The dreaded slurp of suction

The safari was very kindly taken up to our favourite reserve in south Cumbria where we teamed up with IH again. After a quick look at the Ospreys on the nest, word on the street was that the youngster was on the cusp of leaving to go on its adventure across the big wide world, we started to head for the trail across the moos butc were sidetracked by the sight of a lone Red Deer in the field along the valley. four excessively loud fighter jets out on a high speed jolly made her look up from her grazing.

She soon went back to grazing and then ambled up the  hill a little ways where, despite the distance, heard and was more alarmed by  our camera shutters' clicking than she was by the horrendously loud planes.

Down at the gate to the moss a couple of National Park Rangers were replacing the gate, digging holes for the gate posts - this disturbance didn't bode well for seeing any snakes nearby. Once through the gate we saw that they'd already resurfaced the boggy footpath, removed the rotting boardwalk and replaced the old bridge over the stream. On a pile of ex-boardwalk timbers we found our first Common Lizard of the day, maybe there would be some snakes out after all.

And there was, the usual female Adder was basking on her usual mossy rock near the bridge but today was a camera-shy and slunk into one of her boltholes before we could lift our cameras. 

Across the bridge was a very welcome sight, the very narrow crumbling boardwalk had been replaced by a much wider and more solid indestructable recycled plastic one winding its way through the woods over the boggy ground - why didn't we take a pic??? The woods, as expected at this time of year were quite with just the odd 'hweet' of Willow Warblers and/or Chiffchaffs. Some insects to have a look at wouldn't have gone amiss but there just weren't any. Rounding a bend on the board walk we saw that it came to an abrupt end right before the wettest part off the footpath - nightmare - - we were later to find out from the Rangers that they'd run out of money to go any further - double nightmare. What followed can only be described as a comedy of errors by three grown men acting like schoolboys on a summer holiday adventure. Any thoughts of looking for/watching wildlife were gone when we heard that ominous squelching sound that signals a wellington boot becoming firmly stuck in the mud and you're about walk out of it putting your now unprotected foot into deeper cold slimy goo. The next thirty yards or so to slightly drier ground took not an inconsiderable amount of time and plenty of teetering on the brink of extinction but we got there without losing a welly and only a (fortunately) minor wet boots/dirty knees incident...it could all have been a lot lot worse!

Back on terra-firma we started looking for Adders in the undergrowth again to no avail but the older large wooden boardwalk randomly positioned in the middle of nowhere soon ran out and we were back on (or should that be in) the bog. The log piles didn't give us any Longhorn Beetles or basking Common Lizards but the very wet ground was full of the marvelous little predatory Round Leaved Sundew plants with their sticky blobs of glue ready to trap any unsuspecting insect - they might be going hungry this summer! We'd love to show you a nice close up pic but we didn't even contemplate getting down on all fours on that sodden ground for you. 

An Osprey passed by and a Tree Pipit with a beakful of food for its nestlings was perched on the wires that cross the moss. But where were all the dragonflies along the ditch and over the pools? We only saw a couple of distant either 4-Spotted Chasers or Broad bodied Chasers and a very brief view of what was probably a Black Darter. The path across the moss wasn't as bad as we'd just endured through the woods but we did need to carefully watch where we put our feet in places, one wrong move here and you'd disappear into the peat not to be seen again until some future archaelogist finds you with their trowel. At the bridge we saw no Banded Demoiselles in the stream, not even and more 'normal' damselflies. beyond the bridge the vegetation was shall we say dense. The first obstacle only  five yards on was a leaning tree to limbo dance under, followed by a stretch of tall reeds and Bracken where a machete would have been useful, at least it was drier underfoot. The path opens out onto a higher drier area overlooking a large swathe of Bilberries with woods on the far side. It's always worth scanning the edge of this woodland for Red Deer and today was no exception, with a good sized herd of hinds with a few young bucks with their new velvet covered antlers and some young fawns too.

 

Carrying on to the stream there was little to peek our interest until we heard a Reed Bunting singing but couldn't see it through all the leaves. The boardwalk along the stream was like an assualt course with several storm blown trees and bushes to negotiate a way round, under or through without stepping off the boardwalk and into the mire. At the path junction we hit new territory following another recently replaced section of boardwalk - we've never dared go that way before but with a new path the chance of falling through or off was minimised. We followed it to its conclusion at Rusland Beck where the path rose to higher ground. not a lot was seen but it was an adventure to visit an unknown area. Retracing our steps we hit the rickety old boardwalk for the circular route back to the bridge not knowing if it was going to collapse under our weight at any moment, there's some very dodgy planks down that way. Again not a lot about, not even many Horse Flies - after the previous day's rain we were expecting to be eaten alive by the pesky horrors so we're not sure if not seeing many of them was a good thing or a bad thing. The best thing about them is their scientific name which translates as Blood Drinker of the Rains, very appropriate! Another brief glimpse of a Black Darter and a small handful of Green Veined White butterflies completed the invertebrate list while the bird list got stuck on one Buzzard and cronking Ravens. After more limbo dancing under fallen trees and successfully negaotiating all the muddy shenanigans we made it back  to the bridge, across the mosswhere hawkeyed IH spotted a cold Large Skipper huddled in the grass, not that often you see the underside of their wings.

Even the stretch through the very boggy woods was completed with (almost) consumate ease - maybe because we were already wet and dirty. Better still the Adder was out and although facing away gave some photo opportunities.

Time for lunch so up to the  viewing terrace we went passing a huge Black Slug on the way. before you shout "that's not black you dipstick" it's the fairly common orange form.

At the viewing area the big Buddleia bushes were almost devoid of life apart from our first Small Tortoiseshell butterfly of the year, yes you read that right - our first of the year for this (should be) very common species! A Red Admiral was also about and a handful of bumble bees and hoverflies, it should have been buzzing with life, the cold wet spring has really had a bad effect on the insects.

CR's pie crumbs enticed a Bank Vole out from the dry stone wall but it was too quick for the camera, good to see though. 

After demolishing an mountain of butties we went to put our bags back in the car and saw the tail end of the tail of a Grass Snake disappear over the wall on the way to the car park. 

The 'Hill of Doom' should probably be tackled on arrival not straight after a hefty lunch but once at the vrest you're rewarded with a nice easy downhill walk all the way to the tarn at by the reserve entrance so can take your time. A brown butterfly flitting past was initially called out as a Meadow Brown but when it settled as closer look revealed it to be a Ringlet.

We got good views of another one a little further down the lane.

As well as a couple or three 'proper' Meadow Browns too. Down at the tarn which was looking lovely there were NO dragonflies on the wing whcih was a disappointing surprise.

It took a few minutes to find any damselflies too. A few Emerald Damselfies were discovered in the surrounding vegetation. However IH did find a juvenile Pied Flycatcher and there was a family party of Goldcrests, a Chiffchaff and a Garden Warbler which we need for our Challenge but couldn't get the  camera on as it flitted through the densest part of a Silver Birch tree's foliage.

As were a few Azure Damselflies.

It was a warm humid day with some sunshine so the tarn really should have been hooching with dragons and damsels instead we struggled to find many at all. Ther ewas some insect life about, flitting around the bankside were a pale micro moth we think is Celypha lacunana but could well be wrong

and the very pretty Brown China Mark.

In the water we could see a lot of Backswimming Waterboatman clinging to the underside of the surface tension and a few small water beetles darting about but for the most part the water suface was covered with White Water Lilies and Potomogeton sp leaves making open water to view into a scarce commodity. We did catch sight of an Emerald Damselfly over the water and when it settled on a bit of reed poking out of the water we fired a few shots off, when we downloaded the photos back at Base Camp we realised we'd focused on its reflection rather than the insect itself...a 'should have gone to Specsavers' error making for an 'arty' shot!

With time passing we made our way back up the lane and now there were some more butterflies on the wing with several Green Veined Whites seen

More Ringlets including this one that showed its underside over head height in some overhanging Bracken growing up a steep bank making reaching for a pic tricky, it was partially obscured when being blown about by the breeze too - well that's our excuse for the blurry pic.

More Meadow Browns were on the wing and CR found our first Gatekeeper of the year. A female Scorpion Fly was another good find by CR.

At the warden's cottage a Grass Snake, probably the same one who's tail we'd seen earlier, slithered along the bottom of the garden wall but most of it had vanished before we managed to lift the camera. We had another look for the Adder too but it wasn't for showing itself this time

In the Adder 'zone' we had a Common Lizard taking advantage of the warmth absorbed by the plastic wood.

and a Ground Beetle Carabus arvensis doing the same.

After another brief view of the whole of the Grass Snake, and its a whopper must be well over three feet long, on the mossy wall which again we failed to get a pic of and then we had a bit of a wait for it to reappear, its head did out of a small hole in the wall after a few minutes but nothing more than that, IH decided to up sticks and head off to another site on the hunt for the rare Dark Red Helleborine orchids leaving us and CR to have a last look for the Adder and along the new dry bit of boardwalk before hitting the road. No Adder again but we did get several Common Lizards basking on the dragged out remains of the old boardwalk.

And that ended an odd day out on safari, a disappointing and worrying lack of insects but any day with double snakes has got to be a good day!

Where to next? We might take you back in time a week and blog up a safari we haven't told you about yet

In the meantime let us know if you're having insect woes in your outback too.

Finally some very welcome sunshine

The Safari has been waiting for the promise of some sunshine for weeks and at last the weather forecast looked promising. We joined CR for a drive up the motorway to our favourite little reserve where we met IH. Drops of rain at the start of our journey had disappeared by the time we arrived and the sun was trying  to get out from behind the clouds. Time to look for some things with scales...and not before time! 

Up in the eaves of the warden's house House Martins investigated their old nests from last year but didn't hang around for any pics. We checked the walled areas of the gardens for Grass Snakes and Slow Worms without success nor were there any Bee Flies hovering around the Primroses. Maybe the sun needed to climb a little higher and come out from the clouds a little longer as it was still quite cool. In the little bit of scratty woodland beneath the empty Osprey nest we found lone Red Deer. Through the gate into the reserve 'proper' there were no Adders to be found on the remains of the old wall either. We passed slowly through the wet (very very wet) Silver Birch dominated woodland checking the base of the trees and edges of the boardwalk for Common Lizards - again no joy. But we did hear the song of a Pied Flycatcher and following flits of movement through the trees soon got half a glimpse of the little fellow. A nice one for our Challenge, #137

He wasn't for showing himself at all. From the end of the boardwalk we battled bravely through yards of  thick, gooey, welly-sucking mud to where the wood ends and drier ground with another boardwalk begins. Here we heard a Redstart sing and then witnessed a couple of male Redstarts were having a ding-dong of an aerial dogfight - a veritable blaze of red hanging in the air! We've never seen that before, and then spotted why all the fighting a female was perched not far away. #138

It wasn't long before one of the males reappeared, chosing to sit on a rather unphotogenic gate and fence rather than perch on some more attractive foliage.

For some reason best known to themselves both our cameras seemed to have trouble focusing on it...it might not have been all the cameras' fault, the operator can be a bit flaky at times. 

We expected the track across the moss to be a lot wetter than it was and soon came across a Tree Pipit which, like the Pied Flycatcher, wasn't wanting to show itself to best advantage. #139

A bit further on we looked back across the moss to the Osprey nest but there were no birds sat on it.The sun was doing its best to come out and in the brief moments it did it was much warmer and butterflies began to appear, we had a couple of Peacocks and a Small Tortoiseshell in fairly quick succession. only the first Peacock settled for a pic though.

Crossing the bridge, where the stream was much lower than expected, the large patch of Bilberry hadn't begun to come into leaf so our chance of a hoped for Green Hairstreak butterfly was slim to remote. There were no Red Deer faces peering out of the woods beyond the Bilberry patch today. We did see a couple of Crossbills disappearing into the distance from the next patch of woodland after picking them up on call but sadly we couldn't find any others still feeding in the cone laden conifer trees where they'd flown from.

Soundtrack of the day once again was Willow Warblers and as usual they were invariable singing from the back side of the trees and bushes. We waited ages and passed how many 'hundreds' before we found one on the right side of the tree and even then it was partially obscured. See them or not it's still a great sound to listen to when the spring woodland is full of them.

Given our squelching, slipping and sliding along the non-boardwalked sections of this path it was inevitable that we'd come to a sticky end. This is a circular route back to the bridge the final stretch of which runs alongside the stream...it was inaccessible today the last few yards before the stream being far too muddy to contemplate trying to cross unless you were wearing chest waders - which we weren't. Here's a couple of habitat shots of the tangled and mossy wet Willow woodland, you wouldn't want to go off-piste into there, you'd never be seen again until your peat-preserved body was dug up some thousands of years into the future.

Nothing for it but to retrace our steps. Still no Common Lizards and no futher sign of the Crossbills and no Raft Spiders but we did see a trio of cronking Ravens and a somewhat out of place Little Egret land in field of sheep. We had more but not better views of Tree Pipits while crossing the moss and a far to brief for a pic Lesser Redpoll landed briefly on the electricity wires crossing the site. Back in the Birch woodland we soon came across the Pied Flycatcher again and this time it was more obliging but still a litttle distant.

The tumble-down wall wasn't for giving up its Adders again as thoughts turned towards pies and butties. A Mistle Thrush landed not too far behind the wall and for a moment thoughts of lunch disappeared.

While scanning the wall we happened across our first Large Red Damselflies of the year, first a teneral (recently emerged) individual then a fully coloured up one.

And then a Dung Beetle crossed our path - would we ever get to our pies???

Fortunately we did make it back to the cars and our lunches. The sun came out while we were tucking into our goodies and we enjoyed sightings of Brimstone and Orange Tip butterflies and then heard the unmistakeable high pitched yickering of Ospreys calling. We grabbed the camera and pointed it at the nest where one bird was hunkered down not showing very well but then the male flew in and landed on the nest. #140. The sun was strong now and there was a serious heat haze going on so the pic isn't that good.

Not that we mind strong sunshine - it means the snakes come out to bask so as soon as we'd eaen it was back to the wall where....there were no snakes...b*gger! In fact the most exciting thing we found was a Banded Snail that had stashed itself among the delicate Bracket Fungi of a rotting stump.

Our route after lunch took us up the 'hill of death' but today wasn't too bad and we weren't huffing and puffing like an old steam engine by the time we got to the top. We discovered a new pond had been dug which will require much inspection later in the year, the older new ponds would have been inaccessible due to feet thick gloopy mud in the valley today so we gave them a miss. We'd brought a pot to see if we could nab one ofthe Nomad Bees that like this stretch of the road but didn't see any. Seeing them is one thing,catching one would have been something else entirely. Why were we after catching one? Well, we've seen them many times over the years but have yet to identify them, we don't know if anyone else has tried to identify them either. 

Passing the tarn the Little Grebes were calling, there's always a Little Grebe or two, or three, on there. Down at the entrance pond we looked in vain for tadpoles - how come there weren't any, there's always loads at this time of year, surely with all the cold wet weather they can't have metamorphosed and left the pond already? IH spotted the only newt of the afternoon, probably a Palmate Newt given the site. Then he found another Pied Flycatcher, like the first it wasn't for showing itself.

We went to have a look at 'Great Crested Newt corner' and obviouslty saw none, we didn't see any other water life either, no water boatmen or other swimmy things just a few Whirlygig Beetles buzzing around on the surface, we guess the water must still be very cold. Then CR beckoned us to join him on the other side of the pond, he'd got much better views of the Pied Flycatcher...at last!

And it alllowed a stealthy closer approach...bonus!

Also in the woods around the pond was a Blue Tit with a beakful of nesting material. It hung around a while perhaps waiting for us to get out of the way before delivering it to a nearby nestbox.

A bright male Orange Tip wouldn't do us the courtesy of landing on a Bluebell but shot straight past and promptly vanished. 

Around the reserve IH had noticed that the winter storms had smashed up a lot of the trees, the Silver Birch being especially badly hit, much more so than any of the other tree species. Large numbers had high broken branches like these.

On the walk back yet another Willow Warbler gave us the runaround and while we were trying to get on it IH found a tiny Crab Spider on the top of a gate. Top banana eyesight that lad has.

We've no idea what species it might be, one for our good mate and expert in all things spidery AB. 

Unfurling Bracken fronds are always worth getting down to eye-level with - do ferns have eyes?

Cambrian Poppies were in flower along the roadside too.

Time was now getting short but with the sun out for a while and warmth in the air we just had to have another look for the Adders. Through the gate we went, ignoring the snail secreted among its fungi friends, and for some reason we looked to the right rather than scanning the wall to our left. Oh joy of joys there was an Adder, no there were two. We hastened the others to come for a look.

Two Adders - fantastico - - but wait - - - look closely, there's two heads down there at the bottom of the pic. Three Adders even better than fantastico. And they even started to move about a bit as we got as close as we dared without disturbing them.

The sun kept going behind a cloud and this made them flatten themselves down to get the maximum warmth when it came back out. The two males might have been tempted to do their dance had it been just a bit warmer. The female was more or less stationary all the while.

With such a superb opportunity we just kept firing shots off.

At no time were they upset by our (fairly) close presence although we're sure they knew we were there.

To break the snake monopoly a Longhorn Beetle landed on IH's lens. Rhagium mordax to give it its full name.

A fabulous wee beasty. anyway enough of that back to the Adders.

What a brilliant experience, well worth that last look.

And to finish we had a couple of really bright Large Red Damselflies on the wall by the car park before we had to leave.

Where to next? Maybe something a bit different to report on, if we can remember to take some pics.

In the meantime let us know who's slipping and sliding round your outback.