A safari back to the old days

The Safari had another moth trapping session at Base Camp the other night and what a cracker it turned out to be. The quantity wasn't over exciting but the quality was.18 moths of only six species doesn't sound exciting especially when almost half of them were Heart & Darts. A nice bright green Common Emerald was shown to Wifey, we didn't get this species last year.

And a very pale one we didn't recognise at all had us reaching for the field guide. Wow; a Miller, totally New For The Garden.

One overly well marked Heart & Dart look alike had us wondering enough to put it out for ID and it came back as a Sand Dart, another New For The Garden, two in one night is amazing!, and a wanderer well away from its normal sand dune habitat.

Later we were able to get a trip out a little further afield and headed to the Southside on the hunt for some specialties. We didn't find the Yellow Wagtails where we saw them last year but as time was short we probably didn't give it long enough.We then went onto the big wetland reserve where we hoped the recently reported Wood Sandpipers were still around, they weren't they'd shipped out buzzed off by the ever so aggressive local Avocets the day before. Nor did we find the Little Ringed Plovers there. That's not to say it wasn't a very enjoyable hour, there was loads to see, best of all was the peace, it was noisy but all the noise was natural sounds we heard virtually no intrusive human noise pollution at all - brilliant.

Black Headed Gull picking up hatching midges

Carp

They're BIG!

Little Grebe

Mallard-lings

Next stop was a short drive up the road to the coastal marshes. Here it was great to see cattle acting as wild cattle being graze extensively and allowed to roam the whole marsh

The one at the front took a dislike to a Tufted Duck and did a full blown charge at it - comical and very splashy

There were plenty of other ducks around too, a few Teal, lots of Shelducks, several Mallards, a lone Wigeon and this Shoveler which had just been charged by one of those super-aggressive Avocets.

Although the Avocets are a very welcome addition to the local avifauna it wasn't those we'd come to see, nor the Little Egrets, it was a Glossy Ibis (165) - it's getting more like the Mediterranean of old round here every passing year, how long before Cattle Egrets along with Purple and Squacco Herons are breeding in Safari-land?

Take yer arm off as soon as look at yer they would!

Doesn't look vicious does it - - - - yet!

A thin patch of reeds close to the hide was were the interest was focused. A couple of nice breeding plumaged Black Tailed Godwits stood nicely in view...

...however the Glossy Ibis  resolutely refused to show itself well prefering to stay feeding at a huge rate of knots in the densest of the not so dense vegetation...and it was on the 'wrong' side of the light to show its super-Starling-like colours to best advantage.

We've only seen Glossy Ibis once since 2010, in 2014, and it brought our Year List to 165 so we're still well behind Monika in this year's challenge. Not only that we're well behind our tally for last year when we reached 165 about a month earlier, on 26th May.

Missing this off the list so far this year are some whoppers; Spotted and Pied Flycatchers, Yellow Wagtail, Little Ringed Plover, Purple Sandpiper, Glaucous Gull, Bewick's Swan, Garganey, Great Northern Diver, Bar Tailed Godwit, Razorbill, Little Owl, Twite and Black Redstart could all be reasonably be expected to have made it into the notebook by now.

But you see what you see when you see it and if you don't get out you won't see nowt!

Our trip to the Southside also took us to one of our favourite teenage wildlife haunts. We've hardly been there much in the last 40 years and we only had about half an hour to explore. It was a lot lot wilder back then and certainly no dodging cyclists was necessary the only bile was ours and that was usually propped upon a lump of long gone old rubble - the ground was too rough and full of potential punctures to ride a bike over.

Still busy as it was we had a look and meandering on the off piste 'dog-walking' paths - why can they never stay ON the paths? - we came across some cracking wildlife.

Perennial Sweet Pea

Small Heath butterfly a species we don't see very often now

Common Broomrape a parasitic plant with no chlorophyll

Linnet - good to see lots of these still flying around here

We had hoped to see some Bar Tailed Godwits on the beach, it used to be a good site for them and probably still is but they were always much more of a winter bird than mid-summer although there was always the possibility of a straggler that hadn't migrated. Again it was peaceful here with the only human noises the swish of passing cyclists and the quiet hum of heavy diesel engines in the ships  navigating the outer reaches of the river, other than those it was just gently lapping waves, the light wind rustling the grasses and the songs and calls of Skylarks, Meadow Pipits, Reed Buntings and of course the Linnets. One species we saw that we wouldn't even have dreamed of in the mid 70s was a Sparrowhawk, at that time any that had survived the depredations of DDT were 'removed' on sight by the local gamekeepers.

We couldn't go far as we had to pick up Pops from the dentist so turned back to 'enjoy' a much more urban view but again following a 'dog-walkers' track to spot the best wildlife, there were loads of freshly hatched Six-spot Burnet moths mostly in flight wit hone thing one their mind to our left and we were unable to get a pic - they looked positively resplendent in the bright sunshine.

Family duties done it was the long haul back to the northside and Base Camp. We had just enough time to strike out to the Prom for a quick look for the Bottlenose Dolphins on the dropping tide. No luck but we did managed a pic of a Starling today. A juvenile but you can see the white arrows heads of its adult winter plumage just beginning to poke through.

Where to next? We're back at work now so Patch 2 comes into play again.
In the meantime let us what who's poking around for memories in your childhood outback.

The moths they came in two by two t'raa t'raa...the moths they.......

The Safari opened the moth trap to success, not a great success but success never-the-less. From the deepest darkest recesses the paint-brush coaxed two each of Hebrew Characters and Common Quakers, our account for the year is belatedly opened.

After a hearty brekkie of bacon, mushrooms and tatty scone butties with lashings of brown sauce and a lovely cuppa whilst watching out of the window for the Wrens, we decided to have a day's twitching.

On the cards was a female Lesser Scaup not too far up the motorway that had been at the site for at least a week, so what were we waiting for...We loaded Frank up and set off into our favourite traffic...jeez it doesn't get any better, one numptie couldn't do more than 35 miles an hour almost caused a crash when joining the motorway, we thought we'd pass him and leave him for dust - no chance he shot off at well over the speed limit - barmy!!!

Anyway we called at th site and couldn't find the Lesser Scaup but did find JP...wasn't expecting to see him there...he'd had no luck either.

The pair of us spent another good half hour checking the few Tufted Ducks lurking here and there. Eventually we went our separate ways disappointed but we both resolved to come back later. He went to the nearby reserve which, having Frank with us we couldn't, we went to the point overlooking Morecambe Bay. On the way over he crag we stopped at the little viewpoint over the marsh to have a quick look at the Avocets (158) we knew would be down there. But probably more exciting than the birds was this beautiful Early Purple Orchid right at the start of the path but just far enough back off the pull in not to at risk of being run over by parking cars.

At the point bird-life was restricted to a few Robins and Blackbirds, a Bullfinch peeu'd unseen and a Jay hoped around briefly - where were all the migrants? Looking over the sands we heard the ung ung ung of Shelducks and over 100 Black Tailed Godwits. A familiar sound but out of context had us bemused for a minute or two, a first summer Kittiwake chased a Black Headed Gull round the 'cliff' calling for all it was worth...wasn't expecting one of those!

Even the flowers here weren't as prolific as they should be at this time of the year, just a few Cowslips and Primroses...far too cold to even think about looking for Adders.

 Cuckoo Pint is always fun to see.

Frank staggered about but did pretty well considering the old damp conditions but needed plenty of rest towards the end. He enjoyed himself sniffing almost every one of the hundreds of Molehills.

Getting cold we decided to call it quits and move on. We stopped off at the big quarry where there was some Peregrine action unfolding. A Raven had been grounded in a tree and the Peregrines weren't about to let it out! They didn't mind the Jackdaws leaving but if the Raven got to the edge of the branches one of the Peregrines would tazz by with feet outstretched almost touching the twigs to keep it tucked well in and out of the way.

After several minutes it was time for a breather, looks like they've had a few smokos on that high ledge over the last few weeks. Right at the limit of our camera's range.

Back at the Lesser Scaup site it still wasn't to be found. The fisherman nearest to us had a bite and reeled in a sizeable Carp.

The field was full of the joys of spring, lots of sheep with lots of lambs making lots of poo attracting lots of Yellow Dung Flies.

And on the way home the sun came out - drat!
Where to next? Bank Holiday tomorrow so we won't be braving the traffic, just staying local.
In the meantime let us know what Yankees failed to show in your outback.

Afternoon sortie

The Safari had our Extreme Joiner round this arvo building the second pergola for the Wisteria and Clematis plants to climb all over. Hopefully there'll be a plethora of flowers later in the summer.

After he'd finished set off for the North Blackpool Pond Trail to look for a Pool/Marsh Frog that had been reported to us by GUF yesterday.

The 'Black Pond' close to where the mystery amphibian was spotted...no 'chair in a tree' here anymore thanks to the stalwart efforts of  the volunteers. 

A Burying Beetle - somewhat dead was found.

A very pleasant hour was spent rummaging around the various ponds. No luck at all - didn't even find any Common Frogs, although we did find clumps of spawn although not in every pond yet. But we did find several Toads, our first of the year. No newts either despite flipping over some choice pieces of wood/carpet/plastic etc.

Also seen in one pond were two Goldfish and a rather chunky Carp along with one of the biggest, if not THE biggest Greater Pond Snail we've ever seen, a full 6 1/2cm long.

A Song Thrush sang loudly - not unexpected but deffo unexpected were the 11 Snipe that we flushed from a shallow puddle near Wifey's work.

A pair of Mallards were lurking furtively there too.

We'd spent so long faffing around the ponds we ran out of time to look for Bee Orchid rosettes.

Where to next? Back on the birds tomorrow probably.

In the meantime let us know what's covering your outback in spawn.