Great way to christen the new scope

The Safari was up and at em early this morning to open the moth trap. Once again we could only use the 'little' lamp but what would we find within?

Not a great lot was the answer, 13 moths of seven species of which six were Heart & Darts. Pick of the bunch had to be the first Bright Line Brown Eye of the year.

There were only three micro-moths today, one of which was this very tatty Brown House Moth which despite their name do live outside too.

 The sun began to peak over next door's roof illuminating this prickly Herb Bennet seed head.

Close by we spotted a female Blue Tailed Damselfly basking in the first rays of morning sunshine to reach the pond edge.

The sun also brought the males out.

We carefully tried to get a bit closer and flushed it, or did we? We were sure we'd not moved in too close yet and had been making sure our shadow was nowhere near it but off it went. It settled again close by after flitting round a couple of other leaves looking like it was sussing them out for angle of inclination to the sun - but we were wrong we hadn't noticed it had picked off a tiny insect...Breakfast!

By now the sun was shining on our patio table so we made a cuppa and had a sit down to catch up on the overnight news.

Somewhere in the blue above us a Curlew (Garden #27) called. A little later from somewhere down the bottom of the garden we heard the first 'autumnal' peeep calls from a Dunnock...surely it can't be autumn already we haven't had the summer solstice yet!

After a hearty breakfast we had another look at the garden before Wifey had to go out. A Greenfinch was at the feeders.

This was the particular Greenfinch we wanted to get some pics of, it's ringed. Unfortunately it wasn't really playing ball not showing its right leg well at all. But we rattled off several volleys of shots as it shuffled round and got almost enough pics to get the code but not quite.

Looks like it might be ?T?0599? not sure how many digits there might be before the T and after the second 9. Any of the local ringers recognise it? We've got four mornings left before going back to work to nail it, providing it's bright enough to warrant getting the big lens out.

Once Wifey was out with Eh-up Muvver we were allowed a short drive. We had a tough choice of where to go but decided on the prom a little to the north of the northern end of Chat Alley where the cliffs are pretty high and there's an more uninterrupted view than Chat Alley.

Looking north towards the Lake District

Piel Island and Castle - where Bottlenose Dolphins have been seen earlier this week

We took Wifey's new little scope and sat on a bench enjoying the wide open vista of the seascape. It was warm in the sun but the wind could have a bit of chill on it from time to time, visibility was quite good, not too hazy. We planned to sit there for a couple of hours and in that couple of hours we only saw a couple of Gannets and a couple of Common Scoters other than the local Starlings and gulls. The Starlings were collecting food for their nestlings from the grass verge but every time they came close enough for a pic someone came along and inadvertently flushed them. The gulls were a bit easier, some cruising along the cliff edge only a few yards away.

Great Black Backed Gull

Herring Gull

Herring Gull again

We weren't really looking for birds but concentrated on searching for marine mammals, particularly a Grey Seal or two (or more) and perhaps if we were lucky a Harbour Porpoise. An elderly lady came past and told us 'someone' had seen a whole big "shoal" of dolphins at 10.30, which would have been just about high tide. We hadn't got out for two hours after that so weren't really expecting to see any and with this news our expectations were realised - we'd missed them. After about a couple of hours on the bench a couple who'd recently moved into a flat on the prom came up for a chat asking what they might see from their balcony - other than superb sunsets. We told them the Bottlenose Dolphins were in town for the summer but we'd missed them today. After a good old chinwag they wandered off back towards home and we put our eye back to the scope to see a huge splash and then another in the far distance in the general direction of Walney Island. They hadn't got far so we called them back and let them have a look through the scope but they didn't see anything other than some large white horses on the edge of the tidal rip - had we made a schoolboy error? Off they went after a few more minutes of chattting and once again we put our eye to the scope. They'd gone out of earshot this time when we saw another, slightly nearer splash and two fins, we'd most likely been right first time! There were at least three and perhaps five or more Bottlenose Dolphins out there - well we hadn't really expected that at this stage of the tide! Over the next half hour or more we were able to get another couple and a lad with a broken bike on to them and had some pretty spectacular views even if they were quite a long way off shore. They were deffo feeding, again maybe somewhat unexpected as all the angling boats were coming back in as the tide ebbed quickly - just goes to show dolphins are more cleverer than anglers when it comes to knowing when the fish are going to appear.

To say we're well happy with the result for the little scope's debut venture into the big wide world would be the understatement of the year! Chuffed to little mint-balls!!!

Where to next? More mothing tonight and tomorrow we may well try to get out for the high tide and give it the whole afternoon on the cliffs. Might have to give the big lens an outing and hope the blubbery ones come in close.

In the meantime let us know who's turning up at the wrong time in your outback.

100 species for Garden Bioblitz 2016?

The Safari spend all day yesterday in the garden getting sunburned and recording the wildlife we found for this year's Garden Bioblitz. Crikey it was warm out there with glorious wall to wall non-stop sunshine - like a proper real old-fashioned summer's day!

We started early with the moths. The neighbours had been away so we were able to put the big light on and with a warm, still, muggy night had the best catch we've had for a couple of years. Once all our kit laid out we were ready to open the trap.

Of course there were a few of the immigrant Diamondbacks, some didn't make it into the trap but were found nearby on the walls and in the vegetation.

Inside the trap there were some species we've not seen that often at Base Camp, like this Figure of 80.

Middle Barred Minors turn up more often.

As do Poplar Greys.

This one was a bit flighty and escaped but fortunately landed first on the lid of our recycling bin. Had it gone straight to ground we don't think we'd have found him.

Delving deeper into the trap it was great to see one of favourite moths in there, Green Silver Lines, another species that doesn''t find its way into the trap very often.

But the top spot went to this beauty, not one but two of them!

They really are something special. 
As ever there were some unIDd moths in there so if anyone can help please do.

Pug 1 - we seem to have developed 'Pug blindness'

Pug 2

Probably a worn Small Square Spot

Micro 1

Micro 2 - Now IDd for us as Cochylis atricapitana

We ended up having a moth-off or game of moth poker with our brother who lives in north eastern Italy and has recorded more species of butterfly within a kilometer of his front door than there are in the whole of the British Isles! We were holding back the Green Silver Lines to trump him but the best he could offer was Latticed Heath, a species we see too, only a few hundred yards away along the North Blackpool Pond Trail.

Once the moths were sorted (25 species including the unIDs) it was time to look at the birds

Fly-overs like  the Swifts and Sparrowhawk and this Herring Gull don't count

Woodpigeons do though

We heard a Dunnock and the Blackcap singing nearby but not within the confines of the garden so they can't be counted either but we were quite happy to add them to the page in the notebook.

14 bird species visited, added to the moths makes a running total of 39 species.

Time to check out the vegetation. We counted everything green that hasn't been planted by us or obviously planted by previous occupants. 

Round the back of the garage our wild area gave us 17 species of greenery in its few square yards, we might have missed a couple too.

There is a path you just can't see it from this angle

Herb Bennett was almost totally absent last year, but there's several specimens both in front and back gardens this year.

Both the common species of buttercups are present, this is the taller Meadow Buttercup, but one species we didn't find was Daisy, then again we don't have a lawn.

Not countable but nicely catching the sunlight was a Clematis seedhead, often known as Old Man's Beard for obvious reasons.

We found 29 species of plants and grasses making 68 species and counting.

Two of the plants had leaf miners, the Creeping Buttercups and Cowslips, which leads us nicely to the invertebrates.

While photographing this Garden Cross Spider catching a tiny fly and then continuing to spin its web

when we disturbed this very long legged Cranefly

We had hoped to get a pic of the Ruby Tailed Wasp that occasionally frequents the garage wall but as ever we missed it with the camera. We did see a new very small bee, anyone got an idea as to its ID?

Our regular solitary bee has completed its brood tube and is now attending the smaller one above it.

After the excitement of the solitary bees we turned our attention to getting some pics of the several species of Bumble Bees in the garden. 

Only 20 identifiable species of invertebrates were found and no snails, slugs or worms - it really was that hot and dry! The highlights were a Small White laying eggs on Wifey's new Nasturtiums and the garden's first Speckled Wood of the year. 

The total now is up to 88 species., what chance another 12 to make the ton.

As we were totting up we felt a faint tickle on our leg and looked down to see a tiny Crab Spider walking up towards our knee.

No, it's not on our leg for the pic

But what about those 12 extra species? Well there's the moss growing by the kitchen wall and some lichens on the front wall and there's a whole host of little flies we've no idea what they might be. There wasn't that many hoverflies out either, where are they? We're sure with a bit more effort and some better ID skills and a little luck with the weather 100 species should be possible.

So we didn't get 100 species, so what we had great fun finding the 88 species we did find.
Where to next? Still at Base Camp tomorrow so we'll have another look around and see what we can find.
In the meantime let us know who's climbing to giddy heights in your outback.

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.