Hope that wasn't summer

The Safari had a couple of early morning wanders around Marton Mere last weekend, arriving at just before 07.00 hours. It was lively both mornings but better on Saturday. Grasshopper Warblers (147) reeled, Cetti's Warblers exploded, Blackcaps warbled, Lesser Whitethroats rattled and fresh in that day Whitethroats (148) scratched. The place was alive with bird song in the almost warm sunshine.

Willow Warbler (PYLC #117)

We took the outside path and sauntered slowly down to The Nook returning via Mere View where we found three Tree Sparrows (PYLC #121) mostly secreted in the dense Blackthorn thicket. We didn't get a pic but went back the following morning to get this one.

It was a bit harrowing (pun intended!) to see the farmer rolling the pasture, OK they'll say they have to do it to get better grass growth but if there were any Lapwing nests on there, and there have been a couple of pairs displaying, they won't have any eggs now. Lets hope they were late or can re-lay, incubate and get agile youngsters off before the next 'essential' agricultural operation.

Down along the embankment we found a Wheatear and another bird on the same fence further along which could have been a Whinchat but was just out of range for our bins. By the time we'd walked down to the bridge to get a closer look they'd both gone so perhaps the mystery bird was 'only' a well coloured Wheatear. We lurked furtively at the new pond dipping platform for ages but neither bird reappeared.

We retraced our steps along the embankment listening to several Reed Warblers, a few Cetti's Warblers and a Sedge Warbler (149). Round the corner we waited for a loud and obviously close Cetti's Warbler to show itself and managed a couple of Blue Tit pics while we waited.

Patience paid off and the Cetti's Warbler (PYLC #118) did eventually show itself and much better than expected, took us aback a little so our camera settings weren't quite right - more feeble excuses for a poor pic!

There wasn't much visible in the scrubby areas but song from Blackcaps and Lesser Whitethroats were order of the day along with Song Thrushes and Wrens. We weren't going to go to the Feeding Station as feeding has now stopped for the summer but something made us change our mind. On the way something dark brown caught our eye in the other section of the reserve, taking a pic to enlarge it it was a row of pot plants, and then we saw other stuff - several cheeky blighters have extended their gardens into the nature reserve with an array of pot plants, compost bins and heaps and even a trampoline!

We've reported the incursion so hopefully they'll be thrown back over the garden fences where they belong. Slightly miffed we continued the few yards to the Feeding Station and saw a small bird flycatching from the side of the nearest Apple tree, at first we hoped it would be one of the flycatchers most likely Pied Flycatcher but realised it was probably 'only' a Blackcap but when we got the bins on it it was a cracking male Redstart! Get in! (150, MMLNR #73). unfortunately we weren't able to get a pic as it shot through the scrub to the sunny side almost as soon as we'd spotted it.

happy we hit the track back to the car passing a lovely male Blackbird on the way. It might be a simple colour scheme but it's still stunning.

Even better was the Grasshopper Warbler reeling away very close to the path and then we caught a glimpse and were able to creep in to a position in advance of it as it made its way through the tangle of last year's stems.

Very chuffed to get a half decent shot (PYLC #119) - why do they never perch out in the open for us like the seem to do on countless occasions for all those folk on Twitter and Facebook? And then it did us the honour of singing right at us!

One of the objectives of the day was to get a pic of a singing Blackcap but they were all ever so elusive being almost invariably heard  and not seen apart from the odd little flit deep in cover. Almost back at the car we did spot one out in the open and was able to snatch a couple of iffy shots of it (PYLC #120). Woulda been a better pic had we let go of Monty's lead!

A dog walk with Wifey up to Rossall gave us a couple of Common Terns (151) sitting on a floating pallet just offshore and very little else. Then after a family visit we had half an hour late lunch break at Marshside RSPB reserve wher we found a cracking 2CY Mediterranean Gull lurking in among the throng of Black Headed Gulls and Avocets. Also there were a couple of Spoonbills (152), great to see  if a little distant and they they did a close formation fly-past rifght in fron of the hide and we didn't have a camera with us...Oh no man!!! 

Yesterday we had a mooch down the North Blackpool Pond Trail seeing our first House Martins (153) of the year  skimming low over the footy fields in the dull cold and windy conditions. Close by a Whitethroat sang but wasn't for showing itself.

On the return leg we had a look at the Black Pond and found a Heron up to its knees in the awfully invasive Crassula, New Zealand Pygmy Weed. Wherever that Heron goes next it's going to give it a dose of the nasty stuff.

A hundred yards further on and we found a few Swallows and House Martins skimming over a wet patch in one of the horse paddocks. 100 pics later and we got just one that's almost passable for the challenge.

House Martins (PYLC #122)

No we didn't manage to get any pics of the more numerous Swallows - they were just far too quick for us!

A quick scoot between the dog walkers on the top wildflower area had us find just one Bee Orchid rosette, there's probably more but it needs to be quieter to have a proper look.

This morning we planned to go back to Marton Mere but the threatened rain started as soon as we got Monty in the car so we had a change of plan and headed for the cliffs. At first it seemed like nothing much was happening. We noted the clumps of Great Burnet beginning to sprout so added them to iRecord.

and then not too many yards along the path spotted something that's obviously been there a long time but we've never noticed before, a small stunted Apple tree and you'll never guess what there was a similarly scratty bonsai-d Willow not ten paces away. The more you look the more you see, the more you see the more you learn. We looked and looked for anything else we might have missed over the years but those were enough for one day.

The Apple 'tree'

The Willow bush

 There were no birds to be seen on the way north but coming back we saw three Shelducks going south well out to sea. Shortly after a light shower a female Wheatear was seen working its way  along the bottom of the cliffs. Three, two and a single Swallows tazzed up and down along the cliff face gleaning whatever insects were in the air after the rain, the first we've seen here this year. Never mind first of the year a first EVER was about to pop up in front of us in the form of two Woodpigeons walking along the path not far in front of us. Fortunately Monty was well behaved and didn't flush them. We were able to get a bit of phone pic - no camera again!

Wasn't expecting them! Isn't Nature is ace - it always has the knack of throwing you a curve ball

Where to next? It's Bird Bingo with the kids on the Pond Trail tomorrow, what will we find?

In the meantime let us know who you weren't expecting in your outback

Warbletastic - and not before time

The Safari has again had a few short nips over to the sea wall and Patch 2.  The other morning we were fortunate enough to see two Linnets out the back at work. We say fortunate when in reality they are now very scarce here after being a regular breeder until the Gorse hedge got too severely hacked in our absence one year. They were seen just after a heavy shower so were probably migrants from who knows where and were feeding voraciously on Dandelion seeds. We raced down the corridor to grab the camera as they were only a few feet from the window but as is always the way they annoyingly had done a flit by the time we got back and were not seen again. Now fueled up and with brighter weather after the shower they were keen to get on their way.

By lunchtime conditions had deteriorated a bit. Looking out to sea it was as hazy as hell, focusing the scope was only possible to about 3/4 of a mile and a very cold north westerly wind was getting stronger by the minute chopping up the sea something rotten.

In the distancee to our left we could see a string of terns making their way towards us. We had to wait a while for them to reach us and in the meantime enjoyed good views of a small number of Manx Shearwaters going past and a flock of 18 Kittiwakes. just beyond the green buoy, so just about focus-on-able in the haze. Not entirely sure how we're going to get these two species on our Year Bird Photo Challenge list as even as close as that they are going to be no more tha ntwo or three pixels even with the 600mm lens.

The terns eventually turned up and the great majority of them were Sandwich Terns but interspersed where at least a dozen Arctic Terns (138, P2 #47) too. We watched them as they passed hugging the troughs to keep their slight bodies out of the head wind as much as possible.Only a couple of thousand miles to go chaps if your off to the high Arctic.

After work we met up with GB and had a mooch round the nature park near his that is also known as a dog toilet. Here we used our new Swazza bins and the first bird ever to be to be seen through them was a fine and dandy male Wheatear, nice one! Over the fenced off grassy areas Skylarks sang with gusto filling the air with their exultations. Walking down to the riverbank where the tide was well up and almost fully covering the marsh we heard then saw a Whimbrel (139, YBC #118) that had been close to the side and heard us coming. There were a couple more and one was almost obliging!

A few Swallows and Sand Martins tazzed upstream as we wandered round chatting but with the plethora of dogs running about there wasn't much bird life to be seen. From one of the pools we heard the whinneying call of a Little Grebe but didn't have a look at the other nor a proper listen at the reedbed although there was a Reed Bunting flitting around there and at least a couple of Reed Warblers singing.

With time up we headed back to the car.

Yesterday we were at the nature reserve at 06.30 and probably and hour too late. It wasn't at all bad but an hour earlier we'd have missed the dog walkers. As soon as we got through the gate at the wetland we heard a new bird for the year, a Sedge Warbler (140, MMLNR #65), it was hunkered down low in the vegetation and wouldn't show properly for a pic. A few yards further on and we heard another new bird, a Grasshopper Warbler (141, MMLNR #66) amazingly we could see it perched up almost in the open a long way off but as soon as we raised the camera for what was ever only going to be a poor record shot it flew.

It is a Grasshopper Warbler - honest

Once on the path to the nature reserve another new bird was first heard then sen when a Whitethroat  (142, MMLNR #67) started singing its scratchy tuneless ditty from the back of bush and then launched into its song flight. We'll get a pic of that when it lands we though - no it did what its old colloquial name of Nettlecreeper describes and landed in thick low vegetation never to come out again.

On we went mostly to the tune of an almost uncountable multitude if Blackcaps, it wasn't that long ago they were scarce here - not any more! Numerous they are but elusive too and we only saw one briefly so we still haven't got a pic for our Year Bird Challenge. At one point we almost got another pic of a Cetti's Warbler when one exploded int o song inches from our ear from a hawthorn bush on the 'inland' side of the path well away from the lake's edge. It showed rather well in the outer twigs and we'll probably have to wait a long time to get better views of one in our new bins. You've guessed it though, as soon as we swapped bins for camera it was off!

More Whitethroats scratched, Blackcaps fluted, Willow Warblers warbled and Chiffchaffs chiffed (and chaffed) but all from deep cover and we couldn't get the camera on any of them. In the reedbed it was obvious there were many more newly arrived Reed Warblers and some Sedge Warblers too.

At the scrape we met LR coming the other way and as we chatted a Common Sandpiper (MMLNR #68) came in to view. And then we heard a Grasshopper Warbler fire up from the island opposite us.

He went off for his breakfast and we continued round to the embankment where we heard another Grasshopper Warbler close by then another further away - four singing males great stuff! We walked as far as the bridge passing yet more loud Cetti's Warblers and more Reed Warblers and another Whitethroat was over on the island.

Turning back at the bridge and retracing our steps we now saw two Grasshopper Warblers close together at the top end of the embankment while the more distant one in the ditch and the one on the island were still reeling away at each other, a pair perhaps? 

Continuing round pastt the scrape we hoped to see the recently spotted Bullfinches in the scrub which is burtsing in to flower, no chance - are they even still here but it really does look good for them. A Lesser Whitethroat (143, MMLNR #69) rattled away from the far side of the scrub.

By now we were being plagued by dog walkers, most allowing their mutts to run around unleashed. We saw a couple more Whitethroats and in good light going back towards the car we stopped to get a pic but each time Monty was disturbed from his very 'good sit and wait' by yet another unleashed dog coming up to him and him moving and yanking our arm...very very frustrating. The adjacent caravan site needs to be a dog-free site and the Public Footpath running through the reserve needs to be moved to outside the fence, there's a perfectly suitable surfaced path going in the same destination only a few yards to the north. We don't mind dogs, well well-behaved ones at least; it's the arrogant twatty owners we don't like!

Almost out of the reserve we watched a small passage of Swallows and Sand Martins and with them was our first Swift (144, MMLNR #70) of the year. We couldn't follow it in the camera as yet another dog came passed making Monty pull at our arm. At the same time about 30 Black Tailed Godwits came in from the east and circled around a couple of times, we think they landed on the scrape but couldn't be totally sure.

Frustrated we wandered a little further and came across another Lesser Whitethroat rattling away unseen deep in the scrub.Not keeping hidden in the scrub was one of the Sedge Warblers (YBC #119) we passed on the way in and it was still showing very well in the Raspberry thicket. We stopped and snapped away.

Beautiful little thing shame it's song can't quite  be described as beautiful too!

A little further on at the edge of the wetlands we heard the Grasshopper Warbler (YBC #120) again. Again we could see it and tried to sneak round to get a clearer view. As we walked through the grass we disturbed a second from almost under our feet, Another pair perhaps? The male continued to reel away as we moved round. It was more or less in the same twigs as it was first thing. All of a sudden two weird things happened. The camera refused to find a focus point, battery was dying and for the first time ever outside Monty started barking and jumping up at our back - bonkers what was all that about? Anyway we only managed a couple of shots before the battery totally died and Monty's antics flushed the bird and this was easily the best shot we got.

A good morning out on safari but a frustrating one too.
Where to next? Strong easterly winds at this time of year mean Black Terns but we've got family duties so we hope some will stick around locally over the  holiday weekend.
In the meantime let us know who's reeling away in your outback

w,w,ww.dot

The Safari was out very early this morning but once again failed to drag Frank more than a few paces up the hill. A Blackcap and a Willow Warbler were heard singing from nearby gardens though...a little taster of things to come or what we might have missed in the park.

Once Wifey had left for London we got our revenge on Frank and took him to the top end of Chat Alley for a walk (snigger snigger) back down the coast ‘against’ the migration.

It proved fairly fruitful as we soon noticed a Wheatear and then another and another and so on. They were everywhere but very flighty, getting near them for a pic was proving very difficult. Joggers, cyclists, dog walkers and ourselves (despite our best efforts) kept then constantly flitting from wall to wall or up in to the remnant ‘cliff’ face grassland.

Taking a rest one on of the benches - "the sea's the other way mate"

Bright!

Wish the nearest one was facing us - a real stonker!

We came a cross a bank with a bit of land slip showing some exposed soil and had 14 feeding together but still couldn’t get the shot off as they disturbed and flew further down. We decided to wait to give Frank a bit of a rest but after 10 minutes or so they still hadn’t returned.

Meanwhile there was plenty still happening. Out at sea it was glassy calm but visibility was restricted by a bit of a grey-out. Two single Whimbrels flew past while overhead we had a couple of Linnets and a Redpoll between the dribs and drabs of over 100 Swallows, which included just two House Martins. About five Meadow Pipits were also heard.

We were hoping for a Whinchat amongst the Wheatears but no such luck for the Safari although two Common Sandpipers working their way along the seaward side of the wall was a nice bonus.
Tried a few BiF shots but it was a bit to grey and grisly....nice moult pic though

Same gull different angle of light = different shade of grey

Tired Frank

Leaving to drop Frank off at his office we had a flock of about 10 Goldfinches bouncing along the top of the cliff which could well have been migrants.

We left him to get on with whatever he does at work, snoring, typing, wagging, filing, barking at the postman etc, while we aimed for our desk. As soon as we got out of the Land Rover we heard a Willow Warbler, excellent a work’s garden lifer and Patch 2 tick no 72. Another was flitting along the hedge at the front of the building....great stuff!

Grabbing the scope we shot over the road to the wall but might have been better grabbing the bins and walking round the garden. We had a lovely flock of 10 Arctic Terns elegantly dipping for insects(?) only a few yards offshore, five Eiders sat together close by to the north while in the distance to the south two Shelducks somewhat unusually sat on the water. A Swift and a Swallow came in-off from a long way out about a minute or so apart.

Once the puter had fired up we read an email from SD saying that he’d given up seawatching due to poor visibility and gone round the gardens and had at least five Willow Warblers and a reeling Grasshopper Warbler! Then gone on to another nearby site and had more Willow Warblers along with a singing Wood Warbler!!! It seems the floodgates have opened at last.

Mid morning we had a chat with the gardener while waiting for the kettle to boil and the Gropper (P2 73) was reeling away from the depths of the thick hedge by the car park.

By lunchtime all the warblers and Wheatears seemed to have frittered themselves away and out on the sea there was nothing apart from a handful of Sandwich Terns.
Where to next? What might happen tomorrow morning?
In the meantime let us know what dropped en masse in your outback

Not sure what to call this

The Safari started at 06.50 on the nature reserve. A cooler morning than yesterday with a stiff breeze and no sun. The birds were much quieter far fewer being heard. We stood awhile at the Redstart scrub but only saw a Woodpigeon, not even a Blackcap stirred - yesterday they were all over the shop.

A little further down the still quiet track we came across this small Puffball - anyone know it?

We met the same out of town birder as yesterday and he put us onto a Grasshopper Warbler (163, 82) but said that he had had two. We listened to the first and followed him to the other which he said had been showing quite well. We heard it from a good way off and then our hawk-eyed friend spotted it low down but fairly close to us. If you can tell it's a Gropper from these pics your doing well!

We also had a Sedge Warbler (164, 83) singing in the bushes a bit further back. But with time at a premium we headed back to the Redstart scrub for another stake out  - again little stirred and our alarm went off telling us time was up...time to aim for a bacon butty!

A few hours later we were back and spotted a bit of a hiccup in the field across from the Groppers, which weren't singing now although Young Un Jonny had heard FOUR.

Oops...

At the other end of the reserve we waited for this St Mark's-fly to be devoured by the owner of the web but it never appeared. Instead the pic isn't out of focus its the fly shaking itself free, luckiest St Mark's-fly in town!

Frank was getting warm in the lovely sunshine - less cold wind at his level? He found a puddle in the wheel ruts...doesn't he always!!!

The warmth brought out several butterflies, we had four species in the end, this Small Tortoiseshell was the first one seen of the day.

A minute or two later we spotted another Small Tortoiseshell and a Peacock nectaring on adjacent Dandelions, unfortunately a cloud came over and the Peacock closed its wings the same instant we pressed the shutters :-(

A Carrion Crow sped past so speedily we missed half of him...

We spent a long time listening for a Lesser Whitethroat that didn't show - can't win em all, although our Extreme Photographer probably got a very brief glimpse of it.

At the end of the safari we sat at the duck feeding area with the idea of getting some gull-in-flight shots but there weren't many gulls about and the copious amount of bread on the floor suggested that those that were around were full to busting!

 Got one gull-in-flight pic and we're quite pleased with it.

A pair of Tufted Ducks dived repeatedly, the female was too quick fro the camera...or at least its operator.

In the reeds was the serene sight of the female Mute Swan on her nest.

Not so serene was her mate having a big ole bath

 Meanwhile down at our feet a female House Sparrow took advantage of the uneaten bread

 ...but did it see the Sparrowhawk or one of the four Buzzards overhead.

 But what about the Cuckoo we 'predicted' yesterday? Well it did turn up but about mile or so away :-(   Never mind we did get another nature reserve year bird in the form of a House Martin (84).

Where to next? Patch 2 will be back in play tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know what miscellany befell you in your outback.