It's the high seas for the Safari

The Safari has been out on the ocean waves, or lack of them as it was almost like a mill pond out there.

Once we were underway our seabird and cetacean survey started with a plethora of Herring Gulls in their bewildering variety of plumages that they have a this time of year. Once we reached the river mouth the Common Terns were passing too and fro from the nature reserve at the end of the dock, the ones coming in were all carrying small fish although we didn't get to see the location of their fishing grounds. Just one was going the 'wrong' way to the next nearest colony some distance away in the other river but why fish here when 'our' colony's birds were coming from that direction or was the fish brought in deemed unsuitable and had to be taken away!

Once well out of the river and in  'open' water the Gannets and Manx Shearwaters started to show and become more and more frequent but there were very few Kittiwakes out there today. 

Many of the Gannets were becalmed in the light winds and flat sees, most were just sitting on the water and very very few were fishing. That is until the boat was closing them down at 20+ knots and threatened to run them over, only then did they lift and fly out of the way.

We tried to get a few pics but failed miserably, her's the only one we dared keep and even then we've only included it in a highly processed state - the original is just about unviewable and this is by far the best!

No, that paler blotch isn't what you first thought it was

The first cetaceans weren't far off and were probably just out of sight over the horizon from Patch 2, a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins, sadly they didn't stick around. Harbour Porpoises followed later in small groups. Bizarelly all were first seen dead ahead of the ship, the last Bottlenose Dolphin came out of nowhere at us almost like a Mediaeval jouster - and whoosh went straight down the side of the ship padding only yards away.

Once past the Isle of Man the weather closed in and rain started making spotting somewhat difficult but we passed through it and out the other side the approach to Belfast was very pleasant with another Harbour Porpoise.

Highlight of the trip for us is looking out for the Black Guillemots that inhabit Belfast Loch, somehow they remind us of mad moths, particularly Humming Bird Hawkmoths for some reason.

Tired but content in the knowlwdg3e we'd done a good job helping contribute to the knowledge of our brilliant marine life and hence its conservation for the future, we had a couple of well earned beers of a certain Irish species.

If you fancy joining the survey teams there's a list of the forthcoming training courses  for the rest of the year is here - we look forward to having join us on a survey one day.

The return to Liverpool, actually Birkenhead, is overnight but at this time of year it's light enough to have your fill of the great (and becoming more imposing with some interesting designs) skyline as the ferry approaches it's berth.

Don't know why we didn't get a pic of the Ruby Princess that was docked at the Pier Head when we were leaving - one huge ship!

The drive back to Base Camp was witness to a sad carnage of Hedgehogs, there were far too many recently killed, some from their position on the road looked as though they'd been deliberately murdered rather than unavoidably accidentally hit.

Nothing much of note in the garden at Base Camp this arvo but our Extreme Photographer has very kindly fixed our moth trap socket before he sets off on an adventure to wildest west Wales at the end of the week - for ever! We're going to miss his company on safari but he promises to keep his camera handy and send pics for us to show you what he's been finding on his travels.

Where to next? National Whale and Dolphin Watch next week and we have a few you can join in with.
In the meantime let us know who's been leading the charge in your outback.

Back on dry land

The Safari had a nautical adventure yesterday. An early start saw us in the port of Birkenhead across the river from it's bigger and more illustrious sibling Liverpool. Bang on time our ferry departed its berth and we started our seabird and mammal survey from the bridge of the ship once the captain had maneuvered the vessel in to the middle of the river and pointed it towards the open sea. There are often Harbour Porpoises to be seen in the river but sadly not today.

Once out of the shelter of land the open sea was rough. The conditions not really conducive to finding sea mammals but a selection of seabirds made the most of the wind Kittiwakes and other gulls were careening this way and that and wasn't long before we saw our first Gannet (118) of the year. This part of the Irish Sea is crawling with Common Scoters but the ferry's route must be just outside of their favoured areas as we only saw two parties of three.

Rain showers obscured our view out of the windows with monotonous regularity, a few small parties of mixed Guillemots and Razorbills were seen but nothing liked the huge autumn flocks which contain all the juveniles and of course many will have perished in the storms. A Fulmar (119) cruised past, the first of several.

As we approached Belfast the sky broke in a series of sunny spells and hefty hail showers giving us epic  dramatic skies to enjoy.

As the water narrows towards Belfast harbour there is the hope of Black Guillemots and today was no exception with three of the little stunners seen (120). A good flock of Common Scoters were here to and deep in the harbour a pair of 'normal' Guillemots nearly got run over by the boat. By now it was nearly dark and this pic was taken at just 1/20th of a second so a long way off sharp.

The only mammal we saw was after our survey had finished and the boat was turning to reverse onto its berth. Facing back the way we'd come we saw a dark shape in the water which was one of the harbour's regular Harbour (aka Common) Seals.

Today we had a lazy chilling day after all the concentrating yesterday but we did have a good reason for waiting in. Our Extreme Photographer had told  us he had something for us...a new bat box....and he'd be round later in th afternoon to help fit it.

Great stuff, we're well chuffed - all we need now are some bats.

While the ladder was out he had a look at our Swift box before they return for Africa but it looks like it might be on its last legs. A Great Tit has been roosting in there and left the gaff in a bit of mess - squatters ehh a real menace!

Where to next? Back to our land-lubbing Patch 2 version of sewatching tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know who's been sneaking in where they shouldn't in your outback

Chance of a bit of a catch-up?

The Safari set off for the South-side just after dawn yesterday morning, in fact we were going to cross the river at the southern end of the South-side through the delights of the Mersey Tunnel.

On the way we saw a Brown Hare (mammal #6) in the field at the motorway intersection that usually has a Roe Deer or three, but not today, don't recall ever seeing a hare in this part of the world  before and will report it to the North-west Brown Hare Project later. At the beginning of the third motorway of the morning we had two Jays ((117) fly over us. A single Buzzard was seen still roosting in its overnight spot in a tree close to the carriageway.

We ended up on the Stena Feronia at Birkenhead Docks on our survey for Marine-life. As we entered the bridge with out team-mate we had a superb view of Liverpool's 'Three Graces'...

From left to right they are the Liver Building, adorned by the Liver Birds ie Cormorants or characters in a 1970s sitcom, the Cunard Building (with the Pier Head and Mersey Ferry the Royal Iris beneath) and the Port of Liverpool Building. There is an ambitious plan to redevelop a major part of the derelict docks near this UNESCO World Heritage waterfront but provided they 1) don't affect the fantastic Seaforth Nature Reserve, 2) don't over-power the Three Graces and 3) do build structures that will be iconic in their own right in a hundred years time we can't really see a problem.

The voyage started as the tide rose and we were the only ship going against the flow of traffic coming into the port.

The red tanker is the Hanne Knutsen a full 235m long and 40m wide weighing in at 123,500 tonnes bringing oil from the Norwegian oilfields half way between the Shetland Isles (location of corrupt 'what quota' fishermen) and the Norwegian coast. As we write it has been off-loaded is is back out on a two day sail for another load...you can follow its progress here.

Quite fun was counting the Cormorants and Herring Gulls on and around the buoys marking our route out of the river mouth as we passed at about 20 knots

You did get the fourth one didn't you? We'll have to check our record sheet to make sure we did!

As we exited the river mouth our captain told us that in recent days he had seen up to three seals hauled out on the sandbank on the port side. Time and tide wait for no man, least of all Marine-life surveyors and today the tide had flooded the bank and they were nowhere to be seen.

Once out in the open sea we started to pick up a few small flocks of Kittiwakes, two of which also held Little Gulls which were good to see. Before too long we'd also picked up the first flock of Razorbills (118) too. These ended up being far more numerous than Guillemots.

As the highest peaks of the Isle of Man loomed of the horizon our team-mate called a Harbour Porpoise very close to the bow of the ship - we completely missed it :-( . But the nearer to the Isle of Man the more and more Gannets (119) we began to see, so many that we didn't think they would be back in such numbers this early in the year, a small number of Fulmars (120) also started to grace the record sheet.

Counting the Cormorants (or at this distance they, or some of them, could have been Shags) on Chicken Rock at the southern-most tip of the Isle of Man was still proving challenging...

Did you spot the Great Black Backed Gull?

Leaving the Calf of Man in our wake we pressed on towards Belfast.

With the hills of Eire as a backdrop we watched a distant Gannet being hounded by a Great Skua (121) which must have been successful in its piracy as the Gannet continued on its way but we didn't see the skua after it dropped down towards the surface of the water. Not long before our final sighting of a small flock of auks as we approached the harbour one of the crew told us he'd just seen a Harbour Porpoise from the other side of the bridge. Only a few minutes after that it was too dark to identify identify anything else unless it was right on the bow...time for a well earned hearty supper in the Officers' Mess.

We docked back in Birkenhead at dawn after an on-board sleep-over. Three Buzzards were quickly spotted once we had left the city streets behind (passing very close to the hallowed ground of Goodison Park but we couldn't stop for a photo as we a had a taxi right up our ar*e :-( ).

At the motorway junction where we saw the Brown Hare on the way out there was indeed a Roe Deer (mammal #7) happily grazing just a few yards from the racing traffic.

On our third and final motorway we had another Buzzard sat on a tree but not much further on a sad sight met our eyes, A few hundred yards before the bridge over the canal we saw a dead Barn Owl lying on the hard shoulder. As bad luck would have it there was second dead Barn Owl no more than a few hundred yards on the other side of the bridge too, two in less than a mile isn't good :-(.

Yet another Buzzard was entered into the memory banks as we pulled off the motorway totally confusing Satellite-Annie (not sure why we still had the sat-nav on as once we were out of the confusing dock area we knew our way home) in search of a recent split. A Hooded Crow has been hanging around the fields not far from the Mother-in-law's so we took an early morning detour. Trouble was we only saw one flock of corvids and they were nowhere near the 'usual' place the Hoodie has been seen in so no 'armchair tick' for the Safari today.

Whilst relating our nautical adventures to Wifey we spotted a Long Tailed Field Mouse (mammal #8) shoot out from under the garage door (where it had no doubt been chewing something it shouldn't) and dart into the log pile.

Where to next? A day off recovering from all that standing and concentrating tomorrow so a short safari somewhere could be on the cards - we'll see what's been seen today before making our mind up.

In the meantime let us know if anyone is singing 'Hooray and up she rises' in your outback