Our bird photography challenge trundles along nicely

The Safari has been out n about on the look out for more species for our Photo Year List Challenge and we've not done too badly. So far we've had little luck along Chat Alley and out to sea where we walk Monty most mornings, there's always a couple of Pied Wagtails and a few Meadow Pipits kicking about but in the dull conditions and mostly seeing the Pied Wagtails on the pats or sat on the fence we've not been bothered to try to photograph them, not had the camera with us most days due to the dreary grey conditions. A day of sunshine midweek changed that and we did take the camera with us. Bizarrely it wasn't the Pied Wagtails or Meadow Pipits that hit the SD card but a Sparrowhawk that the gulls alerted us to with their raucous alarm calls. It came almost directly overhead flying out to sea. We very seldom see Sparrowhawks along here, in fact we can't remember the last time we did see one - where was it going...and why? Not as good as previous years' PYLC pics but it's on the list at number 51.

Later that morning we met up with GB and went to join the weekly North Blackpool Pond Trail volunteer group - something we should try to do more often. When we arrived we heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming and after several minutes neck craning saw it fly off round the corner and out of sight.

Our project for the day was to remove a couple of fallen trees and make some habitat piles with the cut brash, unfortunately the chain saw was misbehaving and refused to start to we could only remove some of the thinner upper (now lower) branches. All the while the Great Spotted Woodpecker was heard drumming and seen a few times which broke our concentration on the task in hand. Eventually all in the group were able to watch a pair of woodpeckers chasing each other round the tree-tops above our work place. 52 now on our list.

Some of the gardens backing on to the work site had feeders up and there was as constant procession of Blue and Great Tits around us as well as a few Blackbirds and Collared Doves. The new challenge rules about no birds on feeders, wires, TV aerials etc meant Collared Doves might prove a bit tricky but before too long we found one snoozing in a tree.

A little obscured but at least it's not on a feeder/wire/fence, so number 53 it is.

Our next safari was over to Marton Mere on a very dull day. There was nothing much doing and it was so cold we were inclined to keep our hands in our pockets most of the time anyway. We had a quick look for any Otters from Dragonfly Den hide - none and then a quick look for anything of note from the Fylde Bird Club hide - not a lot so we kept moving. Just beyond the bridge we spotted a Buzzard getting some grief from another bird which we assumed to be a Carrion Crow or  Rook but looking properly we saw it was a falcon and then using the bins discovered it was a Peregrine and there wasn't just one Buzzard as it landed in the bushes at the end of the dyke next to a second. We failed to get a pic of the Peregrine doing its mobbing and it soon lost interest once the Buzzard had landed and we can't add the Buzzard pic to our challenge list as the species are supposed to be identifiable not just a few blurry pixels.

By now the gloomy day was drawing to an even gloomier close but the reserve still had a little more to give. The Barn Owl had come to the doorway of its box. Uncountable for the challenge, due to it being in a box, but great to see all the same. We hoped it would come out and give us a fly around but by the time it was far to dark for pics and time to get back to Base Camp it hadn't.

The following day we were back at Marton Mere a little earlier this time and the weather wasn't quite so gloomy. Despite the gloom it has been rather mild for mid-January but we were still a little surprised to find these Blackthorn flowers out so early in the year.

Walking south along the embankment we heard the bugling sound of Whooper Swans to our left, over the fields quite a long way back were two Whooper Swans also heading south. By the time we got round to the Fylde Bird Club hide two swans were in the fields we'd just past but zooming in on them showed them to be two Mute Swans not the Whooper Swans doubling back and landing.

The hide was busy with birders waiting for the Water Rail to show, it apparently had been pretty good at playing 'dodge the cameras' and when it did show all to briefly we understood why - look no pics! 

Then someone called out that the Barn Owl was sitting out at the door of its box, before we could pan the lens that way it took flight. It did a couple of quick circuits of the island before going off over the rough fields and golf course where it was mostly out of view only giving the briefest of views when it appeared between distant trees.

All was not lost however, as within a few minutes it came our way and began to hunt over the rough ground below the embankment.

Did a few more circuits of the island but always going away when it was nearest.

Eventually it did get a bit nearer

and was flying towards us

Great to see and pleased it's on the challenge list, at number 54.

We left the hide and wandered round that way in the hope of getting closer pics, the car was parked over there too, but before we got there the owl had done a bunk over the golf course and was nowhere to be seen by the time we reached the embankment again. A bit disappointing as it was still reasonably light, light enough for us to get a 'different' shot of the Collared Doves at the cottage, could have done with the blue skies of the previous Collared Dove pic but hey-ho at least it's not 'just a sitting still pic' this time.

We had no luck spotting the local Little Owl - we never do - but almost back at the car we spotted this shy Sparrowhawk lurking in the back of the hedge.

The garden at Base Camp has been very poor for birds this year, there's been so much destruction ie tidying up in neighbouring gardens that there is no longer any connecting habitat corridors between us and any other decent habitat. Add to that the people across the road have had all their dense Privet hedges reduced by more than a half so now the cheerful chirruping of the House Sparrows is no more and the sound of silence in the street is deafening. It doesn't take much to locally lose a species and if the other houses with dense hedges decide to do the same this whole small colony of House Sparrows will be gone forever. It desn't take much to cause the local extinction of a species that's already in critical decline!

It was with some surprise that we saw two female Chaffinches lurking around in our Crab Apple tree weighing up the best way to get on to the feeders. They are only the eighth species to visit the garden so far this year and in a normal week we usually get little flocks of Goldfinches regularly coming to the feeders, this year we've seen just one individual once! We seriously fear a big fat zero on this weekend's Big Garden Bird Count.

Chaffinch becomes number 55 on our challenge list - can't believe Barn Owl beat it on to the list!

We've been keeping our eye on the tides and the weather. Yesterday both came together, a dropping tide in the mid-afternoon and sunshine so it was off to the prom to see if we could get a pic of the wintering Purple Sandpiper. We arrived just as the tide was dropping off the bottom of the wall so had to wait a few minutes before being able to get on to the beach. We did spy the Purple Sandpiper already feeding on the low apron of the old boating pool wall as the tide left it.

This part of the wall was still in shade and we hoped the sandpiper would move round to the sunny side before too long so off we went to get there first and wait. But to get their meant a long wait for the tide to drop much further as there is a deep gully that needed to be crossed. but patience paid off , as did the long walk down the beach across the gully at its shallowest point - still half way up our wellies - and back up the beach. The Purple Sandpiper had indeed moved round to feed in the sunshine.

Now we have a dilemma! The seawall is man-made and man made things aren't allowed in the challenge, see above no wires, feeders, TV aerials etc etc so we can't count it. This bird only ever seems to be found on this part of the seawall and getting a flight shot of it flying over the beach would be nigh on impossible as it just hops off its roosting place on top of the wall as soon as the tide uncovers its feeding areas at the base of the wall so do we put it in our challenge album and ask for an adjucication - can you tell the substrate/background is man-made and if not does that make it 'allowable'??? We've been cheeky and bunged it in at number 56 but might have to do some deleting - we'll have to wait and see what the verdict from others in the challenge is.

This morning early doors we enjoyed good views of Venus and Jupiter, unlike the 'Blood Moon' eclipse which we only caught the tail end of through thick freezing fog and then a Fox crossed our path, oh ny was Monty over-excited or what!!!  We made him sit and watch while it went about its business on its way home from a night's foraging, he could barely contain himself. Once it was safely out of sight in the thicket of the Golden Triangle we let him go and have a sniff where it had been, so eager was he that we were very nearly face-planted in the frosted grass.

With the tide being full at lunchtine and a decent day in prospect we'd arranged to pick up CR, GB and JH and have an hour or so down on the marshes at Warton looking for the Hen Harriers that have been seen regularly and look for anything else that might be flushed off the marsh on the rising tide., particularly any Water Pipits, Jack  Snipe or Water Rails. It was a big tide, 10 metres, but without a wind it was only going to fill all the creeks and not cover much of the inner marsh. As it happened it didn't matter as the marsh was annoyingly cloaked in thick freezing fog, only minutes earlier we'd felt the warmth of bright sunshine on our face through the car windscreen. but as we neared the estuary the fog came in. Visibility when we parked up was no more than 50 - 75 yards and didn't get any better for the hour or more that we were there, in fact it got worse from time to time.

That said we could hear birds calling in the murk, Curlew, Redshank, Teal, Mallard, Pink Footed Geese, and occasionally a Skylark but we didn't see any of them until we reached the far end of the track where there was a small pool with a few Teal on it.

Did it matter that we dipped the Hen Harrier and supporting cast, no not really as had we not gone we wouldn't have seen this once in a lifetime display of fog n frost crystals across the marsh... it was simply serene and beautiful, who can complain at that?

Shame we did n't have thee right lens with us to do the ice crystals justice but to be fair we were expecting bigger and more distant things to point our lens at.

One of those bigger and supposedly more distant things were three Black Tailed Godwits that flew out of the cloud and landed at the edge of the pool with the Teal on it less than 40 metres away.  The visibility was so poor we could barely see them with the naked eye but they hot the challenge list at a very 'different' 57.

Straight out of the camera - 125 feet (40m) away, bit of a crop and minimal sharpen but nowt else

Slightly more tarted up

After an hour or so and conditions not improving we decided to call it a day.

Where to next? More North Blackpool Pond Trail woodcutting and woodpecker watching and a trip to the quacks about some high blood pressure - what kind of life do we have that leads to high blood pressure??????? Better safe than dead though.

In the meantime let us know who's lurking in the murk in your outback - and spare a thoughht for other GB down in Aus who's been eduring temperatures up to 45°C this week - not nice for him or his rescued animals.

Hmmm...beards

The Safari was out early this morning. We parked up and headed off to the nature reserve with birdsong filling our ears. Half way along the path we passed a little row of Hawthorns coming into leaf. Looking back the shrubs were bathed in the early morning spring sunshine whereas the other side of the path was still in the dark, cold grip of winter.

Once in the reserve a Song Thrush was singing loudly from the top of a shrub in the scrub and not many minutes later we heard our first singing Chiffchaff of the year. But we were secretly hoping for a Wheatear or some waders on the bottom fields so we walked quickly on. The scrape only gave us ducks, several Teal and a couple of each of Mallard and Gadwall.

A Chaffinch landed in the top of a pathside Willow tree and stopped long enough to allow us to fire of  a few pics.

A big Buff Tailed Bumble Bee was up there too taking advantage of the flower's nectar and/or pollen.

The small Hawthorn bush at the start of the embankment is a favourite place for Reed Buntings to hang out, today was no exception, there were several about vying for the top spot.

Not sure what this one was doing, the open beak isn't singing it was held like that silently for ages as was the spread tail obviously some type of display but that weird open beak???

Down at the bridge we hoped to see the Grey Wagtails or even, yes we were feeling lucky, a Kingfisher but even at this very early hour there'd been some serious doggy disturbance. Undisturbed in the reed-bed was the female Mute Swan sitting quietly on her recently built nest. We're not sure if she's finished building it and if so is it too early for eggs?

We turned back a few yards turned round and scanned the wet areas in the fields seeing very little apart from four Oystercatchers.

Behind us we were sure we heard a 'ping' from a Bearded Tit. We spun round and saw a tawny brown shape scud across the top of the reeds. Then it reappeared coming out and showing well hopping across the top of the reeds stopping here and there and calling all the time.

We then had the most amazing Bearded Tit experience we've ever had, sod the East Bank at Cley, the grit trays at Leighton Moss or the bench at Titchwell, the next ten minutes topped any sightings we've had at any of those awesome reserves.

The bird was very agitated coming close, flying up to 50 feet or more several times, calling all the time then dropping back down and as it seemed coming close to have a look at us. It even flew past us going down the far side of the embankment where the new ponds have been dug.

Awesome!!! Eventually it flew up after a small flock of Meadow Pipits heading northwards and we didn't notice it come back down - did it really go off with the pipits?

We finished the morning with a single Sand Martin (117, MMLNR #82) whipping through without stopping. 

After a brief lunch break Wifey floored us with an offer of taking us back to the nature reserve for a walk round with her - well that's never happened before!!! Being mid-afternoon it was quiet, or at least for us it was quiet, Wifey was racking up the year birds left right and centre. She even met CR for the very first time.

No Bearded Tits this time round and we missed the Iceland Gull by a few minutes but it was very pleasant, we were out about 4 1/2 hours - that's 50% longer than we were out on our own early doors - she must be keen!
We spent some time in the Feeding Station with MMcG who'd seen four very early Swallows.

What a great day out on safari.
And Wifey's year birds
Cetti's Warbler - 57
Chiffchaff - 58
Common Gull - 59
Fieldfare - 60
Great Black Backed Gull - 61
Goldeneye - 62
Jackdaw - 63
Long Tailed Tit - 64
Reed Bunting - 65
Sand Martin - 66

and she didn't quite hear the Song Thrush by the gate which went quiet as we passed and didn't fire up again for her. But there was a Collared Dove (67) singing from the roof of a neighbours house back at Base Camp for her.

Here's a couple of her pics from her phone

Lichens on an Apple tree

Blackthorn flowers

Where to next? Back again tomorrow, hopefully the forecast morning rain will drop something a little more out of the ordinary.

In the meantime let us know who's wearing the beards in your outback.

Yet more invisible owls

The Safari was feeling decidedly liverish did the last of the BTO Goldfinch survey watches yesterday morning. We'd been out until ridiculous o'clock supping copious excessive quantities of fine ale with good friends and Wifey to her favourite karaoke haunt. Wifey is a very good singer, we don't sing, the agonised shrieks and howls of those suffering unmentionable torture at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition are nothing in comparison at our attempts at warbling. Blurred double vision aside we counted four Goldfinches for the survey, one of our higher counts! six Greenfinches was a good count too. This has to have been one of the easiest citizen science surveys ever devised and if there's something similar soon we'd recommend you take part.

Wifey went out swimming and we had a sneaky hour at the nature reserve doing nothing other than looking for the Tawny Owl that had been reported again from the same place the previous afternoon. God to know it's still about. We looked high and low and east and west but couldn't see any sign of it. After a while another birder, from out of town, turned up. He wasn't over-impressed by the mega lurking in the trees behind the hedge but was, not unsurprisingly, more interested in seeing the Long Eared Owls which he naturally assumed we were looking at/for. We took him the extra 100 yards or so along the path and showed him one very easy, one not quite so easy and one very tricky Long Eared Owls. We both then went to look at the mere to see if the Iceland Gull was present, the other of his day's target species. We couldn't see it from the path but as we were now time constrained suggested he go down to the Viewing Platform and see if it could seen from there.

Later in the afternoon we were back for another longer look and met up with PL. We both looked high and low and east and west but again had no success. From not seeing the Tawny Owl we went to the Viewing Platform to try our luck with the Bittern(s). We stood there for the best part of two hours listening to the multitude of Cetti's Warblers, a couple deafeningly close, squealing Water Rails and a hweeting Chiffchaff. Behind us in the trees there was an unseen Goldcrest calling.

In the pool in front of us there was a pair of Teal and pairs each of fighting Coots and fighting Moorhens. The light began to fade and as it did so the Teal became more active and started feeding all around the pool eventually coming right to the bank below us.

By now toes and fingers were cooling down rapidly and with no sign of anything beginning with B, namely Bittern, Bearded Tit or Barn Owl we called it a day.

After breakfast Wifey was able to identify a Wren (Wifey #49) from its song drifting in on the gentle breeze through the bedroom window.

At lunchtime we picked up JH and GB at the prom and took them to the nature reserve for their first visit in 15 years, they have been out of town and ' overseas' for that time though. Indeed while waiting for their tram to arrive we had a scan of the sea and in the distance beyond the windfarm we could see the grey shapes of the tops of the hills of their previous residence, the Isle of Man. It wasn't a particularly birding visit more a social natter and show them what's been going on in the last decade and a half - more reeds!!! said GB.

Our first stop was the lively Feeding Station where there were birds a plenty. Most were flitting around too quickly, it was cold overnight and they were busy piling on the pounds for another cold night ahead. We failed miserably with the Coal Tits and only just managed a almost passable pic of one of the several Long Tailed Tits.

The rotters just wouldn't keep still! We wanted a pic of the Moorhen family that was sneaking around too, but they wouldn't sneak far enough out of the scrub for us, the cracking male Reed Bunting was behaving in exactly the same manner, refusing to come out into the open.

Continuing round we stopped briefly at Ice Station Zebra, it was lovely out on the grass with warm sun on our backs but as soon as we entered the hide there was a temperature plummet of about 50C. Gulls aplenty were on the water in front of us but not the Iceland Gull today. The only noteworthies were the large increase in numbers of Lesser Black Backed Gulls as they return from their wintering grounds on the tips and coasts of Spain, Portugal and North Africa. A Coot came into the reeds in front of us but wouldn't venture into open water, it looked like it was prospecting suitable nesting locations.

Crossing the bridge at the east end the view over the new stream the air was so clear it was almost possible to tick Red Grouse on the Bowland fells (but not Hen Harriers - cos they've killed them all!) 

Looking the other way the light was strong but back lit a patch of Teasels beautifully.

A quick jaunt out of the reserve took us through the sunny glade along the path illuminating a some well opened Blackthorn flowers.

And although it's still winter coming on spring we spotted a nice fungus growing on a broken stump deep in the wet scrub.

A few yards later we were at our target but they weren't showing quite as well as yesterday, Not only that we could only find two of the three.

Can you see the second owl?

We approached the Viewing Platform and rounding the last tree managed to only flush a flippin Bittern (109, MMLNR #76) right from the edge of the pool where we hoped it would be with PL yesterday. Unfortunately our chatter had it fly round to the left and drop into the dense reedbed not to be seen again.

Today it was warm on the bench sat in the sunshine, very pleasant indeed. As usual Cetti's Warblers verbally sparred with each other and Water Rails screamed at each other. The pair of Teal were still in the pool and a Little Grebe called unseen from the hidden pool to our right. After a while the Teal started moving around again, what a difference a bit of light makes.

As ever time ran out and we had to make tracks. On the way back to the car we passed a good show of Crocuses we helped school children plant in the years running up to the Millennium.

Shame the other circle gets trodden on and wrecked by both dogs and humans walking on them - maybe we shouldn't have planted them so near the gate...ohhh hang on maybe the numpties should respect them and keep themselves and their mutts off them.

But enough of the ranting and doom and gloom this was a lovely day out with good company and plenty of warm sunshine.

Where to next? Back to Patch 2 where a couple of days of light winds should have calmed down the sea enough to have a good look at what's out there.

In the meantime let us know who's been showing themselves off in the sunshine in your outback.