The Safari took Frank out and spotted these rather colourful leaves had been swizzled round in a neat little pile by our  gatepost, nice and bright against the dull grey of the paving slabs in the street.

A brief conversation about Bramblings with CR resulted in being offered a lift to see if we could find and photograph the Snow Bunting that had been seen on the beach a few miles up the road yesterday.

Within just a few minutes we pulled in to the car park by the lake where a few gulls and Turnstones were already beginning to roost up in anticipation of the high tide.

Black Headed Gull in winter plumage

We weren't sure exactly which bit of the beach to look at so we headed south along the strandline where we came across numerous Edible Crab carapaces with their distinctive 'pie-crust' edge. This one was a monster as can be seen by the size 9 footprint for scale. We don't get these on the beach at Patch 2 so they were a pleasant surprise. A few native Oysters were also found mostly very old worn ones including one eaten away by a Boring Sponge (not at all boring but interestingly hole-drilling)

Snow was forecast and for once the forecasters weren't wrong. In the few breaks in the cloud we could see a fair smattering of snow on the higher tops of the Lake District. This is the outlying fell Black Combe, at just 1970feet (600m) high and in close proximity to the sea it doesn't often keep much snow, today it melted fairly quickly but was replaced by each passing shower.

After meeting up with MMcG we traipsed up the beach and down the beach with nothing to show for our traipsing but a handful of Sanderlings and a few more Turnstones, individuals of both species gave us 'false alarms' as did a flock of Linnets that flew up from the lower strandline. 

Eventually MMcG spotted the buntings only feet in front of us on a stretch of beached we'd been over twice before - where had they been hiding? So close were they at first they were too close for us to focus on with the long lens!Yes there were now two of them, doubling the count JS had yesterday!

Unfortunately they were very mobile and seemed to prefer the shaded areas which wasn't good for pics on such a dull day...not only that but they just never kept still. We fired a feew shots off of which these are easily the 'best' but we did get some stonking views in the bins...Snow Bunting in the bag (W-274; BI-188) - very happy!

With a few minutes to spare CR wanted to have a go at the four Goldeneyes on the lake, our and his first of this back end. They were a bit distant for our lens so we decided to have a go at the Turnstone roost, but were initially distracted by a young Herring Gull.

We snuck up on the Turnstones by doing this! You'll be thrilled to learn we managed to smear Turnstone and gull sh*t* all over our coat/trousers etc...

Where to next? We're in charge of Frank tomorrow so might well get out on safari somewhere as his leg is getting much better and he needs a bit of exercise and excitement.
In the meantime let us know what's got you crawling around on all fours in your outback.

A lovely warm day on the beach

The Safari forgot to look for Old Ladies and Gothics (don't moths have great names!) in the garden at Base Camp last night; these two species are being seen in friends’ gardens not too far from Base Camp but so far we’ve never had either species grace our Buddleia with their presence.

So a minor set back last night but easily rectified by a crop of decent warm weather coming up hopefully one or both species will be found before to long.

This morning the strong overnight wind hadn’t abated and the sea was far too choppy to stand any chance of seeing any mammals; there’s been a flurry of Harbour Porpoise sightings away down the far end of the South-side recently and it would appear that the pod of six Bottle Nosed Dolphins we saw a few weeks ago are still kicking around offshore but over the horizon.

Far closer than the horizon from Patch 2 this morning were two Arctic Skuas. One of which harried a Herring Gull in to giving it a meal...not sure we’d relish the contents of a Herring Gulls crop/stomach but it’s obviously manna from heaven for the skuas.

Not a great lot of anything else out there other than a few distant terns.

After a quick cuppa we were back out leading a large group of young kiddies on their rockpooling session. The wind last night meant there was some interesting stuff washed up on the beach. The very first thing we picked up was a White Piddock shell which are not at all common or regular on our beach; unbroken too which is unusual for this very fragile species.

That seemed to be a good omen as before too long the nets were hoiking out huge numbers of small Brown Shrimps and a good many Common Prawns.  It wasn’t long before the first live crab appeared in one of the trays although we did need a microscope to see it properly, it was a tiny juvenile; bigger ones were eventually netted. 

Amongst the shrimps was another small wriggly thing that darted around the tray hiding under whatever was nearest – we eventually got to grips with it and identified it as a very recently hatched Blenny no more than 6 or 7mm long. What a find!

Most of the usual suspects were found, Pod and Common Razor Shells, Prickly and Common Cockles, Banded Wedge Shells, Rayed Trough Shells, and many more until one young girl showed us a larger than usual specimen of Iceland Cyprine and they are usually pretty big! But her success was short lived as another young lady brought us an enormous and very fresh Edible Oyster – great news and probably find of the year! What a beauty as a certain fisherman used to say...probably still does.

The sharp, undamaged frills show this specimen to be a fesh one and not one that has been rolling around in the tide for a good while...soooo there must be a small population out there somewhere...which is good.

A mystery item was brought to us to identify and it remains very much a mystery, possibly some a skull from some species of fish or other? Never seen anything quite like it in all our born days! Our marine biologist guru DB had a tentative guess at the skull of a Scorpion Fish.

Some of the pots hold anemones of various species and we wanted to show some of the older children ‘Nemo’s home’ but instead found a couple of live Sand Mason Worms, their cases are washed up by the million but we’ve never seen live ones at the top of the beach before even the ‘highest’ ones are only normally exposed by the very lowest low tides.

All most very excellent.

A lunchtime peer through the scope was nowhere near as productive with just a number of distant terns and one very distant Gannet to show for our efforts.

Where to next? Day off tomorrow to head back down the motorway to see m'laddo in hossy so there's a very good chance the moff trap will go on overnight.

In the meantime let us know what's all washed up in your outback.

A draw torn from the jaws of victory!

The Safari wasn't able to follow the footy last night but it appears the after leading 2 - 0 'Pool gave a way two goals to hang on for an aggregate 3 -2 win over the two legs - now we want to go to Wembley, but sadly that's not going to be  possible as it clashes with something we can't get out of....something to do with someone's birthday...

This morning the weather was truly awful and we didn't go more than a few yards on Patch 1, R'ouzel Puddle had doubled in size but was still devoid of life and we didn't dare venture on to Patch 2. But thankfully the rain had stopped by the time our school group arrived and on to the beach we went.

All the usual suspects were found...you've seen them all before so should be able to name them now...

This sizable Dab was found close to the shore.

 Also sizable was this large Green Shore Crab, one of the largest we've seen here

 This was one of the biggest Baltic Tellin's ( at least that's what we think it is)

One of the teachers tried to winkle out a Starfish but it was too well trapped in the rocks, fortunately three more were found, we think they are both Common Sand Stars.

Where to next? More beach tomorrow and hopefully the sun will be shining so our pics will be a bit better.

In the meantime let us know what wedged in a cleft in your outback.
Was thinking of entering this competition; you gonna too?

A sunny day on the beach

The Safari lay awake waiting for the alarm clock to go off listening to the dawn chorus which is getting louder and more impressive every day now; no summer migrants yet though.

We reckon it’s the best its been for a coupla three years or more– despite the recent ravages of garden habitat locally during the last two or three summers – no ‘Silent Spring’ here thankfully. The Song Thrush could be heard from the Golden Triangle which was good as we’ve not heard him for a few days or more.

We didn’t get far on Patch 1 for the usual upside down dog reason; only far enough to watch the Goldfinches leaving their roost in a neighbours Holly tree.

Patch 2 gave us a hazy couple of hundred Common Scoters and two Red Throated Divers. A Skylark (P2 #51)  calling unseen overhead was a useful addition to the patch total

The morning was taken up with a very excited school group who found just about everything on offer between them. Namely...

Molluscs

Sea slug eggs- looked like a soft spotty horseshoe

Common Periwinkle

Common Whelk

Edible Mussel

Thin Tellin

Baltic Tellin

Bean-like Tellin

Iceland Cyprine – one of the worlds longest lived animals

Common Otter shell

Common Cockle

Prickly Cockle

Striped Venus shell

Rayed Trough shell

Banded Wedge shell – very important for the 10,000+ Common Scoter ducks that spend the winter just offshore

Common Razor

Pod Razor

Curved Razor – quite a good number of these which are not often found, perhaps because it has been so calm recently and they normally get broken up, being very fragile, in rougher weather.

Worms

Honeycomb Worm – stuck to the seawall, a nationally scarce animal

Spirorbis spirorbis tubeworm – inside an old pod razor shell

Pomatoceros  triqueter (?) tubeworm – inside an old pod razor shell

Sand Mason worm – only empty cases of silk stuck with grains of sand and bits of shell

Arthropods

Acorn Barnacles – not ID’d to species level for Year 2 children!

Green Shore Crab

Common Prawn – but no Brown Shrimps for comparison

Bryozoans

Horn Wrack – looks like pale brown seaweed but is actually a colony of thousands of tiny animals a bit like coral

Sea urchins

Sea Potato

Fish

Common Blenny

Sea weeds

Gut Weed

Sea Lettuce

Purple Laver

Spiral Wrack

Edible Whelk - no one home!

Green Shore Crab

Green Shore Crab

After they’d been the tide came in an erased all trace of their presence. With the tide we had two Guillemots both still in winter plumage and the same Common Scoters were out in the haze.

The children had their lunch our gardens and while they were out there we saw they were making Daisy Chains and 'admiring' (=picking!) our Coltsfoot.

Daisy - from Day's eye; so called cos the flower follows the sun from east to west during the day

Coltsfoot - so called because the leaves are hoof shaped

Also known as Son before fathers as the leaves appear after the flowers

Where to next? More of the same without the gang!

In the meantime let us know who's been ransacking your outback

Hold the front page!

It now seems that the Porcelain Crab could be a very small Green Shore Crab, which are very common in the rockpools. Incidentally my money was on the latter having seen a few pictures on Google Images, but I have to admit I was far from sure; hence putting it out for others to help with the identification.

We await the final outcome with baited breath....I hand you back over to the experts....

I am also hoping for an identification of this large piece of Whelk shell which has been sitting on my desk for a few weeks now without me realising it could be something the safari hasn't seen before. What struck me as odd was the ridges appear to be longitudinal rather than concentric radiating out from the aperture. I hope there is enough of it there for someone to make a definitive identification....we'll wait and see what comes back...more news tomorrow perhaps.

A mystery solved

Many thanks to Ian and Chris in the Glaucous Yahoo Group for letting the safari know that this is a Long Clawed Porcelain Crab. As far as I am aware this is probably the first record for Blackpool. Congratulations to the finder - she knows who she is!. If anyone knows otherwise please let me know.

I have learnt that the Porcelain Crabs have three pairs of legs instead of the usual four, you can see this (just) in the picture. They are small usually only 1 - 2cm across when adult, this one is smaller than that and must still be a juvenile.

Where to next? Could be anywhere you'll have to wait and see.

In the meantime please let us know what you have found in your 'outback'.