Skies full of geese

The Safari took the trail north over the border last week. As is usual for our longer journeys we kept a tally of the raptors we saw, it wasn't the best of days for raptors to be on the wing and that was reflected in the numbers seen, Buzzards 3 (of which we missed one) versus Kestrels 1. Dead things amounted to just one Fox (apart from a few Woodpigeons and numerous Pheasants recently released to be shot). Is there no wildlife left in the north of England, surely we'd expect more than that to end up squished along a 150 mile route?

A comfort stop for Monty by the river in Dumfries town centre had us missing an opportunity to get a snap of a Goosander although it would have had to have been a phone-pic as the cameras were packed well down in the back of the car. Three Red Admirals basking on a tree trunk enjoying the warm sunshine was nice to see, we disturbed a fourth from the grass as we walked Monty too.

Arriving at our cottage once unpacked it was time for a quick scan of the calm sea with the binoculars, a Harbour Porpoise was seen almost straight away not far offshore, great stuff!

Sunday 

Our first early morning Monty walk along the beach gave us a small number of Siskins at the top of a pine tree in a neighbouring garden, no chance of any pics for our Photo Challenge in the semi-dark at that time of the morning.

Then it was off for an hour or so before breakfast to the RSPB reserve Mersehead, a wetland and saltmarsh reserve of big skies on the narrow plain twixt the mountains and the sea.

The hedges along the path to the first hide were alive with birds, with every step there was a whirring of wings as the birds moved along the hedge in front of us before doubling back to a favoured spot on the far side of the thick bushes. There were Reed Buntings and Robins galore, Song Thrushes, Greenfinches, Dunnocks, Wrens, Linnets and a Chiffchaff. every foot along the grassy edge to the path, on both sides, had the imprint of a Badger's snout where they had been grubbing up worms overnight. It's a shame the same can't be said for all the other local hedgerows. Red from the multitude of berries was the dominant colour rather than the white of the shattered and splintered twigs and branches left behind by the farmers' flails on the other hedges leaving little food or shelter in this windswept landscape.

Surely it can't take much of a change for farmers across the land to produce hedges full of food like this

Linnets

We heard Goldcrests deep in the hedges, Skylark, Rooks (which seem to rarely get a mention by the Safari these days) and Carrion Crows on the recently cut field and a Buzzard on a post.

Rook (left) and Carrion Crow (right)

Rook

Along the short woodland walk to the next hide a scurry in the grass down by our feet was either a shrew or a vole, it was lost in the undergrowth before we'd got any more than 'mammal' on it! Red Campion was still in flower and shafts of light coming through thee every dwindling canopy illuminated an area of Hawthorn leaves where a cluster of hoverflies were indulging in a mating ritual a bit like Strictly Come Dancing on an invertebrate scale.

Pink Footed Geese called as they flew overhead and on the wetland in the distance there was a flock of Grey Lag Geese and a few Canada Geese

Pink Footed Geese high up and possibly just fresh in from Iceland

But where were the site's speciality the Barnacle Geese? Oh here they are...among the very first arrivals of the autumn!

Coming in from the north over the mountains, their dog-like yapping calls soon filled the air...marvelous! Barnacle Geese (177, YBC #153)
Back along the hedgerow with only minutes to spare before having to return to Temporary Base Camp we noted Yellowhammers, Tree Sparrows and lots of Chaffinches, Robins and Blackbirds.

There were even House Sparrows in the hedge and around the barns and farmhouse, it was like stepping back to an earlier time in our youth when there was still 'bioabundance' in our countryside.

Insects were represented by Red Admirals feeding on Ivy flowers, no Ivy Bees up this far north yet but we were told they've reached the Fylde so that'll be one to look out for next week.

On the short drive back we saw a Jay and a Bullfinch fly across the road in front of us.
The tide was coming in as we arrived flushing Meadow Pipits of the beach and a couple of Ravens were passing overhead.

As we scanned the sea there were no Harbour Porpoises but there was a Red Throated Diver sheltering in the little bay in the lee of the rocks. It might have recently 'overlanded' from the east coast as it spent well over an hour just sitting preening and shaking itself down.

Further out on the sea there wasn't anything more than three Great Crested Grebes and more and more flights of Barnacle Geese overhead. A walk along the beach a little later saw Monty's nose finding a Harbour Porpoise vertebra.

Apologies for the out of focusness and/or camera shake

Where to next? We'll tell you about the rest of the week tomorrow.
In the meantime let us know who's just arrived in your outback.

A quick catch up

The Safari hasn't been able to get out as much we we'd like this week. Today we got a slightly longer look at Patch 2 than yesterday but yesterday we did see a Curlew land on the beach which when we checked our records discovered we'd forgotten to add it to our Year List (121; P2 #36).

At Base Camp in the evening the first Lesser Black Backed Gull (Garden #22) flew over.

Today the beach offered us the best count of Sanderling of the season, 250, there'll be more to come in the next few weeks. A single Dunlin was with them but there could have been a few others in the most distant groups. A Knot (P2 #37) was bullied off its shellfish finds by the outfall pipe. Sadly this is going to be removed and replaced with a buried pipe, better for water quality but there'll be no 'reef' structure and no swirling silty mud for the waders to probe in - quite disappointing really, they call it progress we guess. There may be the opportunity for some rock armour but it'll all be below the lowest spring tide mark.

Our side of the wall a pile of wind-blown sand dampened by the overnight rain had several trails from Sea Slaters, we've not seen one yet this year but they must be about.

We were going to have a rant about hedgerows and how their current management may or may not be beneficial to wildlife, focusing on some farmland breeding birds but not exclusively, there's wintering birds, there's small mammals, hedgehogs, bats, a multitude of invertebrates, wildflowers.

There's also the requirements of cross compliance for farmers to access their payments and there are regulations they have to abide to for the different levels of Stewardship.

But it's not only farmers that have hedgerows, there's Highways hedges and garden hedges too although the latter have barely any rules governing them.

Here's a few pics of some local hedgerows - over to you - discuss amongst yourselves

Hmmm

Better but gappy an lacking low cover

Gappy but wide enough to give some decent cover

This one hasn't been touched for at least 25 years, has had Long Eared Owls roosting in it

May! How many berries will there be in the autumn?

He's just cut off all the flowering wood - numpty but there's no law against it, he's 'tidying up'. If only he had had some natural history education through his school years.

Another one trimmed just before the flowers opened - this time by 'professional' landscape gardeners. And we wonder why the various pollinator species are suffering

We used to have a Privet hedge, nowhere near as big as this. Yes it was a bit wild and wooly but the birds, bees and butterflies loved it.

It's very drastic at the time

On our drive up the motorway the other day we saw some nice lengths of hedge-laying - excellent stuff. But on the other side of the carriage way was some that had been done a couple of years ago and sadly now was flailed to a 1 metre square 'tube' with a tiny amount of 'cover' confined to the top couple of inches when the cut stems had resprouted before being cut off again - we've seen this on several occasions locally - sad.

Where to next? More brief Patch 2 stuff tomorrow.
In the meantime let us know who's making tracks in your outback.

Short but sweet safari

The Safari spend most of the morning and early afternoon trying to get to grips with the wilderness that is the wild area at the bottom of the garden. We had wanted to go back to the dock yard but early news on tinterweb suggested our intended quarry had relocated northwards and out of range

Eventually we got a chance to wander up the hill to Patch 1. On the way we spotted a Ruby Tailed Wasp.

The Philadelphus hedge smelt divine, it must be awesome at dusk, full of bees too, how many moths must visit at night?

One of our neighbours hasn't shorn here Privet hedge (thankfully) and the flowers (why does everyone cut the flowers off Privet hedges) and it was smothered in moths of several species...without a torch or net we couldn't say which.

Some nice stuff in the park including our friend BB, a hoverfly expert, armed with his sweep net.

We were just armed with bins and camera which was pointed mainly at butterflies in the absence of the Tree Bees, as per usual!

Lots of other stuff about too like this one of several very hoppy Frogs.

 Plenty of Large Skippers were on the wing and lively in the calm heat of the Butterfly Zone.

 Not many birds about although a Chiffchaff and Blackcap sang almost all the while we were out.

Back to the butterflies...

Small Skippers are just starting to be noticed

 Lots of Speckled Woods were flitting along the glade today.

Still no White Letter Hairstreaks yet though.

This Robber Fly wouldn't face the front.

On the way back to Base Camp we saw a tiny ladybird. Without our specs we couldn't tell if it was a 7-spot Ladybird or not so taking a pic was the only way of getting an ID - as you can see it is 'just' a regular common or garden 7-spot Ladybird.

Nearby on an adjacent leaf was a cool hoverfly, not cool as in trendy but cool as in the cloud had come over...one of the Drone Flies.

Back at Base Camp we found the other species that imitates Common Carder Bees.

Where to next? Could be an interesting week with some beachy stuff and the dentist which may offer the oportunity to do some twitching out of town.

In the meantime let us know what didn't show in your outback.

Shunshine n showers

The Safari was able to get back to Patch 1 yesterday after work and this time we took the camera, just in case the Tree Bees were about. After a wet and dark thundery morning the sun was now out and it was warm and  sticky...excellent invert-ing conditions.

Our quarry was seen almost immediately but was across a wide expanse of Brambles and point blank refused to come any closer. Nothing for it but to try to get a record shot or two. We leaned against the very prickly shrubbery arm outstretched and pointed the camera in the vague direction of the bee, which was deep in shadow. With the sun over our shoulder we couldn't see the camera's screen so just pressed the shutter and blasted away...not the best results but if you turn your head to the right, squint hard and de-focus your eyes you can just about make out it is a Tree Bee.

The last pic in the sequence shows its big white bottom quite nicely - how these things get airborne must be an aeronautical engineers worst nightmare!

Whilst hoping it would come closer - it didn't - we mooched round snapping away at the other invertebrates around and they were in abundance. We saw our first Meadow Brown of the year, shed loads of bumble bees of various species, solitary bees, a lot of Honey Bees, bee mimicking hover flies, beetles and two dueling Large Skippers, one returning to his look out post after patrolling his territory and seeing off his neighbour.

At the far end of the Bramble thicket we spotted a burnet moth climbing to the top of a grass stem...A lovely fresh Narrow Bordered 5-spot Burnet.

Not a bad half hour session...and we take back some of what we said about the current crop of juvenile females. There were two girls from the local secondary school in the drier pond catching and admiring the tiny Froglets; wonder if they were doinfg it for fun in their own time or as past of a school project - either way they seemed to be having a great time.

No Patch 2 today as we're on a day off. we did have some chores to do and one of those meant we were able to revisit the wildflower meadow at the health centre - here's the view from the bonnet as you park your car...stunning!

One of the biggest threats to this meadow may not be mowing but atmospheric pollution, read somewhere the other day that locally nitrogen deposition from the atmosphere is in the order of 20kg/ha/yr - that's a lot of fertiliser on plants that could really do without it.
This arvo we had another wander down to the Tree Bees and met up with CR. On the way we spotted some gormless nerk, probably the landscape gardener, had trimmed part of the Philadelphus hedge along side the Golden Triangle...nothing wrong with that apart from his done it the day before it was about to burst into flower...what possesses them??? In fact there is no need to ever trim this side anyway, it's only against the field and the wind carves it back in the winter! The white flowers above right of the oval are on the top of the 'inner' hedge and sow what this side should look like right the way down to the ground - surely the most inexperienced landscape technician (won't call them gardeners) can spot and know the significance of flower buds - - numpty!!! Wouldn't let them loose with scissors never mind power tools!

Also seen on the way round was the Peregrine sat on the tower, no long lens with us today and it was a bit dull. we took a series of pics and by the time we'd stood there a few minutes he was clocking us

Then we got all arty when we saw the lovely pinks of the Sycamore seeds alongside the path.

The Butterfly Zone was busy. Loads of Large Skippers, several very mobile Meadow Browns, a Holly Blue, a  Red Admiral and a Large White. We had our first Silver Y moth of the year and shed loads of these tiny Straw Dots.

Tried something a bit different with one particular Large Skipper.

The bees weren't so numerous as yesterday and we only 'may' have had a brief view of our intended quarry. We did see a huge queen Garden Bumble Bee (Bombus hortorum) and a chunky queen Red Tailed Bumble Bee but nothing big  with a gingery thorax.
A few hoverfliees were about including both forms of the Volucella sp which mimics white and red tailed bumble bees. This one is Chrysotoxum festivum.

Still no Tree Bees but we did bump into a confiding Magpie.

Cloudy spells allowed a closer approach to the Large Skippers but still not the Meadow Browns.

A very fresh Small Tortoiseshell was also seen, almost not seen was Serengeti Frank! Where's those Wildebeest Frank?

A Dog Rose was just itching to be photographed - did anyone else make itching powder out of the hips many years ago when H & S in schools didn't exist.

Where to next? A breezy night might make an earlyish start on the Prom an option.

In the meantime let us know what was doing its best to avoid you in your outback.