Searching the seashore

The Safari managed to get out on to Patch 2 for some fresh air and head-space time at lunchtime yesterday. The light out to sea was awful and the tide was out so most of the birds were distant silhouettes. On the wall nearby there were three Pied Wagtails catching the cold immobile flies.

They were very skittish and almost impossible to sneak up on. They're used to passers-by and allow quite close approach but only if you don't stop...if you stop they fly off miles along the wall meaning a good walk to catch up with them again. Nightmare! But with a little patience and a lorra lorra luck we managed this one, although it is a heavy crop.

In the sunshine the Buff Tailed Bumble Bees were busy on the Castor Oil plant's flowers too.

Duff pics in the dull shade

Today we were out at lunchtime again and once again the light was horrendous to the south where the Common Scoters were. No sign of the wagtails today but we did meet one of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust's marine lasses. She was looking at the state of the tide with a view to starting a ShoreSearch training session for the marine biology students from the local college. While looking down the slade to see how far the tide still had to drop before her group could start work we spotted a dozen Turnstones  feeding a little way above the splashes from the breaking waves.

After chatting we went back inside but came back out latter to meet the team. They were busy working on their transects and recording what vegetation, and how much of each, was found in their quadrats.

It was warmer down on the beach than it was up on the prom!

In other news Monty has reached Patch 1 twice now. Last night he added a couple of Goldcrests to his life list and this evening he counted about 30 Magpies going to roost close to where he'll be watching the White Letter Hairstreaks next July.

Where to next? More Patch 2 and back to Patch 1 later too probably.

In the meantime let us know who's searching for what in your outback.

The buzzy bees still be busy

The Safari was having a quiet few minutes reflection outside yesterday morning when we noticed the flowers on the Castor Oil plant were still full of insects. The sun was out and it was quite warm out of the nippy wind; the morning had started with a sharp frost and much scraping of ice from the car windscreen. It was so warm in the sun we went back to the office or the camera and a thermometer. We placed the thermometer amongst the flowers the insects were visiting and waited to see how warm it would get to.

13.2C - not bad for 11.15 on a mid-November morning; it actually got to 13.4 briefly but cold gusts of wind sent it back down to low 11s and high 10s. Out the front of the building in the shade it would have only been about 8 or 9C, that sun made a big difference.

As we stood watching the comings and goings of the numerous Bluebottles and Drone Flies (Eristalis tenax) a fat insect with a flash of white caught our eye. No, it couldn't bee, could it? Yes it was and it wasn't the only one, we saw at least three different individuals come and go all with fully laden pollen baskets.

They are Buff Tailed Bumble Bee (Bombus terrestris) workers and apparently this species is now increasingly nesting throughout the whole year and foraging all winter. Wonder if they'll survive, which probably depends on how cold it gets and what the over winter nectar and pollen supplies are like locally - we'll keep an eye out and keep you posted. Fascinating stuff, climate change in action?

No bird news from Patch 2, this morning while giving Monty a run round in the back garden at Base Camp a couple of Redwings flew over and there was a good deal of cackling coming from numerous Blackbirds. 

Where to next? Monty is getting his first trip to either the beach or the countryside today so we may have some news for you later.

In the meantime let us know who's gathering the pollen in your outback.

 

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.

We didn't get em all!

The Safari had a mixed bag today. The Peregrine was seen on the tower on the drive up the hill. On the prom R'Ouzel Puddle has been drained, filled in and resown with grass, but a new puddle has developed a little further down which held a (local?) Pied Wagtail this morning; still haven't seen a Blackbird on those new grassy areas!

A marine biology student and her tutor came in for a bit of advice/ideas about her dissertation and itt would seem that the distribution of the Sabellaria reefs is going to be well analysed over the course of the winter months.

The Young Uns came round to do a bit of work in the Untidy Garden getting it ready for the autumn, it is currently swarming with hoverflies at the slightest hint of sunshine. They found a roosting pug which we all thought was a worn Double Striped Pug. But we could all be wrong.

Only a few bees were around in the mostly dull conditions but this Buff Tailed Bumble Bee was truly enormous and not at all happy with our close approach with the camera, persistently waving her middle leg in the air as a warning for us to back off. A pose we somehow failed to capture on digital film!

After the borders had been attended to it was time to see how many 3 Spined Sticklebacks were left in the pond after the last 'battle' in the 'war' against stickles. A few days after our last netting session we counted about half a dozen still in the pond but yesterday we had a slow walk around the pond and counted at least 30!

With three of  us netting we soon had 50 in the bucket! No wonder there is virtually no invertebrate life in the pond these days.

We left the pond to settle and the fish to forget about the nets and went to have some lunch. After three quarter of an hour we crept up to the pond again and started fishing. before long we had added at least another 30-40 to the bucket!!! All were released unharmed to a site where there are plenty of their brethren and they can do little harm to the ecosystem...But how many do you think we'll see when we get to work tomorrow morning? There's bound to be more than two and if we don't get them out there won't be any pond life for the kiddies to study next season. We'll have another netting session later in the autumn and another around Easter just to make sure we either got them all or have the 'starting' population as low as possible to give the other animals a chance.

Next it was a site visit to our now well grown, and difficult to crash through, Water Vole site. And what a sight it was; the Purple Loosestrife was simply stunning.

One of the main reasons for going was to check on the locals and see if they had done the jobs we'd asked them too a while back - disappointingly they hadn't although that could have been due to the high water levels in the pond after all the recent rain. We couldn't find any Common Meadow Rue either despite it being quite numerous when we were last here, but it did look like Meadowsweet had had a bumper year as had the Spearmint. If access was easier we're sure this would be a crackin place to put a moth trap out.

The dull blustery conditions kept the larger insect down but we did find a nice bright male Common Darter who wouldn't stay still enough for a pic and later a stonking Brown Hawker.

Lifting the sheet put down for amphibians and reptiles only produced Red Ants and ground beetles although a very neat grass nest suggested a Short Tailed Field Vole had been active recently.

But what about the Water Voles - well we still haven't actually seen any, nor heard them 'plop' at this site but we did find some nice feeding signs and a latrine, in the pond too rather than the ditch so our habitat works have been successful but we think we'll need to put up a trail-cam to stand any chance of actually 'seeing' the cutesy little blighters!

So not a bad day's safari-ing and it just goes to show you mightn't see what you want to see but there is ALWAYS something of interest to be seen!

Where to next? Gotta be something on the sea tomorrow - we gave it a short go with precious little success this morning but Young UN AB watched a reasonably close Arctic Skua pass by on the rising tide a couple of hours after we'd left.

In the meantime let us know who's eating you out of house and home in your outback,