Non-stop safari-ing

The Safari has had a hectic start to the week with young Beavers coming to visit and a school group all day today. More Brownies tomorrow evening - can our ears survive the strain all those excited young children make a lorra lorra noise!

Late on Sunday afternoon realising we weren't going to be able to get out we had a last mooch round the garden at Base Camp looking for the Blue Tailed Damselflies to see if we could get any more super close-ups. They weren't playing ball as the sun had gone in and a cool wind had picked up so we had to be content with flowers. Last summer there was hardly any Herb Bennett in the garden, this year there are a few plants. That's one of the joys of having  a wild garden you just don't quite know what's going to come up where year by year.

If there were any hoverflies about they'd love it but we've seen very few so far this summer.

Herb Robert is much more forthcoming and maybe you can have too much of a good thing when it starts invading Wifey's special planting tubs.

We noticed some had little orange specks on them, some times just a few and others had several. They were randomly placed so we deduced they weren't something the plant had produced.

 Then we spotted this tiny fly which may or may not be the culprit of what we suppose are eggs.

Big eggs if that little insect did lay them. Maybe they only lay two as most seemed to be in pairs and several insects have laid their eggs on one flower - isn't nature great there's always something new to see and learn, one question leads to a whole bookful of others.

Last night we were with the youngsters on the beach looking in the rockpools, it was a lovely summer's evening warm with hardly a breath of wind - a perfect evening for exploring on the beach. The recent offshore winds might be great for keeping the sea calm and helping our Dolphin spotting but it does mean there's not a great deal of shells and the like washed up. That didn't stop us finding some good stuff though like this Thornback Ray egg case.

Lots of the Common Prawns were in berry - except this one!

Star find as far as the Beavers were concerned were a couple of medium sized Common Sand Stars.

After we'd got back to Base Camp and had tea we were chatting to our Extreme Photographer on the phone when we notciced the sky start to build up some odd looking clouds. He had similar ones too 200 miles to the south. Once we'd finished chatting we got a couple of snaps with the phone, apparently they are Cirrus fibratus and Twitter friend @MaryJasper2 had similar all the way down in SW Cornwall.

Impressively wispy but were better than this a few minutes earlier

All day today we played host to a local school doing pond dipping and mini-beast hunting. The pond is still a bit slow probably due to the iffy weather in May and early June but they caught a reasonable selection of snails and plenty of 3-spined Sticklebacks, none as bright and energetic as 'Spineless Simon' though. The biggest surprise came in the form of a small dragonfly nymph, we very very seldom see adult dragonflies in the work's garden but there must have been some last year

Of the terrestrial invertebrates this bright, long and skinny Centipede was our favourite but the kids' favourite was probably the huge spider they found and many were brave enough to gently hold it - well done them!

Talk of our Extreme Photographer he's sent a few pics from his garden out in the wilds in the last week or so

Drinker moth caterpillar

Hedgehog

Great Diving Beetle larva - you wouldn't want to mess with those fangs!

Where to next? More Patch 2 dolphin hoping - there was a Humpback Whale not so far away just out of sight over the horizon last week!!!!!!! and there be more netting shenanigans with the kids too.

In the meantime let us know who's sucking the juice out of who in your outback.

Bioblitzed

The Safari was invited to help out are the Zoo's first ever Bioblitz under the banner 'find the natives that live among the exotics'. 

The event was organised by the Zoo's education officer LS in two parts an evening of invited guests to tour the zoo at night flollowed by an early morning then opening the events up to the public when the zoo was open for business. 

We arrived at 21.00 and put up the moth trap before heading off armed with nets buckets and bat detectors. Bats, amphibians and nocturnal invertebrates were searched out. Amphibians were hard to come by apart from a small Smooth Newt, bats were a bit better with several hits on the detector from Noctules, not a species we find often in town. Pipistrelles were all over the place and Daubenton's Bats hawked insects over the moat around Gorilla Island.

A wander over to the Dinosaur safari gave us no amphibians in a likely looking pool but the ornamental rock arches gave us several species of spiders including this one no-one in the group had seen before

Apologies for the camera shake, it was dark in there!

Back at the moth trap it was pretty dire with no activity around the light at all. Weird cos it was quite mild and there wasn't a breath of wind. The others set off to place some small mammal traps down while we stayed at the motthy just in case it livened up - it didn't. A Tawny Owl (148) called from the woodland garden the wrong side of the fence so couldn't be counted.

We got back to Base Camp and dropped in to our pit at 00.15 and was rudely woken by Frank not long enough after at 05.45 = not enough sleep!

Back at the zoo the moth trap took no time at all to empty, just a dead Light Brown Apple Moth, a Hebrew Character, a Double Striped Pug and several of these unknown Caddis Flies.

The mammal traps had been unsuccessful except for sadly killing a Common Shrew, not good but at least we had the little body to show the families. A mix of real experts had joined the team for the daytime session including an entomologist, a lichenologist (is there such a word) and a botanist. with these guys on board the Bioblitz list started to shoot up as we wandered around having a look in the public and some out of bounds areas including along the narrow gauge railway track. Scarce and even rare local species were added to the list. Just shows what there is to find when you take the time to look.

In the children's wildlife area when a pair of crazy ducks ruled the roost one of tthe raised beds of herbs and bee friendly plants had a Bird's Eye Primrose...how  had that got there? A garden variety that had reverted to a more natural type, in the seed mix - unlikely??? or in the seedbank - oh yeah??? Go one what do you reckon?

Looks like there's a Buttercup Leaf Miner in the pic there too

The wildlife education area gave the children the opportunity to make bird feeders out of huge Pine cones, bee houses and all manner of other goodies, the Pine feeders were hung on the fence under a nest box housing a family of Blue Tits. An as yet unused Tawny Owl box was in a nearby tree.

The pond dipping session in the Dinosaur Safari again was good with loads of Frog tadpoles and Summer Mayfly larvae. We discovered why there might have been no newts last night, the waterfall pump was now running and a deluge fell in to the pond from on high.

AB found a huge Drinker moth caterpillar floating in the Dinosaur lake and fortunately it was close enough to be rescued and proved very popular with lots of people having a little hold of it before it was released safely well away from the water.

We had to leave for an appointment at half time but even then the species list was around the 250 - 300 mark, what a shame we didn't get a lot more moths. Through the afternoon we got a few updates from AB including news of the first (as far as we know) Larch Ladybird for the Fylde.

Not sure what the final species tally will be but probably approaching 450 maybe even 500 species!
Many thanks to LS for organising everything and helping add a considerable amount of knowledge to the local and County databases.

Can't tell you what the appointment was about but it was a great laugh and we'll be able to give you more news in due course.

Today we didn't get a chance to look at the sea which was a bit annoying as Little Terns and Pomarine Skuas are on the move locally.
Then news came in that Wheatears and yet another Whinchat were at the nature reserve but we hadd a meeting all morning. That meeting was at an office near Base Camp  meaning we had to go past the nature reserve to get there which was lucky...after the meeting it was nearly lunchtime and we had a quick sprint round the wetland and soon found the Whinchat (MMLNR #83) but not the Wheatears. On the drive there we saw our first Holly Blue of the year high over the road near the hospital.

No chance of a look at the sea during a very much time reduced lunchtime.

At Base Camp it was lovely and warm when we got back and we found a moribund Tree Bee, on closer inspection it was deceased but had no wings...fallen off or a mutant that was 'removed' from the nest by the other workers.

Still no Swifts for us!!!

Where to next? Back on the beach with our reguar gang of kids from the Midlands tomorrow - what we'll their little eyes find for us?

In the meantime let us know how much is deceased in your outback.

Crikey - More new stuff!!!

The Safari was out near the nature reserve with another school gang studying the habitats again, It wasn't long before they started to bring home the bacon. Drinker moths seem to have had a good season judging by the number of caterpillars found so far this week although they do appear to be a little on the small size.

No idea what this one is, Holly Blue has been suggested but we think is was collected from the middle of the field so it might not be. Offers anyone? It's some kind of sawfly rather than a Lepidopteran.

 This one anyone?

Now the decent weather, at last, had brought out a myriad of spiders, many/most were the common Garden Cross Spider but this one looked just a bit too different, we were right to have suspicions. It's Araneus quadratus, not one we've heard of before but we must admit we're not that up on spiders.

 Also found was an interesting looking shieldbug, again one we've not come across before.

Hardly surprising - Spiked Shieldbug hasn't been recorded round here before, whether that's because it's new in or just not found might never be known. Look how far away the nearest green dots are on this screen snip from the NBN Gateway

Not a lot of bird life was seen by the group - well they were excitable and noisy! But earlier we'd had a very quick sprint round the nature reserve, pretty quiet but pretty damn good! At least a couple of Cetti's Warblers singing, Redwing, Meadow Pipits and Coal Tit (MMLNR #93) new for the year there which was nice. In the field to the east a Buzzard sat on a post surveying the 2500 or so Pink Footed Geese in the field on the opposite side of the dyke. There were more; before we got round to the embankment at least another 5000 left to the north. A scope might have been good as there have been a handful of Barnacle Geese mixed in with them and European White Fronted Geese have turned up on the South-side, somehow we've missed Whooper Swans there so far this year too.

Not much on the sea this morning flocks of four and eight Shelducks and a couple each of alba and Grey Wagtails going over.

What will they find tomorrow???
Where to next? More of the same with the final class.
In the meantime let us know what might be new in your outback.

Off to the bank

The Safari was out early this morning joining the Dunes Project Officer and co for a spot of small mammaling.

We arrived in good time and the early morning sunshine was very pleasant. Several Whitethroats were very entertaining doing their dancing song flights, which proved impossible to capture on 'film' - shoulda used the video mode perhaps.

A pair of Wheatears were kicking about in the dunes near the road, the male setting off on short song flights

Skylarks were everywhere, mostly giving it plenty aloft! Except this one.

In the small patch of scrub we saw a couple of Dunnocks and heard a Chiffchaff and best of all a Garden Warbler (172).

Near the Warden's Hut we found this impressive Drinker caterpillar.

Any way on with the mammals.

Longworth Traps were set over night with a handful of hay some seeds and mealworms to keep any trappees happy overnight.

They were subsequently checked early in the morning before the sun gets too hot. They have bubble-wrap around them to keep them warm during the small hours.

Just one of the 22 traps had been triggered. The contents, including maybe an animal - occasionally the traps 'trigger themselves' - are emptied gently into a plastic bag.

 And there he(?) is...but what is it?

That fur on the flanks looks quite reddish and that's a clue. Is it a male or a female. Trap it in a fold in the bag and getting a look at its underside becomes a little easier than trying to wrangle it upside-down in your hands.

Answer - female or juvenile...unable to tell more than that.

It is a Bank Vole - much longer tail than our little friend from last weekend and the fur is obviously redder

 And once we'd finished with him/her it was time for release back in to the big wide world unharmed.

A lunchtime safari with Frank to Patch 1 - yes he got there again! - gave us a singing Lesser Whitethroat, singing in full view from the edge of an Apple tree and a Chiffchaff.

Very good to see were several butterflies on the wing, a couple or three of Speckled Woods and distant unIDd whites.

Large swathes of Sweet Vernal Grass and Meadow Foxtail are now in flower too.
Where to next? Hopefully a bit of warm sunshine this week for Wifey's birthday.

In the meantime if you don't hear from the Safari for a few days don't panic - all will be revealed in due course.