Otterly brilliant

The Safari hasn't been out as much as hoped this week. Yesterday we had to say goodbye to our large Elm tree. There wasn't anything inherently wrong with it it had just become too big for the small space it was in and had begun to send up suckers all over the garden which could easily become a digging out problem in a couple of years time and could pop up in neighbours' gardens too. Sadly it means that there will be no chance of the local White Letter Hairstreak setting up a satellite colony at Base Camp as was the original hope when we planted it. Perhaps now the small subservient Rowan will be able to grow and maybe one day attract a Waxwing or two if the Blackbirds leave any berries for them.

Many thanks to CP and his skill with the Stihl

Today we took Monty down to Marton Mere for a quick spin in the sunshine, once the early morning rain had cleared. First stop was the (to our mind) somewhat over-zealously cleared Feeding Station. There was little about apart from a couple of Pheasants and a Grey Squirrel, no sign of yesterday's reported Bullfinch.

 From there we could hear the volunteers' strimmers not too far away. We thought they were continuing to work at the little bay view point they made last week that we're not fond of, we think the time and effort could have been spent better elsewhere on the reserve. When we got there we saw we were wrong, they weren't there but further down at the first hide. We had a quick chat but it was too noisy for Monty's sensitive doggy ears. They did tell us that there were two Otters over against the far reeds. We looked and looked and saw 200 or more Coot panic but didn't see any Otters.

We left the vols to their tasks and walked down to the next hide where we didn't go in but snuck round the front and flattened the area of reeds to the left to open up the view for the winter, our first bit of volunteering here, we're sure there'll be more!

We also had a look at the new reed island from this angle...it's massssiiiivvveee!!!!! And the ducks seem to like to loaf in its lee so perhaps it's not all bad...still going to be a nightmare though.

Once again we were time constrained...how does that happen when your retired?? so we had to head back. This time the strimmering team were having a tea-break and all was quiet enough to join them again. This time we were told the Otters were having a swim round again. Wow, we got superb prolonged views of them with the bins, if a little distant, on the far side of the mere. Excellent!!! Awesome!!! Other expletives are available. Just a little to distant for our 300mm lens we brought out today - typical; and we're not entirely sure why we opted to leave the 600mm back at Base Camp - won't make that mistake again in a hurry!

Well chuffed but later found out there were two Bitterns flying round together in the afternoon, long after we'd had to leave though.

Almost back at the car we spotted a few flowers of Meadow Cranesbill enjoying the last of the year's sunshine.

In the afternoon we joined our local Wildlife Trust's Living Seas team for a Sea Watch at Rossall tower. A chilly and blustery afternoon but the event was well attended. We got a count of 50 Eiders roosting on the new shingle island, there were a lot of Oystercatchers and Turnstones roosting over there too.

It took a while for the only Grey Seal to put in an appearance and we missed it. While searching the waves and troughs for it we spotted half a dozen Little Gulls, five adults and a first winter, flying west out of the bay. A nice find even though we say so ourself.

Not much else was out there for the others to enjoy, a few more Eiders and a few Common Scoters on the sea and a small flock of Ringed Plovers, Dunlin and a Sanderling on the beach.

Where to next? More gardening at Base Camp tomorrow but we'll keep our ears open for anything passing overhead.

In the meantime let us know who's gracing the waters in your outback.

Wall to wall driizzle

The Safari was able to get out for a couple of hours this arvo, just after the heavy drizzle started again! What a dreadful day although it was made better by the sight of Chiffchaff (Garden #24) hoping round the Crab Apple Tree, it must have hung around a while as we head a 'hweet' when we something out in the bin at least an hour later.

We went to the nature reserve for the afternoon and walked all the way down to the old, no longer there, bridge to have a look at the new spillway. On the way we heard a couple of Chiffchaffs and Cetti's Warblers but not a lot else. 

The spillway looks good, the green thing highlighted is the Eel pass, a bit like an upturned stiff brush to help the Elvers make their way into the lake against the current.

We're not sure if this is the finished product as the original plans show the new work continuing in a sweeping curve on the right hand side to just past the metal fence, smoothing out that tight corner

The water level is very high today, we're not sure if the spillway has been set at the final level yet we couldn't see it from where we could get to. The nearby nesting Mute Swans were busily adding more material to their nest.

The walk back had us hunkering against the rain and doing so we found a Rosy Tipped Worm on the edge of the path.

Wandering back round we had a few minutes on the Viewing Platform but quickly retired to the adjacent hide to escape yet more torrential drizzle. There was lots of gulls but nothing in them other than a few more than recently Common Gulls. Also on the water were a couple of Great Crested Grebes and a female Goldeneye, a Little Grebe was heard as was a Water Rail.

The Feeding Station proved lively with plenty of common garden birds. Then a Magpie joined the throng and managed to get onto the hanging peanut feeder. We tried to get a pic but it saw us moving and did a flit. The small birds soon returned and then flushed, we expected a Sparrowhawk to whizz through but it was a Jay, a good bird for here. Again we hoped for a pic but it didn't come to the feeders but stayed deep in cover a few minutes before shooting off even deeper in.

From there we went down the south side for a look at the Snakeshead Fritillaries but stopped at the cleared bit of Brambles for a look down the mere. It was then that we heard some gulls kicking up a stink over our shoulder, looking round they were giving a Peregrine (MMLNR #75) carrying a prey item some serious grief. A good addition to our PWC list and about time too. We were actually hoping for a Sand Martin or two dropping in between showers but no such luck.

The Snakeshead Fritillaries are developing quickly and we counted over 30 about to flower along with a huge number of Cowslips (for here anyway). There's going to be a good show of Agrimony later in the season too.

More rain had us running to the hide close by where there was nothing to see other than Coots and a peed off looking rather soggy Canada Goose.

Where to next? Might try to get out early tomorrow there's no rain forecast overnight so there ought to be a migrant or two on site in the morning.

In the meantime let us know who got the wettest in your outback.

The work is almost over

The Safari had no joy on a much less rough Patch 2 today. There were a few distant Common Scoters but they were too far away and it was still too choppy to tell if anything more interesting was with them. About a mile out little blobs undulated by - almost definitely Meadow Pipits cutting directly across the bay rather than going the coastal route. The wind was much lighter today and they could see their destination in the clear morning air - the high fells, which were covered in a fresh layer of snow.

We heard the gulls go up a few times through the morning and dashed out from our desk but failed to connect with whatever had caused the commotion - it did look an 'Osprey-type of day'.

Lunchtime on Patch 2 was poor on the high tide and we didn't stay out long.

With the holiday imminent we called it a day early and left for the nature reserve for the last hour to have a look at the finishing touches that have been put to the works. We saw the lads building the shuttering for the base of the 'Panoramic' Hide which is arriving next week...exciting times; can't wait for a look out of the windows to see how good the view is.

From there we wandered further down to have a look across the reedbed at the new scrape. The water level is a little high due to the horrendous rain we've had this week and the Environment Agency works aren't quite finished yet, looking good though - see for yourself.

Sorry about the similarity of the pics but the gap between the reeds isn't that big and there was no way of crossing in 'office' shoes, but you get the idea of what's going on.

We didn't go round the other side but heard that the Sand Martin bank was being rendered and should be completed in time for their arrival on ?Saturday after tomorrows rain.

We didn't come across many birds, Cetti's Warblers and Chiffchaffs were singing and a Kestrel and a Magpie were flying around - that was about it. We did see something we've never seen before though, a Woodpigeon eating the tiny opening leaves from an Elder bush, something we perhaps should have come across in our 40 years birding but we really don't think we have.

On the walk back to the Land Rover the Cetti's Warbler fired up at the wetland and then we saw the male Stonechat and what a stonker he is, looking really dapper now...is the female still about...will they stay or will they go (you could make a song around that line).

After tea we were speaking to Pops on the phone and looking through the kitchen window this little fella was scuttling around the garden coming close to the door so we grabbed the camera and took a few shots - was a bit too dark!

Looks like he's lost a bit off the end of his tail

Where to next? Holidays - whayheyyyy but we have family duties so might not bet out as much as we'd like - we'll be out sometime somewhere thats deffo!

In the meantime let us know who's putting in a late appearance in your outback.

A bit of blubber at last

The Safari didn't get much on our early morning Patch 2 look apart from the very welcome feeling of warm sun on our ear, just one of them the other, in the shade, was a lot cooler! There was some haze and the flock of Common Scoters were well out on the low tide so no  chance of seeing if anything was mixed in with them.

At lunchtime we were out again and this time it was warm enough not to need our coat zipped up. The tide was now well up but the scoters were still out of range. Better was the Red Throated Diver we was in the middle distance, where have they been we've not seen any for ages apart from the 'tame' one on the nearby marine lake. Even better was the brief view of a Harbour Porpoise that surfaced a hundred yards or so in front of it. We had one more brief view before it disappeared - excellent stuff.

Wandering down the corridor to the printer mid-afternoon something blue caught our eye, we're sure it wasn't there yesterday. A small Borage plant in full bloom  - bring on the bees!

After work we didn't want to waste the glorious sunshine so we headed to the nature reserve to have a shuffy at what the lads have been up to, Rumor had it they'd started on the Sand Martin nesting bank - and they had; almost up to the height where the holes start going in, need a metre above water level to prevent access from predators like Mink, Stoats and such like.

Looking good, there's still some vegetation to scrape off the top of plateau to encourage the local Lapwings and Oystercatchers and maybe a Little Ringed Plover or two, OK now we're just getting carried away.

A Chiffchaff (MMLNR #74) sang from the bushes to our left as did a Cetti's Warbler while a nice male Reed Bunting graced the reeds to our right.

From our limited vantage point we couldn't see much on the water apart from Coots, three Gadwall, three Teal a few Cormorants on the old bund and four Lapwings there too.

All good stuff.
Where to next? What will Patch 2 produce tomorrow?
In the meantime let us know who put in the briefest of appearances in your outback.

Tick n run isn't good but has to be done

The Safari was back on Patch 2 this morning a little later than anticipated but at least we got out when for a while it was looking like we wouldn't be able to. For some reason we went a slightly different way past the Mirror Ball and that took us to the 'wrong' place to watch from. Fortuitously before we realised (we must have been in some sort of daze this morning) we were in the wrong location we spotted a Sea Slater on the top of the wall. Our first of the year, a big un too!

It was when we got our phone out to take the pics that we realised we were stooped more than we normally are and looking around saw we were one chunk of wall to the left of where we thought we were - duhhhh. Relocating to the 'proper place' we put the scope on the wall and our eye to it without having to bend and saw...naff all! Well slightly more than that a few Common Scoters in the chop and a pair of Eiders flying towards the estuary and that was the lot.

Our lunchtime look was even briefer and even less exciting.

At five to going home time we got a txt from the nature reserve telling us there was a female Common Scoter there. We seen a small number there over the years and the prognosis is often not good, they're either ill or oiled. We arrived in great light and found it immediately in exceptional light, what a shame we didn't have the proper camera with us. Common Scoter (MMLNR #73) on the Patchwork Challenge list - happy days , hope it stays for others to catch up with it before it moves on fit as a flea. There was also a Chiffchaff reported but we didn't have time to hang around cos we had a delivery later in the afternoon, if we'd have stayed it would have come even earlier than it did!

On the way out there were no builders' vans outside the new visitor centre and we saw all the thatching had been finished and was looking rather smart. The reed wasn't cut from the reserve but has come from elsewhere in the country.

Isn't it great when nature throws you surprises!
Where to next? Will Patch 2 produce tomorrow, let's hope so.
In the meantime let us know who turned up unexpectedly in your outback.

Wow - it's nearly finished

The Safari wasn't able to add anything to the list today. The beach was very quiet at low tide early morning. It was misty out to sea but fortunately the roughly 1000 Common Scoters weren't too far behind the light surf. The offshore wind had calmed the sea enough to be able to have a reasonable look through them - sadly we couldn't find anything other than Common Scoters.

There was no chance of a look at lunchtime but we had to go to the nature reserve to collect some tools for a bit of a project of Sunday. We've not been for a while and were keen to be shown around by the team. There's been an impressive amount of work since last time both from the volunteer groups and my have they been busy, and the heavy machinery. It looks a bit devastated but the machinery will be off site in a couple of weeks and the recovery of the vegetation will begin.

The 'Paddock' has been mown and is just waiting for a Wheatear to drop in - so much so we've offered a Mars Bar to the first person to find one there...what a prize! AH has offered a huge chink of choccy cake if any finds a Ring Ouzel, now that's what we call a prize!

Looking east

Looking west

A channel has been cleared along the edge of the reedbed and there's a few perpendicular cuts to be out in next week to create more reed edge/open water marginal habitat to allow fish in and through the reedbed and the former one in front of the green hide will be reopened.

Come the autumn the channel will be almost indiscernible as reeds will have re-grown but not as densely as the original reedbed, just right for a Bittern or two to fish for Eels. A couple of Mallards and a Moorhen were rooting around the floating bits of rhizome and three Cetti's Warblers blasted out bursts of song at each other along the length you can see here.

From the 'Paddock' we wandered up onto the new raised mound for the 'Panoramic' Hide (it probably won't be called that when it arrives later in the spring) - the view is impressive and nothing like you've seen on the reserve before.

From there we traversed the rather impressive ruts the dumper has left to get to the island. It looks bad but there'll be plenty of material available to blade them over so you'll not know they were ever there by the end of the summer.

The island works have really cracked on and the scrape is getting down to final level and up to final expanse - yikes it's big! Once the last bits of vegetation are scraped away the view across it from the Fylde Bird Club hide should be pretty darned good.

In the foreground and to the left and right there are shallow bendy channels and a few pools all linking up in a maze of waterways still to be dug. Between the dumper and digger there's a bit of a pond. It doesn't look that big out in the field but is probably about twice the size of the entire garden here at Base Camp.

The vegetation on the top of the plateau (up the muddy slope) will be scraped off and the ground smoothed out with the odd shallow depression just to add a bit of variation of niches in the micro-habitat, hopefully some species of waders like Oystercatchers and Lapwings might be tempted to nest up there.

A quick chat with the lads doing the work about the Sand Martin nesting bank work on which will start once the digging works are finished, finished our visit nicely.

We didn't see much wildlife although to be honest we weren't looking too hard but we did see a Goldcrest in the scrub area where the volunteers have been hard at work and another along the main path near the works compound. When we were at the Sand Martin bank three Oystercatchers flew over calling loudly, they are just eyeing it up waiting for the diggers to get out of the way.

It's going to be an interesting spring and summer.

Where to next? Dare we get out early and look in the Paddock for that Wheatear and win the Mars Bar?

In the meantime let us know who's waiting to land on the cut grass in your outback.

A change of plan so no twitching today

The Safari was hoping to have a wet day out watching a Waxwing in Wigan, well just outside Wigan actually, but a late change of heart about taking Frank so far we decided to stay local and do a 'Guide in the hide' session at the nature reserve.

The first thing we saw once we were ensconced in the hide was the amount of digging that has been done this week. You can just about make out the much enlarged scrape area just in front and to the left of the machines, it goes well right of them too. Not sure if that's the finished level, we expect not and it's got another couple or three inches to come off yet as it looks to be slightly higher than today's water level which is quite high after recent rain.

A count of the Coot gave us 96 from our restricted vantage point. A commotion drew our attention to the Mute Swans. Near where we parked the Land Rover there were a lot of immature Mute Swan feathers indicating a tragedy may well have occurred. The adults were giving an immature some serious grief chasing it up and down, the male being extremely aggressive. The youngster is probably one of their brood from last year and it's time to leave and find its own way in the world - Pops is setting up his territory for this year so it's leave or face the consequences which may be dire!

Wasn't quiet ready for the action kicking off so quickly and snatched the shots - sorry

There wasn't much action on the water, a few gulls and a handful of Teal in the reedy channel to our left sheltering from the heavy squally showers. A Moorhen poked around near them and a Water Rail darted across the gap.

All of a sudden a load of gulls came in and more Teal flew around and a skein of geese lifted off the fields to the north west. The culprit was the local Air Ambulance coming in to land at the Hospital. The geese were the feral flock of Barnacle Geese from the zoo so we can't add them to our Patchwork Challenge list. We got a few distant shots off but were lucky they turned our way and almost came overhead before returning to their original field.

The gulls didn't give us anything exciting except a brief fly-past of the wintering Iceland Gull and very few photo ops until a young Great Black Back Backed Gull dropped in, look how big it is compared to the Herring Gull.

The Teal started getting a bit fruity displaying and calling for fun, one of them went the whole hog...

...but will they nest here in the new creeks and pools that are about to be dug?

A Great Crested Grebe appeared from nowhere coming in to hide in the reeds with a bunch of Coots. Seven Tufted Ducks and a male Pochard also appeared, two then another four Gadwall came out of the reeds and flew to the far end of the mere.

One of the male Teal came a lot closer, nice birds! 

Dreadful weather today with driving hail and later snow had us leaving and heading back to Base Camp after only three hours.

Always something to see whatever the weather and wherever you are provided you stick it out a bit.
Where to next? Back to a wild, wet and windy Patch 2 tomorrow.
In the meantime let us know who's getting into the swing of spring in your outback

The signs of spring are everywhere

The Safari has been noticing a large increase in the signs of spring these last few days staring in the garden at Base Camp where the Clematis is shooting nicely and the Crocuses are adding a bright splash of color

Around town on the verges the Crocuses we planted 15 or more years ago as some of the million bulbs we planted for the Millennium are showing a riot of colour now, the Daffodils will be out shortly.

Outside the front door at work there is a mystery plant, it's got us really stumped but will probably be IDd as something really obvious - answers on a digital post card please.

Looks a bit Lesser Celandine-y but not quite

Yesterday afternoon we were invited to a site visit and project update at the nature reserve. We arrived a bit early and were able to have a look at the other engineering work being done at the spillway by the Environment Agency - it's coming along nicely; the new 'river' is taking shape.

Rule 1 don't shoot into low sunshine with a dirty lens - hope you can see the works. The old spillway to the right is still flowing but will be collapsed/demolished in due course

Going through the gate one of the Hawthorns in the hedge is well advanced and many others have plenty of green showing through opening buds

We were shown some of the habitat work the volunteers had done earlier in the week - wow - impressive, the Whitethroats and Willow Warblers are going to love it when they arrive in April, they could even risk losing a few more of the shrubs where they are growing close together.

We had to have a sneaky peek at the Long Eared Owl too, and there it was on its usual perch, looked like it had hardly moved a muscle since the last time we saw it.

Time for the first look at the works where the new 'panoramic' hide is going. The circled area is the start of the raised mound it will sit on. It's got a way to go yet at full height it'll be well above the top of the reeds. The dashed line is the route of the path which will lead to it up a graded slope.

It used to look like this

There's a huge patch of mud to the right which has covered the original vegetation but thankfully there wasn't anything of real note there. It'll be interesting to see what comes up, other than Phragmites (Common Reed) and Phalaris (Reed Canary Grass) that is.

There were Cetti's Warblers singing all around us, the works certainly haven't put them off! Song Thrushes too where very noticeable, they seem to be well on the way to recovery after the national population crash in recent years.

A look through the fence at the island works showed them to coming along nicely, provided the rain keeps away.

The walk back - it's still not possible to complete thee circuit and wont be for a few weeks yet - gave us cracking views of a Barn Owl (MMLNR #71) flying out to hunt. A good end to a good visit. We're going to get a group together to build a superb replacement for the box on the island next winter ready for the 2016 breeding season, Swallows might be beneficiaries too.

No news today we've been to busy in the office to get out other than quick looks at Patch 2 where nothing special was on offer. We had hoped fro another site visit to check out our 'Grass Snake' site for a volunteer work party next weekend but got waylaid by the computer, we'll do it on Monday.

Where to next? It's the weekend, a safari is deffo on the cards and we have a bit of a target to aim at  if we can get there.

In the meantime let us know who hasn't moved a muscle since last week in your outback

A dart round to the mud-fest

The Safari had a quick look at the engineering works at the nature reserve this afternoon. Since we were last on site the Visitor Centre is coming on leaps and bounds and looking from the Fylde Bird Club hide there was a goodly dollop of mud to be seen.

It's starting to look quite different out there. We walked quickly round noting the carnage along the pathway, it looks really bad now but once they've finished and bladed it back you'll hardly know they've been by the end of the summer...and who knows next year that patch could be full of Bee Orchids.

We stopped to see if any of the Long Eared Owls were in view - one was, and very much in view it was. We only had our bins and phone with us - actually we did have our camera with us but its SD card was still in the slot in the puter back at Base Camp - dohhh schoolboy error!

We had to improvise with a bit of digi-binning.

A chat with one of the drivers had us worried about the weather, they really need it to stay dry so they can crack on a pace. Rainy days, he told us, really holds them up as the dumper truck gets bogged down and can only go slow in the mud. They've also found more soft earth and less clay than expected, they need hard clay to build the mound to place the new panoramic hide on.

The flat bit beyond the fence isn't the finished level.

Hope they can reach that Willow in the reeds to the right of the big mound of earth.

There's a Buzzard in the picture. The lads tell me it sits up there waiting for the machine to unearth worms or grubs n stuff.

Coming back to the Land Rover we spotted another huge pile of earth that wasn't there last week.

Beginning to look something like - just hope it doesn't rain this week. As we left the lad we were speaking to was out on the island with some marker paint spraying up some levels.

Where to next? Something marshy this weekend for the very hide tides.
In the meantime let us know who's been making all the holes in your outback.