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Across the bridge was a very welcome sight, the very narrow crumbling boardwalk had been replaced by a much wider and more solid indestructable recycled plastic one winding its way through the woods over the boggy ground - why didn't we take a pic???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.

It's a frustrating hobby with no swarm of migrants

The Safari heard a familiar bird calling at work the other day and thought nothing of it...but some thing in the back of our mind needled us into checking our records and there was indeed an enormous gap in the list. Jackdaw (P2 #66), but had we heard it earlier in the year and forgotten to add it to the spreadsheet or was this truly the first record?

At the close of play we had a quick errand to run up to the nature reserve and was able to have a few minutes in the FBC hide with MJ and AH. Not much was happening but we learned we'd missed a Mediterranean Gull. In the cut area of reeds in front of the hide the usual not-so-shy Mallards were joined by a couple of normally ever-so-shy Shovelers.

We planned on a very early start to do some vis migging with the overnight weather forecast looking very promising. Then in the middle of the night we were woken by torrential rain -squinting at the alarm clock it was only 2am, that was too early for rain and was going to put the dampeners on everything, it lasted about an hour. Now had it been 5am when an hour's rain started a nice selection of birds might have been dropped, we weren't hopeful.

Pulling in to the car park and turning off the headlights all was quiet barely a Robin ticked - not a good sign!

Walking up to the reserve nothing stirred and nothing went over, our fears seemed to have come true. As we approached the reserve gate we saw a huge swarm of Starlings lift over the scrub and in the gloom at the far end there were more heading out over the fields, we estimated a total of in excess of 500 but could have arrived too late to others already gone from their roost.

Still all was still, there wasn't so much as a breath of wind to waft the rain damaged cobwebs on the Gorse bushes. Did the spiders get the weather forecast wrong too?

The sun rose to reveal the first tints of  autumn on the Poplar trees and overhead we head the first of what we hoped would be many Meadow Pipits, wrong! We only heard one more call in the three hours we were there.

The cool morning air hung heavy with the scents of, depending where you're stood, mild Starling droppings (this'll get stronger as the roost increases!), cidery windfall Apples and manure from the mountain ready for spreading in the field.

At least the Cetti's Warblers were vocal, we heard seven. Half a dozen Reed Buntings flitted out of the reeds and half a dozen Reed Warblers flitted through the reeds, their invisible progress being marked by the raindrops being shaken off the reed tops. Chiffchaffs sang and others moved through the scrub either alone or with Blackcaps or Long Tailed Tits, in the end we had at least 10!

A movement at the back of the Channel Scrape next to a juvenile Moorhen had us peering into the poor morning shadows, a small bird had just run into the reeds and popped it's head out briefly, probably a Water Rail but it does look very good for a Spotted Crake on there. Tantalising glimpses followed over tthe next 20 minutes including a very buttery undertail but we couldn't get anything conclusive until it came right out in front of the reeds on the mud and was after all that 'just' a Water Rail. Meanwhile two others were calling from deep in the reeds some way to our left and right.

Overhead migration was in full swing - NOT - with singles of Pied and Grey Wagtails going south. Three Great Spotted Woodpeckers seemed to come from the north but could have been local birds moving around looking for breakfast. More interesting was the only Blue Tit of the morning which dropped into the reedbed in the south east corner from on high, it hadn't come from the nearby tall trees as it came over our head from the north an dropped in to the reeds rather than the trees.

A light shower brought down about 30 twittering House Martins which left as soon as the drizzle passed. The fields to the east have been harvested and the golden stubble held a veritable swarm of at least half a dozen more than plenty Woodpigeons and Feral Pigeons.

The temperature rose with the sun and out came a few Speckled Woods to bask, getting ready for a hard day's nectaring.

After three hours of not a great lot we left but maybe we should have worked it harder and perhaps had a look in the trees along the south side as a Spotted Flycatcher was found later not too far away. Anyway we headed off down the motorway for a look at a reserve we don't visit often enough these days.

By now the morning was well underway and it turning into a very nice and warm late summer's day. Our first port of call was the little picnic area on the hill overlooking the visitor centre. From there there's a good view down one of the lakes and across the tree tops now hiding the other large lake. Scanning the first lake we saw something we'd not seen before, how long is it since we were last here? An Osprey nesting tower - now that's something our nature reserve could do with too. Would a good splash of Dulux's best white emulsion paint make it look pre-used? Would that be more or less attractive to prospecting Osprey?

Those Ospreys look like Carrion Crows to us

Stood on the hill we only heard a single Meadow Pipit call, but a Buzzard mewing in the distance was something we never heard when we lived not too far away and visited more frequently. The only swarm of migrants coming from the north was a very noisy flotilla of three military helicopters shattering the peace, even drowning out the motorway noise!

We had a mooch about watching more and more dragonflies take to the wing, a good sign for later we thought. From the impressively windowed new 'Look Out' - not a hide! - we saw the Buzzard circling over the trees at the back but the lake was very quiet, a Heron stood motionless in the shadows for ages, not even the fish were moving. You can't hear anything through the (probably) bullet-proof glass (we guess it's so toughened as the site suffers badly from far too much wanton vandalism) so we went to stand on the higher adjacent site of a former hide that was destroyed by said vandals.

Heading back to Land Rover and butties at lunchtime we came across a Garden Snail that had been trodden on on the path eagerly being slurped up by a large Black Slug.

We took our butties back to the hill top and spotted a blue damselfly on the way, careful stalking got us a pic that showed it to be a Common Blue Damselfly, can't many left on the wing at this time of year

From our lofty position we could see hundreds of dragonflies all over the place, don't think we've ever seen so many. they were close by, low over the grass and shrubs, high above us in the ether and many were in tandem laying eggs in the lake - a long way off!

Female Common Darter

Male Common Darter

Mating Migrant Hawkers

Mating Common Darters

With all this flying protein it was inevitable that our quarry of the day would put in appearance, but ours is a fickle hobby and the hoped for/expected Hobby almost inconceivably failed to turn up and put on an aerobatic master class.

With time now running out the heat of the afternoon required an ice cream from the impressive floating visitor centre. Crossing the raiseable drawbridge and gangway we looked into the crystal clear water and saw a few fish. Small ones at first, a shoal of small Perch.

Then in the deeper water on the lake side of the gang way a larger one.

After our ice cream we saw three even bigger huge ones about a foot long, not seen Perch that big since the 70s and before the disease which wiped out most of the biggest fish.

Best sighting of the day came when we were trying to get pics of the shoal of small ones, a tiny Red Water Mite came bumbling by. Good to see the small things as they are the base of the food chain for the bigger things.

A most enjoyable eight hours in the field but not a swarm of migrants to be seen - where are the Meadow Pipits?

Our overnight mothing session was pitiful with only three Light Brown Apple Moths and four Large Yellow Underwings in the trap after a mild windless night.

Where to next? Chores today but no doubt there'll be something to see.

In the meantime let us know who's moving where, or not as the case may be, in your outback.

Frank's last safari

The Safari was hoping for rather more moths than we got last night. Only seven were in the trap this morning. However, two we new for the year and one was new for the garden!

Light Arches - new for year

Six Striped Rustic - new for garden

After mothing we had a very sad mission to accomplish with Wifey. Last night we got Frank's remains back from the vets and decided to take him somewhere he used to love for his last journey. The upland river was chosen, he spent many happy hours there paddling around and picking up stones from the river bed.

The walk downstream from the car park was quiet with few people about and almost no birdsong at all. There were a number of big Black Slugs crossing the path back to their hiding places after the earlier rain.

A family of Coal Tits were just about the only birds seen as they worked their way through the bankside trees.That was when we spotted the 'froth-berg' floating down the river below them.

 It came to an abrupt halt against a fallen tree.

The water is stained with peat after yesterday's torrential rain but probably worse than it ought to be due to the drainage of the moorland above the river. More of which looks to have happened nearby recently although this area doesn't drain into this catchment but the next one east. Note the comments and sign up to ban driven grouse shooting, the half a million quid of tax payers' money ie ours, that's so far been to given to one of the wealthiest men in the country so he can have paying guests come along and kill lots of Red Grouse for fun. It can't go on!

We walked a bit further to the perfect spot and let the current take Frank's ashes wherever it fancies. 

Down to the water's meet where he watched Kingfishers and listened to a Corn Bunting sing , actually he splashed around in the shallows we did those things. Then on in the bigger river to the estuary where he always found a mud wallow to get muddy in, just how he likes it. 

It wasn't an easy walk back to the car but the river's babbbling alongside us gave us both solace.

On the drive back to Base Camp Wifey saw a Kingfisher fly over the car which we missed, only seeing a fleeting glimpse of something uncoloured disappearing into the distance.

Once we'd had a bit of lunch we headed over to the hospital to see our mate LR who's not been too well recently and got himself ensconced in intensive care for five weeks. Now he's been downgraded to 'high dependency' as looks to be slowly on the mend. We didn't have enough cash for the car park after a nip to the shops to get him some supplies so we had to leave the car in the bjg park. We had a look on the lake at the gulls, no Mediterranean Gulls today. There were plenty of insects around so on the way back we had a longer look at them.

Male Red Tailed Bumble Bee

A Drone Fly

Female Common Blue

So long Frank...and thanks for all the woofs.
Where to next? Big event tomorrow but little chance of much safari-ing.
In the meantime let us know who's flying over cars in your outback.