Small victories in the war against ecocide

The Safari was able to sit outside in the sunshine on Saturday but for much of the time all we could hear was strimmers, lawnmowers, hedge trimmers and other power tools ripping into the local gardens without a second thought for what might be being destroyed either directly or indirectly like opening up the dense cover around a nest so that predation by eg cats/Magpies becomes inevitable - there's a Robin's nest nearby we've seen an adult skulking unobtrusively to and fro through the undergrowth at the bottom of the garden.

Cat owners please note that putting a bell on your moggie has no effect on reducing their slinkiness what-so-ever. This afternoon we were at peace with the world on the patio when we noticed a movement to our right. A be-belled cat had crossed the yard and climbed the half dozen steps to the patio in absolute silence. It's only when we spotted it and moved that it ran back down the steps that we heard the bell jingling.

All this feline activity didn't wake the sleeping Woodpigeon high and safe on the pergola. He waits up there for smaller birds to visit the feeders and spill crumbs down on the ground as he's not agile enough to reach them himself.

The other day we were thrilled to have a Jackdaw come down and visit the feeders, today we doubled our record count!

And were very pleased with more visits from the now regular but totally unpredictable male House Sparrow. His routine seems to be a quick snack on the feeder before a minute or two's search of the Silver Birch tree before heading off north to north east-ish - wonder where he's going too.

One particular juvenile Starling is another unpredictable visitor, coming in unexpectedly at any time for a quick suet top up or a bathe in the ornamental waterfall. Most of the birds seem to prefer this to the birdbath a yard away which we would think offered a bit more safety being raised up on a pedestal, only the Blue Tits seem to use it. The Starling never brings his parents or siblings.

Meanwhile down in the yard the orchid story in (literally) unfolding in front of our very eyes.

Here's the first fully open flower.

Apparently there are about 120 in flower at the nature reserve this week and no doubt more on the duneland nature reserve we also visit so we're thinking a spore or two may have hitched a ride with us and found the tub to their liking. We've certainly got down close and personal with them for pics at the nature reserve although that would invariably be when they were in full flower and not once they'd gone over and had ripe seed capsules. Maybe it is a one in a billion fluke. It must be almost 100 years since the garden was last farmland and there may have been/probably was orchids in the pastures and/or hay meadows at that time. Definitely one to ponder and enjoy and a very welcome addition to the garden flora wherever it came from. The tub was originally planted with ornamental Alpine plants into recycled peat-free compost, the Thrift is the only surviving original plant, the Cowslips have were seeded in deliberately from others in the garden. The blue Campanula was in the pot bust has 'escaped'.

Warm sunshine meant insects were on the wing and we had brief visits from the first Holly Blue butterfly of the year and a mature Blue Tailed Damselfly which we assume came from someone else's pond as we've not seen any tenerals around our pond at that point. And then a little later there was one right in front of us struggling in a spider's web.

Being soft hearted we did the wrong thing and deprived the spider of an enormous meal.

It soon fluttered off none the worse for wear from its very close shave.

Tree Bees and Early Bumble Bees visited the flowers on offer while a huge queen Bombus terrestris got trapped underthe pond net for a while being too big to fit through the mesh that keeps the Herons out.

Here's the view from our perch on the patio, somewhere to the right behind the garage there was a Blackcap singing very quietly a couple of gardens away. We tried to see where it might be from the back bedroom window. We've not looked out from there for a while and were shocked to see how much shrubbery has been lost from the surrounding gardens - they're mostly bare now almost habitat-free zones.We are very much an island of structural diversity in a sea of monotonous lawns and 'tidy' flower-beds.

But we bet even those tidy gardens have Greenfly and no doubt a futile ecocidal war will be waged against them. They're welcome on our notebook anytime.

All these little things, while barely significant in their own right, give us immense pleasure at a time we're invalided and unable to get further afield but are all little victories against the masses that seem to want rid of wildness for the sake of 'tidy' and in doing so make our world that little bit poorer. They don't seem to realise all species are interconnected including ourselves, we are a part of nature not apart from it and there is no Planet B!
Wifey came back from the shops late afternoon and suggested we have a drive out to the countryside for a bit of fresh air and to help us going stir crazy at Base camp. We felt up to it so in the car we got. We ended up at a favourite riverside walk where we heard a Garden Warbler (161) as soon as we opened the car door and Wifey spotted a Nuthatch on the feeders at the end of the car park.
The woods rang loudy with the songs of Song Thrushes, Blackcaps and Wrens but the river was devoid of birds apart from a family of well grown Mallards.
At the car park another visitor (probably spotting our bins) had told us too look for the pair of Mute Swans on the lake, "there's a bird-hide you know". Yes we knew, we've only been going there since the early 80s and never seen anything out of the ordinary from it! The best sighting we had was a shoal of large Chub when we looked directly down out of the window once many many years ago and we've seen a Roe Deer on the far bank once.
We had a look from the hide anyway not expecting much but as expected the pair of Mute Swans were feeding out in the middle of the lake. On a dead snag at the side of the hide was a Grey Wagtail with a beak stuffed with flies. It was agitated and calling like mad so we thought it might have a nest in or near the hide so we fired off a few shots and left it in peace. As soon as we'd gone the other came and landed on the branch next too it also with a beakful of food - time to leave them well alone.

The woods are undergoing some bizarre coppicing work, not sure by whom, but we did some Alder coppicing in the top corner all those years ago and this looks like an attempt to revisit that work although the trees seems to be chosen at random and some of the stumps have been left very long - all very strange...shoulda taken some pics. We should also have taken some pics of the dense wildwood a little further along the path away from the river. The trees are all shapes as they've competed for light and their boughs are gorgeously festooned with mosses, lichens and ferns. In places trees grow in the path and their roots have become exposed by the passage of countless feet - looks like a giant bonsai display.

Arty canopy shot through a not-so-invasive-here Norway Maple

The last time we were here the Rangers were cutting developing Alder scrub from the extensive meadow areas. We had hoped there would be an awesome display of Marsh Orchids and Cowslips but it wasn't to be, even the Buttercups weren't putting on as good a show as the un-managed area on the other side of the car park. Maybe we're a week to early still, but we did find a Common Twayblade just at the side of the path through the meadow - very vulnerable to being trodden on by the hordes of rampaging dogs that are brought for a 'walk'.

It was great to get out and the day was finished with a huge plate of fish and chips, the perfect end to a perfect day. Wifey added three birds to her year list, Garden Warbler, Nuthatch and Blackcap taking her total to 102, sadly we couldn't find her Kingfisher, Dipper or Little Ringed Plover (on the brand new pool that has been excavated over the road from the car park - looks mint for them).

Where to next? Back on our perch on the patio at Base Camp lapping up the sunshine and the wildlife sights in the garden. A Honey Buzzard will fly over - - plleeeeeeeaaasssse!

In the meantime let us know who's put in a surprise appearance in your outback.

Orchid time on the dunes

The Safari had built up a big surplus of extra hours and even after booking some flexi-time for a long weekend we still had a a few to play with. Yesterday mornig we got a txt from Young Un AB saying he'd just been on the dunes and counted a very accurate 841 Pyramidal Orchids and seen a Grayling butterfly - that was excuse enough for a very long lunch break. 

As soon as we arrived on site we saw there were lots of Burnet moths everywhere, almost every Creeping Thistle flowerhead had at least one supping away at the nectar within.

All the ones we looked at closely, without our specs we might add, were Narrow Bordered 5-spot Burnets.

Walking a few yards further into the dunes we disturbed a Meadow Pipit that wasn't at all happy with our presence

 It kept a rather watchful eye on us.

But where were all those orchids? Another couple of steps and we crested a small rise and there amid the Creeping Willow were several pink flower spikes, about 20of them, not the mother lode but a good start.

They were growing in an area from which much invasive Sea Buckthorn had been removed during the winter, the management certainly appeared to suit them.

AB was kind enough to tell us the whereabouts of other orchids nearby too which included Common Twayblade which we didn't know grew on the site, surely we'd been told at some stage over the last 25 years or so and forgotten if that was the case the information certainly wasn't for being retrieved from our memory banks!

Only a few yards away near a large hole that is being dug for an as yet unknown reason, probably to provide some form of dune slack (aka seasonally wet area), he said there were some Marsh Helleborines.

From there he directed us across the road to look into the garden of the rest-home which has been left uncut and is a wondrous array of colours from the multitude of wildflowers growing in the short sand turf, it is a sight to behold! The target here was probably the most dull and insignificant looking plant in the 'meadow' but one of the rarest in the country/world being an endemic to a handful of scattered sites around the coast and not overly numerous at any of them, the rather wishy-washy nondescript looking Dune Helleborine.

We didn't have permission to enter the garden but saw one of the five specimens not too far away from the wall.

 Exciting isn't it! Well it's not a looker but it is pretty special.

Walking back to the Land Rover (we keep threatening to replace it, but can we part with it?) a small orangy butterfly flew across the track in front of our knees, a Gatekeeper - one of the species we looked for unsuccessfully at the White Letter Hairstreak site at the weekend. They'll probably be out in force there this coming weekend if the warm(ish) sunny weather holds.

Not a bad way to spend a lunch hour and a bit.

Back in the office walking along the corridor we spotted a tiny bee that hadn't been able to find an open window and succumbed to the heat - yes we look at all manner of strange things! The thing that grabbed our attention was the red underside to its abdomen, not seen one like that before so in a pot it went, but what exactly was it? Why a pot for a dead bee - habit we suppose!

A plea on Twitter was made and the very knowledgeable and very modest @RyanClarkNature cme back with a name Megachile centuncularis, a quick look on the national database showed it to be, unsurprisingly, the first record for town and only the second for the whole of the Fylde (with the proviso that the NBN maps can be a little behind the times)/

Our last late finish of the season was helping an enthusiastic gang of Rainbows do some mini-beast hunting and pond dipping. Our best find for them was a Zebra Spider just before the action kicked off.

A quick little devil that didn't like being in the light in the middle of the lid of the pot

Better but stiller in the bright sunshine

Today we had a pretty intense time at work but were able to finish early and meet up with AB on the dunes and he showed us some of the other specialities he'd learned about from the old master MJ.

There's some nice moths on the dunes, we saw Latticed Heath but it was too quick for the lens unlike this Blackneck which did its best to hide from us.

It's larvae feed on Tufted Vetch of which there is plenty on the reserve. Nowhere near as common locally is Cotton Grass, a species more normally thought of as upland bog plant but was probably very common on the lowland mosses before they were extensively drained. A nearby field which had a sizeable colony was drained for a sports field not too many years ago.

Another orchid species here is Early Marsh Orchid, its earliness now meaning it's coming to the end of its season and most of them were going well over.

Harebells were everywhere, don't think we've ever seen so many here. the floral display this summer is really fine and well worth a visit.

 Like the Cotton Grass they were blowing around a bit

AB shifted up a gear after spotting another speciality moth, seconds later his bag was off his bag and a pot removed and de-lidded. in a jiffy a Silver Hook was inside. A new one for us and what a little beauty.

This one's a sedge feeder.

He released it but it wouldn't settle in the right place for a pic. While trying to get the pic we saw a shield bug. It's a still a nymph and we're not sure which species.

There are areas of the dunes that are losing their spectacular wildflowers to longer denser grassland. Some management has been begun to address this but really what's needed is more Rabbits to graze it down. There are some but not enough and they're widely scattered across the reserve and not able to 'control' large areas of dense vegetation. One thing is for sure they don't like Thyme!

On the final way back to the Land Rover we got the pic we wanted, OK very nearly the pic we wanted

We'd have preferred a more contrary Small Skipper but you can't have everything and it was a brilliant hour out all thanks to AB.

Where to next? Anything could happen tomorrow.
In the meantime let us know what unknowns who's keeled over in your outback.