first of the day.

A male Black Tailed Skimmer gave us the run around for a few minutes before finally settling in a good spot for a pic.

Up by the rather smelly sewage works a Hobby came out of nowhere and sped past us giving superb if brief close views. Unfortunatley it kept going and eventually disappeared over the treeline nearly a mile away before we could swing the camera into action. Well at least it vindicated the decision to take the Reedbed walk. On we went passing more Peacocks and more Wall Browns, we saw more today than we've probably seen in the last 10 years combined! But as we progressed the expected wide open vista was lost, the Willow bushes had grown considerable since last year and it was becoming more like a woodland walk with no view out. Eventually we came to a warm open area and after seeing several very active Brown Hawkers patroling their territories CR spotted one land, which they hardly ever do! It's one of our most frequently seen dragonflies and yet we cant count on the fingers of one of our mutilated hands how many pics we've ever got of them.

No more Hobbys appeared and neither did the Bittern as we nearer the end of the trail but while looking across the pools for any sign of the Black Necked Grebe we saw a Great Crested Grebe sat on a nest, quite late in the season we thought. Looking closely you can just about make out a little lump on her back which is a little stripey faced chick.

Time was now nearly up but we were able to get a few more minutes back in the Rees Hide where there were now two Green Sandpipers and another very keen youngster to keep us entertained until it was time to leave.

In the end there was only one new species snapped for our Challenge but that didn't take anything away from a really good day out on safari.

Where to next? It could be anywhere and it'll most probably be weather dependent.

In the meantime let us know who's perching up bold as brass in your outback.