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.

Another mammal-tastic day and some scales for balance

The Safari was out on the seawall early doors but it was all bit of an anticlimax. There was very little about, best by a mile were the seven Sandwich Terns sat on the new green buoy. We had no opportunities to get out in the garden during the morning, we're on the hunt for solitary bees on the Dandelions and/or any other plants as they begin to flower. It would appear that we have no Viper's Bugloss coming up this year which is a shame as it's great for the bumble bees.

At lunchtime the tide was in, the Sandwich Terns were still on the buoy and at first glance it didn't seem like there was much about. But we persevered and found three Grey Seals and a Harbour Porpoise so deffo worth sticking it out for a few more minutes. We gave it a bit longer, really only in the hope of getting another look at the Harbour Porpoise which had done their usual sudden disappearing act, and picked up a couple of birds in the distance3 coming towards us across the bay. It took an age for them to get close enough to ID and they were still directly face on. We had an inkling of what they were but had to wait til they turned broadside and headed up the coast before we could confirm they were a couple of Whimbrel (P2 #62) as we predicted. Is it just us or are Bar Tailed Godwits in short supply this season, don't think anyone round these parts is seeing many?

In the afternoon we had another class from the local school to do their science investigation of our pond and of course have a bash with the nets. We set everything out for them and had a little look to see what we could see in the pond. There was the flippin Goldfish that some bright spark had put in was swimming up and down seemingly unconcerned by our presence. Cautiously we grabbed one of the nets and gently put it in the water well ahead of it and it did us a favour by almost swimming straight into it, just a little swish and it was in with no escape!

It's now been relocated to the pond at Base Camp where it won't be the biggest fish in a much smaller pond. At last this ecological nightmare with its huge mouth and appetite is gone from our wildlife pond. Hopefully there'll be much more pond life and much better variety for the kids to explore later in the summer.

In other scaly news we had a very excited txt from our Extreme Photographer the other evening telling us to check our emails.

What we found was a couple of pics of a creature he'd found at one of his work sites. Just basking in the sun and as docile as you like! He told us he only had his phone to hand being at work.

A real beaut, the biggest he's ever seen he says. All he needs now is one swimming across the wild pond in his garden!

Shame we don't have any left round these  parts - - or do we???
Where to next? Back to Patch 2 tomorrow but no school groups
In the meantime let us know who's the slipperiest character 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.