Cracking on a-pace

The Safari wants to know if anyone spotted the deliberate mistake in our last post? Treecreeper should have been number 87 not 86 again - somehow we missed we'd doubled up.

Since then we've been busy adding several more species to our Photo Year List Challenge. But we'll start with a couple of shots of our local Starling roost. The tide was just dropping when we arrived but the Starlings hadn't arrived yet, by the time the first few flew in the tide had dropped a fair way down the beach.

With the beach being exposed the birds chose to pre-roost on it. Being closer than normal we could just about see what they were doing down there - nothing much just standing around. Also being on the beach left them vulnerable to numpties getting too close mostly deliberately 'to make them fly'.

At least 50000 we totally guestimated, would love to know how many there actually are and if our guess is close or not.

News of a couple of Waxwings not too far up the road on the southern outskirts of Lancaster sent us twitching on a drizzly morning. We arrived on the street and saw two 'Starlings' sat in a low tree just past the row of shops, looking more closely as we drove slowly past gave us Waxwing (PYLC 88) as a top quality 'from the driving seat whilst moving' tick. We stopped a little further down the road and got our kit together and Monty out of the car but as we were doing that a bin wagon arrived and reversed into the driveway right under the tree flushing the birds. It took half an hour for them to be relocated, high in a tree on the opposite side of the small park there.

After a while they gained confidence and returned to their favourite berry tree. Shame the light was so grotty.

Job done we had a drive round the lanes back to Base Camp being thwarted by road closures at every twist and turn so we abandoned the lanes and went straight on to Knott End to have a look at the flock of Twite (PYLC 89).

A trip down to the SouthSide with CR saw us checking out a rather quiet Lunt but it did give us our first Toad of the year.

With nothing much happening we left earlier than anticipated and went down to the coast for an hour or so. It was mad busy being a sunny day and the tide was already too high for any waders to be on the beach. We headed through the dunes finding several Stonechats including a couple of singing males.

 With possibilities exhausted we upped sticks to Mere Sands Wood where it was quiet again but we did find several 7-Spot Ladybirds, a Tree Bee and a Buff Tailed Bumble Bee in the warm afternoon sunshine. The good weather had brought the farmers out on the land but never have we seen so few gulls following tractors, it used to be like a plume of snow behind a plough not just a few dozen.

The good weather continued in the week and we had our first butterflies of the year with this Small Tortoiseshell and later another at Marton Mere, but no decent birds to point the camera at.

The 'supermoon' coincided with high tides in the middle of th day so a safari down to the marshes was order of the day. We had a mooch finding this distant but shy male Kestrel (PYLC 90) which flew off when we tried to creep a little closer.

Retracing our steps back to the embankment we came a cross a pair of Wrens (PYLC 91) scolding a Dunnock that had strayed into their territory...They weren't happy!

The tide came right up to the defences, something you don't see too often but we failed to see the Hen Harrier(s) again. The other target birds were the Water Pipits which we did see but only as awful silhouettes in the atrocious glare. Best of the rest was this Water Rail flushed out of the marsh by the rising water and having to take refuge in a bankside Hawthorn bush in the absence of any other cover. Not a good day to be a vole either asa they were getiing picked off by the Black Headed Gulls as they desperately swam as fast as their tiny legs could take them for dry ground.

Another round Marton Mere this time on a gloomy day was unproductive until we left the reserve and walked round the bridlepath to give Monty an off-lead run and we came across a Goldcrest (PYLC 92). A tricky one to get to grips with as if flitted busily through the twigs and branches of a dense Willow bush.

An impromtu family wander along the prom at Fleetwood had us getting to grips with a Meadow Pipit (PYLC 93) while Wifey spotted three male Stonechats in a little group close to the tower on the way back to the car.

On a post so can't be included in the challenge

On the deck so good to go - sorted

Back at Base Camp in the week we'd watched a Buzzard soaring over CR's place and luckily a different, darker, bird came soaring high over Base Camp the following day. (PYLC 94)

Could do with a better one but it'll do as a placeholder

 Then it was all birding systems go when LCV came up for a few days non-stop birding. We met him at 'the place we don't mention by name' for a couple of hours getting lots of good birds, water fowl, waders and much better views or their Tawny Owls than last time we were here.

The sunshine brought out Brimstone and Red Admiral butterflies, always good to see the former as they are very scarce on our side of the river.

We counted 56 Avocets (PYLC 95) but learned that earlier in the day there'd been twice that many. Had to get a good pic of at range shooting into the harsh afternoon light.

The following day we set of up the motorway in the opposite direction to Leighton Moss in blistering sunshine again. Lots going on there with plenty to keep us occupied but a search for the over-wintering Great Grey Shrike was fruitless yet again.

Snipe

 We'd heard a few pings of Bearded Tits on the way down to Lower Hide but our luck was in when LCV heard more pinging on the way back and a male showed well but briefly, actually there were two when we noted the colour combinations of the rings on their legs.

OK for the challenge, number 96

A better, sharper pic but there's rings so it can't be posted for the challenge

Lots of other good stuff around

Shoveler

Robin

 For our next safari the weather had deteriorated horrendously and we had a wander locally round the lanes of Over Wyre. Bewick's Swans were on the hit list and fluky stop had a family of three being the closest birds to the car (PYLC 97).

The rain came down heavier as we visited more sites racking up LCV's year list with species he rarely sees back home in the Midlands.  At Fleetwood again we came across the Linnets (PYLC 98) that were too disturbed last time out here with Wifey the other day. The light was truly dreadful by now.

And was even worse when LCV picked up a flock of Ringed Plovers landing close by but a way down the beach. A year bird for both of us and number 99 for our challenge. Actually the 100th species we've photographed this year, Grey Wagtail on the edge of our pond being disqualified due to showing 'hand of man' for the challenge.

Our last day out was down to Moore nature reserve near Warrington to see if we could see their Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. We'd not been there long when we heard one calling but could we see it??? We hung around the general area craning our necks at the slightest hint of a flit, we did get an incredibly brief glimpse of what was probably one after we'd seen a flit immediately after a bout of calling but not conclusive unfortunately.

We did get a Willow Tit (PYLC 100)

But is it? Latest info from the reserve's Facebook page suggests both Willow and Marsh Tits are now found on site and when visiting the feeders the Willows take their seeds high and the Marsh's go low...which this one did. They've learnt this from their calls, unfortunately this one didn't call and at the time we didn't realise both could now be seen here. So we're (probably) back to 99...or are we??? Which ever it is it was flippin tricky getting the shot in the dreadful conditions, as you can no doubt tell.

A great week with my boy.

Where to next? Oohh not sure where we'll be off to next week.

In the meantime let us know who's getting confused in your outback.

For more pics from our recent safari's have a look at our Flickr site - link on the right hand panel

And so on to that frustrating fog

The Safari met up with the Community Arts team again on Saturday to do a bit of a history talk followed by a wander round the park to see what we could see. They had all sorts of activities planned too, one of which was 'seed bombing' and we were to look out for a suitable area for their wetland mix of seeds during our walk.

Filling a seed bomb - more like a seed scatterer actually

As with Thursday's event we were on the look out for interestingly shaped and/or patterned trees. We found a large Small Leaved Lime tree we didn't know was in there, it was a giant but the trunk forked too low down to be able to do the measuring the age with a tape measure trick. Hawthorns often have good bark and trunk shapes, these two are right by the children's play area.

Did you spot the litter between the trees? fortunately some of the group were armed with bags and pickers so it was collected along with quite a lot of other rubbish that had been strewn about. Why are we so messy??????

The park was probably laid out in the early 1920s but few of the original trees remain, perhaps the big Lime and a few Sycamores, there were likely to have been Elms but these have long since succumbed to Dutch Elm Disease. From measurements of some of the other trees we'd guess they were about the same age as us being planted in the late 50's or early 60s. More recent planting has taken place too, like this Jubilee Wood from which Jubilee we're not sure and even more recently in the year or so there have been some groups of trees planted under the Woodlands From Waste scheme.

The wooded future of the park looks rosy!

At the wettest point we tore away at the thatch of grasses, bring a rake would have been a good idea, to reveal about a square metre of clear soil on to which the youngest member of our group sprinkled her seed bomb. We all helped press the seeds in by gently trampling the ground and then hoped for rain. Wit ha bit of luck more similar patches would be done in the afternoon to create a nice colourful area buzzing with bees and butterflies later in the year, or probably next year.

The end point of our walk was a half buried lump of 13500 year old Bog Oak which was dug up when the field was tried to be drained. The Arts group had heard about it and as a piece of local history wanted to lift it from its dumped area and display it on a plinth with some interpretation for all to see.

It wasn't buried as badly as we thought, just covered with a good growth of grass which was soon pulled off. It was however a lot longer than we realised.

Never the less with a bit of muscle and teamwork it was soon released from it's grassy grip. As it was lifted off the ground we saw our first Frog of the year.

Turning it over to find out how much it had started to rot on the underside revealed a horde of hibernating Yellow Slugs, Limacus flavus

They weren't too happy about being woken from their slumbers and slithered off to find somewhere else to lay their heads.

After a little pulling and shoving, puffing and panting the Bog Oak was wrested on to a couple of smaller pieces to keep it clear of the ground so it could dry out properly. The local rugby team who play on the field from which it originally came will lift it to its final resting place near their clubhouse. Where it will get a more detailed permanent sign too.

Mission accomplished and all good fun.

On Sunday we set off back over the river in an attempt to mop up some of the species we missed last weekend and went a little further to find some more. We had to stop of the marshland car park again and in the field at the entrance there was a flock of about 100 Pink Footed Geese.

At the very back of the flock we're sure we got a fleeting glimpse of a Barnacle Goose with them, but we waited and waited and waited much to Monty's impatience but it never showed again, if indeed it was ever there in the first place...why are the odd-balls always at the back of the flock when we look???

From there we headed to the northernmost point of our day out, the little estuary with the creeks. Here we had a walk along the old railway-line passing an unseen Goldcrest and a couple of Chaffinches in the hedge, the tide was well out so the river was out of range of our bins and camera.

Moving round to the pool we had cracking close up views of a Curlew and a couple of pairs of Teal.

With not much else on the pool we had a look in the creeks. Here there was a good assortment of birds, Shelducks, Teal, Wigeon, a couple of Black Tailed Godwits (102), a lot of Redshanks but no sign of the hoped for Spotted Redshank. A heavy drizzle was beginning to fall so we moved around the lanes to find some wild swans which we soon did. We'd heard there was a flock of about 400 Whooper Swans in the area with a few Bewick's Swans mixed in but before we found them we came across a much smaller herd of Whooper Swans (103) some distance across a large field. we stopped and pointed the camera out of the window.

It was just as well as a few bends further down the lane we saw the large flock miles away across the fields and without a scope we'd had no chance of looking through them. On we went to the marsh where by now a think mist was settling over the river and snaking its way towards us. We saw a Collared Dove that didn't sit long enough for our Year Bird Challenge and had to drag half a rotting Shelduck from Monty's gullet - yuk!!!

With the river still low there weren't many birds close up to shore and with the wet gloom rapidly approaching we didn't want to stay out too long and get the camera soaked so we fired off a few shots at a group of Black Tailed Godwits. Just another 'banker' really, we should get much better and closer pics of them in full summ plum later in the spring.

The rest of the afternoon was spent driving along lanes through dense fog not seeing much at all apart from the odd suicidal Blackbird darting across the road in front of the car at the very last minute. We expected the Lesser Snow Goose to be where it had been all week but could hardly see the field and only saw one Grey Lag Goose, we later learned it had moved half a mile or so away - cruel, so another trip over the river will be needed.

We decided to give the dipped last week Black Redstart a miss too as we'd arranged to meet GB (not the Aussie one!) for a bit of a walk with Monty who he's not met yet.

On the way we briefly stopped off at the nature reserve that is really just a dogs' toilet in the hope of seeing either or both of the Glaucous Gulls that have been frequenting the adjacent tip, we could barely see the river or the tip so gave up on that one and went to pick up GB.

A few minutes later were were walking to the point along the prom and stopped to look at the sign about the pebbles on the beach. now GB was a geologist and the next half hour was spent on the beach having a good close look at many of the fascinating pebbles there. We were careful to keep Monty away from the roosting 40 or so Ringed Plovers we could just about see about 50 yards away through the murk.

It must have been a low murk as we could hear a couple of Skylarks (104) singing over the golf course behind us. Actually its not year bird 104 as we'd neglected to put one flying over the garden (Garden #16)  on our spreadsheet on 5th of Feb.

With both of us getting hungry we took GB home and set off Base Camp. Once ensconced at the computer downloading our day's pics we spotted we'd got a bonus Bewick's Swan (105, YBC #80)

Where to next? Dunno yet but we do hope the heating engineer comes soon as it's freezing in here with the boiler on the blink - hope it's not terminal it is a bit of an old thing...

In the meantime let us know who's hiding in plain sight in your outback.

Brief sortie south of the river

The Safari had to head over to the Southside this morning. A new pair of wellies for the Land Rover sure made the wallet a good bit lighter and slimmer.

After the boots had been fitted had just enough time for a very brief visit to a well known reserve with a similar name to our own nature reserve and got two year birds in the pouring rain, Bewick's Swan (96) and Ruff (97). Such was the weather that we didn't even bother nipping the couple of hundred yards round the path to the feeders where Tree Sparrows would have been a certainty nor go a hundred yards the other way where another small feeding station has held a Willow Tit recently - maybe we should have done this one...Willow Tit could be tricky to catch up with - impossible on the Fylde - can feel another trip to Moore nature reserve coming up in the early spring,,,but will we successfully avoid the Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers there again? we aren't worried about the Tree Sparrows are still plentiful hereabouts (thankfully).

Where to next? Wouldn't mind somewhere to give the new tyres a test in the sticky stuff but it'll probably be another safari round the nature reserve.

In the meantime let us know what you didn't have time for in your outback.