June arrives and so does the rain

The Safari has been mostly in the garden at Base Camp this week but we have been around a couple of local sites too.

We've had a little success with the moth trap but nothing to really get the pulse racing. To be fair the best catches this week have been non-moths like this tiny Caenis mayfly of which there were two on Monday morning.

When the sun has shone, which hasn't been as often as we'd like this week, we've been down to the bottom of the garden where it's a bit wilder (Wifey says too wild!). Up there we came across the first 2-Spot Ladybird we've seen this year, not seen many ladybirds of any description yet, this one was a very small individual.

With not much happening we took ourselves back indoors for a brew where we found this crane fly bouncing around the kitchen window trying to smash the panes of glass to get out. Once it had come to rest we saw that it wasn't one of your 'normal' types of Crane Fly but from the family of Fold Winged Flies, Ptychopteridae.

Later in the afternoon another Mint Moth was hanging round the pot plants..

The following morning we had a 'click & collect' grocery shop to pick up from the store. The van from which your shopping is parked at the top end of the car park and this morning there was a queue of cars waiting their turn so naturally we joined the end of it hoping it wouldn't be a long wait. We turned the engine off and wound the window down. There's not much in the way of vegetation anywhere near the store but the car park does have a few bushes which attract the local House Sparrow flock so we were listening to them chirruping away in the dense cover when we heard another call which sounded like a Coal Tit. We heard it again and it still sounded like a Coal Tit, can't be there's not a tree for miles and even further to the nearest conifers. Then a Coal Tit appeared in a little gap in the side of the line of bushes and hopped off only to be followed by a second - how mad is that - what a great shop car park tick. The Swift, or was there more than one, tazzing round the eaves of the terraced houses backing on to the car park was great to watch too. 

After the shopping as safely stashed away at Base Camp we set off with the mutt for a wander round Woodland Gardens and Heron's Reach. As soon as we entered the wood this huge fungus caught our eye. Must be the best part of a metre from end to end.

We're useless at fungi so if anyone can put a name to it let us know. The rest of the walk was mainly Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs but we did hear a Ring Necked Parakeet high above the old military pill-box  in the wood, could they have a nest somewhere up there we were there again today and heard one calling from the same place on the way out and the way back.

Mammals were represented by both Lion and Tiger but no Elephants as we peered over the zoo fence. The mutt's nose tells him there's something interesting on the other side of the fence but he hasn't a clue what as he's not tall enough to see over - probably just as well! What we didn't expect to see was a Rabbit a little further along the path and this side of the fence, can't remember the last time we saw one of those round there, if indeed we ever have.

We had a look under the usual amphibian refugia finding just a few Toads and nothing that we 'wanted' - the ground was very dry even under cover.

Back on the path a movement low in the undergrowth on the far side alerted our attention. Another Rabbit and a young one at that. Certainly wasn't expecting to see a second round there and this one was a good 200 metres from the first so almost definitely from another family.

Some sunshine brought out a few insects like this Speckled Wood butterfly but far fewer than we would have expected especially bees of which there were hardly any.

Wednesday saw the first appreciable rain for several weeks although despite it being prolonged and quite heavy it still hasn't done any more than dampen the ground.

In an attempt to attract the over-flying families of Starlings into the garden we've been putting mealworms out. Not a Starling in sight, they've even stopped flying over. But as soon as we put any mealworms out now the local Magpies and this individual Herring Gull are right on them, the gull having to do a precarious balancing act to get its beak in the tub..

Also seen in the garden on a wet Wednesday were a second family of Greenfinches and the Great Tits are feeding young in our House Sparrow terrace - very late starting this year, they'd fledged by now this time last year.

Thursday finally gave us some moths and not Heart & Darts.

Angle Shades

Treble Lines

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Also in the trap were a couple of Caddis Flies, this larger one is a Limnopphilus sp

A much smaller one is as yet unidentified.

After breakfast we were down on the beach with the mutt. A few Moon Jellyfish had been washed up. No other species of jellyfish though although in recent days others have been reporting lots of Sea Gooseberries.

We also found a smallish Common Starfish alive and well and cruising slowly round one of the puddles left by the tide very close to the seawall. Also found nearby was this deceased Thornback Ray, another angling victim no doubt.. Juts look at the shadow of the spines along its tail - fearsome!

Along the cliffs we came across our first juvenile Pied Wagtail, waiting around a while we saw both the parents but no other youngsters.

Around the garden in the afternoon we concentrated on watching the bees

Early Bumble Bee

But also found some other little things like this Running Spider, Philodromus sp, and by eck could it run it was well wick even over the vertical surface of a pane of window glass!!!

and this tiny green true bug just a few millimetres long.

The bee we hoped to find didn't turn up. An apparently all black one that won't keep still.

We did finally catch up with it at the weekend - do we still have weekends? A Leaf  Cutting Bee, probably Megachile centuncularis.

Being photo-bombed by a Tree Bee

We've seen both the male and the female but haven't seen the female carrying leaves yet although in the bottom pic it's collecting pollen. 

On Sunday we had an early morning wander round the Rock Gardens seeing a pair of Whitethroats feeding young and another male singing from the opposite end of the field.

Back at the bottom of the garden we came across this small black wasp. It's believed to be one of the five (or six - depending on which taxonomist you read) Pemphredon species although a profile pic would have been useful to rule out other genera but it didn't hang around long enough for that and we haven't seen it since.

If it is one of those none of them have been recorded in the Fylde before.

As dusk fell we had our first House Sparrow on the new millet feeder in the back garden. Probably the same male that came a couple of times when the feeder dispensed suet pellets but hasn't been seen since. All we need now is for it to come back during the day to have his photo taken, and we'd be quite happy for him to bring his family along too - we need them - - we jumped in with both feet and got 17kg of red millet delivered.

All in all a pretty action packed week on safari.

Where to next? With lockdown being eased even further  we're going to be a bit more adventurous and have some further flung safaris planned.

In the meantime let us know who's Been visiting your outback.

Remember to stay safe and socially distant while enjoying the wildlife round your way.

There's always summat to moan about

The Safari has been mostly stuck indoors watching the feeders through the kitchen window. Nothing overly exciting but the unringed male Greenfinch put in an appearance after several days AWOL and where have the Jackdaws gone? Not even heard them for a good few days now.

Nice to see a young Blackbird learning the ropes

This is the only time we've seen a Starling on the seed feeder

The Starling above is doubly unique, not only was it on that feeder it was also ringed. A look at SE's blog showed that the Fylde Ringing Group had only ringed two Starlings this year to the end of May, so not a species they come across very often and don't target specifically at this time of year so where had it come from. Further inquiries suggested it may have been ringed well to the south of us in a trainee ringer's garden but that location does seem too  far away from Base Camp we'd expect that it was a much more local bird, but who knows? There's one way to find out, hope it comes back and hope we've got the big lens ready when it does.

We had the big lens on whilst sat outside once the rain had stopped when a big dobber of a Tree Bee flew past us and landed on the Northern Marsh Orchid and stated to crawl about. We fired off a few shots at 600mm; it was about 18ft (6m) away from us.

OK so they show a bee crawling up a flower, nowt special about that. But look closer at the two side shots, in the top one you can see the proboscis going into the flower but what's that yellow stuff. One shot we weren't fast enough on the shutter button to get but saw through the viewfinder was the bee leaning right back as though it was pulling something from the flower - was it the yellow 'stuff' are they stamens? We didn't notice the yellow stuff til we downloaded the pics.

We put the pics on Twitter asking for opinions and got a 'like' but not an answer from a Steven Falk - we wonder if it was this Steven Falk???

A little later another bee was seen visiting flowers in the same tub, this time an Early Bumble Bee with some hitch hikers.

Not the best of pics but you can clearly see the mites on the bee's back

The Foxgloves are ever popular too.

Other than these goings-on not a great lot was happening out there although a bit of warm sunshine brought some Blue Tailed Damselflies out of hiding.

Later on in the afternoon we spotted this story in the local newspaper, the 'Tidy Brigade' strike again in big contrast to this much more positive offering from the other side of the border.

Pic belongs to Cugel Phandaal Law originally posted here and stolen from him by all and sundry - hope he doesn't mind us adding to that list

The comments section in the newspaper article show the fear of the natural world, people have become so used to dominating and controlling vegetation they're now frightened of it and will use any excuse to regain control. Those children shouldn't be pulling faces they should be getting down amongst the grass and looking for beetles, snails and the like, chasing the butterflies that will now abound (at lest the skippers will abound), getting mud on their knees, getting stung by Nettles, scratched by Brambles, accidentally putting their hand on an ant's nest- it won't kill them!!! Don't panic about it it's not the end of the world there's far more things to worry about like why there isn't the money to continue cutting the grass aka destroying the biodiversity. And hey (hay?) exposure to all that grass of a multitude of species might actually help them not contract hay-fever in the first place as some studies are suggesting that it is our under-exposure to a variety of chemicals and compounds that are the cause of so many people having immune deficiency/over-reaction disorders.

Blaming litter is out of order - long grass does not produce litter, lazy litter louts make litter whether there's long grass or not. We reckon it looks good and because the path edges are mown it looks managed and supposed to 'be like that'. The doggy do-do they're whinging about should be less of a problem too, the slugs and snails will eat it overnight provided some charming person hasn't bagged it and chucked the bag; although it does add unwanted nutrients to the eco-system. And anyway you should be keeping your mutt on a lead until it's done its business and  you can see it to tidy away into a bin not letting it run rampant and squat 'unseen'...we can only dream......Don't know about London but the street on our walk to the shops certainly isn't paved with gold, brown yes, gold no!

Trouble is the areas that really do need to get cut and raked/collected like both the rough and smooth fields at Patch 1 and the grassy area in the scrub that is so good for invertebrates unfortunately will never be cut as they aren't seen as a 'tidy' priority when in fact they should be the top priority.

Hopefully these numpties will get used to the long grass in a couple of years and by then there might even be some orchids and other spectacular (and not so spectacular) wildflowers growing in the verges, parks and open spaces too. It all goes to show yet again that we desperately need some serious environmental/ecological education right through the school curriculum system so these elementary mistakes and fears can be done away with once and for all.

Where to next? We put the moth trap out last night so there should be some mothy news for you next time.

In the mean time let us know who's hiding in the long grass in your outback.

Bank holiday bees

The Safari didn't have a lot of wildlifey joy yesterday for some reason the garden was very quiet. Not sure why it was good and warm, barely a cloud in the sky with little in the way of a breeze - the weather was so good our shorts found their way out of the draw for the first time in at least 18 months!

We found the exuvium of a Blue Tailed Damselfly in the pond, we saw two adults or the same one twice during the afternoon. Other than those/it the only other entries into the notebook where a few species of bumblebees and the first Ruby Tailed Wasp of the year.

We spent an hour or so with Wifey at the garden centre choosing bedding plants. In a quiet corner where the staff stashed hosepipes, wheelbarrows etc one of the assistants found a fledging Dunnock while overhead a pair of Buzzards took advantage of a thermal.

This morning we went out and straight away heard lots of splashing coming from the pond. Our Goldfish were getting very frisky - the ring leader seemed to be the red one we 'rescued' from the pond at work a few weeks ago.

Even the smaller ones were having a go.

Early on there were a few more birds, the pair of Jackdaws putting in a quick smash and grab raid on the suet blocks, the Blackcap was singing from the nearest its been so far and a well grown juvenile Blackbird were pick of the bunch until a mating flight of three Swifts went over screaming very high up, brilliant to watch them scythe at breakneck speed through the azure sky, shame we see them so infrequently here now. Does make us wonder what we've done to the planet when there are no Swifts to be seen on warm summer days.

We watched a solitary bee go in to the be hotel and decided to try to get some pics. It came and went several times but unpredictably. While we waited other insects caught our eye like these Flesh Flies.

Greenbottles (Lucilla sp) are regulars in the garden during the summer and often allow quite a close approach if you're patient and careful.

The trellis against the sunny garage wall is the favoured place for the Ruby Tailed Wasp to hang out. We saw it many times but it wouldn't stay still in a convenient place. Eventually it investigated a hole for a potential bee victim but out rushed a spider. The wasp was struck at but the spider backed off and left alone but when the wasp tried to fly off it was badly tangled in the web. We tried to rescue it but it dropped to the ground still tangled and we haven't sen it since so we don't know if it managed to free itself or not.

A much small spider was seen while we were waiting for the Ruby Tailed Wasp to reappear, a tiny jumping Zebra Spider. Unfortunately it was running down the trellis so its face is a bit too shadowed. These little chaos are great characters and quite feisty, rearing up at you even though your 'only' a billion times bigger than they are.

Eventually we did get our bee pics.

We hadn't realised that the holes don't go all the way back; we'd assumed (once again never assume anything unless told to in Maths/Physics exam paper) that the drilled woodblock and Bamboo tubes were hard up against the back of the box but they're not, there is a gap so the bee could go down one and come out of another making best guessing it tricky to say the least.

Given the huge number of 'duds' we're pleased we managed this one good shot

Once the sun had gone off the garage wall we turned our attentions to the bumble bees and had a little bit of success with this worker Early Bumblebee.

Isn't digital photography a marvel. We must have taken well over 100 shots to get that last one, how much would that have cost in slide film and all that waiting to get them back from the developers to find 99.9% were total tosh! We'll try again perhaps with the plants in pot where we can set up angles and lighting to best effect rather than try getting the bees at plants in situ.

Where to next? There's an interesting year bird turned up not far away if we can persuade Wifey in to giving us a lift after tea, would be a lifer for her too.

In the meantime let us know who's 'bee'n buzzing around your outback today.

Flash bang wallop

The Safari enjoyed a warm evening of Brownies, Garden Snails, Ladybirds including a 14-Spot Ladybird and Pill-bugs. As they were being dropped off by their parents we saw the light was shining on the pond lighting up one of the Water Lily flowers just nicely. Maybe a bit too nicely for the phone cam to capture - really must work out how to use the white balance on it properly.

All manner of Black Ants, Red Tailed Bumble Bees, Tree Bees, Damselfly nymphs, Greater Pond snails, Ramshorn Snails and 3-spined Sticklebacks were either potted or netted and thoroughly inspected.

Best find of the night was as we were finishing off. The Brownies had dispersed to the playground and we'd put away most of the gear when a Brimstone moth flew past - crikey they can't half go no chance of running after it and catching it up, had us well beat. A very common moth but a real rarity at work - actually it might not be as we're not there at that time of night all that often.

This morning we put an app on our phone for recording bumble bees - so easy to use don't even have to ID the trickier ones down to species level but it's still a great addition to citizen science and getting anyone with a smartphone involved.

We gave it a try round the work's garden and came up with a good tally of most of the main groups apart from Common Carder Bees, loads at Base Camp but not so many at work this year.

Several clusters of plants were festooned with bees, notably the Hebe bushes, our wild garden with its Borage and Perennial Cornflowers and the Meadow Cranesbills at the end of the raised beds.

Here's an Early Bumble Bee on the Meadow Cranesbills.

The warm morning gave way to heavy showers and at lunchtime we got out to Patch 2 to see precious little. A few Gannets were circling around in the distance doing not very much. The showers got heavier and more prolonged and the skies grew darker.

This black menace chased us all the way down the prom before it unleashed a couple of bolts of lightning but sadly not as many as we had hoped for.

Where to next? Last week's Brownies are back again tomorrow evening this time they're on the beach investigating the rockpools.

In the meantime let us know where Thor's hammer is being flung about with gay abandon in your outback.