A bit of luck brings success

The Safari had a Mothers' Day wander along the prom at Rossall with Wifey and Monty. The tide was well out but the distant sea as flat calm, perfect for spotting any Harbour Porpoises or Grey Seals that might have been out there. We saw neither but did see a large raft of Eider ducks but too far away to count effectively or see if there was anything else with them.

We did bump in to the local flock of Linnets (PYLC #97) at the far end of our walk

and a few steps in to our return walk looking the other way across the beach watched a Grey Plover fly in and land not too far away.

Monty had fun, always on the lookout for other doggies to play with.

A Stonechat was unusual in that it was hopping about on the dog walking field rather than sitting on a fence post between the thin strip of dunes and the golf course.

Monday first thing out with Monty gave us a very late Patch 1 tick in the form of a singing Wren (P1 #26) surely we must have overlooked them down there so far this year, mid March before the first one can't be right! Later that morning saw us along Chat Alley again with Monty. The conditions looked good for a bit of migration although it was a bit chilly, the wind was south easterly though so you never know.

There wasn't much about at all. A couple of local Pied Wagtails and a small number of migrating Meadow Pipits overhead, a couple being seen coming in-off the sea but most were 'heard onlys'.

Here and there were Turnstones scattered around finding any pickings washed up by the high tide or more likely left by the recently left anglers

Just after we took the pic above something caught our eye down by our boots. A deceased Bumble Bee, emerged too soon and got caught out by the return of the cold weather and lack of nectar bearing plants, there's  hardly a Dandelion to be seen yet and even the Coltsfoot flowers on the cliffs aren't particularly advanced yet.

The tide hadn't gone out enough for the Redshanks to leave their roost on the old boating pool wall.

We'd walked the full length of the Chat Alley from Gynn Square to Norbreck Castle and back without so much as a sniff of a Wheatear.

Tuesday saw us on safari with CR beyond the Southside across the Mersey and just into Cheshire. The weather forecast was for fine weather but the drive down the motorway was through heavy rain, we weren't hopeful it would stop. But our luck changed and the rain dried up as we left the motorway and by the time we arrived at Moore nature reserve the sun as trying its best to shine through the thinning cloud.

We spent a good few minutes at the nearest hide to the car park where a Little Grebe was giving us superb close views, when it was on the surface. It dived repeatedly and for long periods searching for what turned out to be Caddisfly nymphs, C getting some pics of it surfacing with them in its beak.

After a while it was time to go and look for the star attraction. We walked down the lane and we explained to C that finding our quarry could be tricky unless we hear it calling or drumming first. He asked what they sound like and we said a bit like a Kestrel and then a billi-second later we said 'just like that!' The call came from the usual corner of the woods 100 yards in front of us and two other birders came round the corner pointing towards the tree tops.

They'd seen it earlier but lost it but knew roughly where it went. A couple of minutes or so later we picked it up high in the upper branches of a large tree. It showed well and we got stupendous views in our bins but it was tricky to get pics of as it probed the bark for food never turning its face away from the woodwork for us.

Still we were very happy to connect so quickly, the birding gods being with us today after our two ill-fated twitches for the Hawfinches.
Very lucky too as once we'd lost it it wasn't seen again all day at all by anyone we spoke to.

The sound track of the day was a notoriously invisible Green Woodpecker (119) probably more than one and perhaps more than two even trilling Little Grebes and later once the sun strengthened mewing Buzzards.

Walking round the rest of the western part of the reserve we didn't see much else, certainly no early Chiffchaffs were in yet.

The thicket of Gorse on the way up to the Raptor Watchpoint hadn't been warmed enough to smell of Coconuts but there was a big splurge of Yellow Brain Fungus (or is it a Slime Mould?) on one of the stems.

After lunch in the car park we hit the eastern half of the reserve. The pools were quiet, just a few Tufted Ducks and a couple of pairs of Goldeneyes on the first one. The Birch woods were even quieter, in fact the main things we noted here were the numerous fungi. odd for 'spring' perhaps as they're more normally associated with autumn.

Jelly Ear on Elder - still can't get used to this 'new' PC name for this species

Unknown species on Silver Birch

But the star of the show was covering a fallen log on the woodland floor. The fairies have been hard at work there. A shed load of Scarlet Elf Cups dazzled in a shaft of light. What a stunning thing they are - wildlife doesn't have be feathered or cute n cuddly to be awesome - just look at the colour of those little beauties!

A chat to a couple of passing birders told us that the pair of kingfishers at the Eastern Reedbed were showing well and chasing each other around. But when we got there there was little to be seen, a couple of Little Grebes, a Great Crested Grebe down at the far end of the pool, a Green Woodpecker was heard from the fringing line of trees...again! and a pair of Shovelers shoveled but not a Kingfisher to be seen.

Then we heard a distinctive whistle and a flash of electric blue shot across the face of the reeds across the pool in front of us. Unfortunately it landed just a little too far away. Who cares, we got cracking views as it looked for fish below; its head staying almost motionless as the reed it was perched on waved about in the gentle breeze. 

The all black bill tells us this is a male Kingfisher (PYLC #99)

It did a couple of fly rounds getting slightly nearer but more obscured before eventually going to sit in a Willow bush much further away and much more obscured - still happy days!

A great day out o safari and big thanks to C for the driving.

Our next safari was with our children's group when we were out on the hunt for Frog spawn. The ponds we looked in were very full of rain and cold snow-melt water and we had no luck in finding any spawn. But that's not to say our nets didn't pull out anything at all from the ponds.

Backswimming Water Boatman

Brown Lipped Banded Snail - found in the grass not a pond

A damselfly nymph

Ramshorn Snails

At last a Frog - found in the wet grass close to the pond

And then there were two

Safely released in to the edge of the pond where they were not going to get trodden on

It was a cold day and there weren't many signs of spring although the shiny golden flowers of this Lesser Celandine brightened up proceedijgs.

As we led the group to our last pond one of the mothers called us back as her very young son had just spotted a little bird in a Bramble thicket and it was eating a huge caterpillar. We'd totally walked passed it but as our eye level was very different to his that's perhaps not so surprising! Anyway we turned back to find a Goldcrest (PYLC #100) wrangling a sizeable green caterpillar. The camera was set up for small close things in white buckets so our hastily taken pics aren't quite the best but we were thrilled that group got to see this interesting piece of behaviour from a bird most of them, if not all, had never heard of before.

An awesome find for someone so young. Before too long, sadly, we'll need another David Attenborough; could he be the one???

The last pond gave us a very interesting sighting, no Frogs but something much more unusual and rarely seen. At the edge of the pond there was a floating thing which we recognised as a giant shell of a Swan Mussel. It was just about reachable with the longest handled net in the group and a bit of risky stretching down a steep bank on our part.

When we lifted the shell from the net the animal fell from it - yuk - rank!!!

The boy in the blue hat poking out above the shell is the lad who spotted the Goldcrest

But what a cool find, then one of the group spotted a second in the pond but that was well out of reach. They are probably victims of the cold spell last week. We certainly didn't expect to find those but that's what going out on safari is all about - you just never know what you're going to come across and that's what makes watching wildlife so exciting, there's always something new to see and learn.

And learning about wildlife is something we all need to do. while we were on site there was a Community Payback team cutting down the adjacent hedge to its roots. They are supposed to be on reparation work for their crimes and yet someone had instructed them to do work that was actually forcing them into breaking the law - a ridiculous situation but we're not blaming the lads rather the site manager who has apparently been told about this before...a case for Vicarious Liability perhaps?

The following day saw us out to the east for a riverside mooch with GB and Monty, it was a wildlife, geography and history sort of a walk. 

Brock mill

We took some other pics but they are for another blog, perhaps a guest blog on another blogger's site, at a later date.

The river gave us good views of a Dipper and Grey Wagtails but we weren't expecting to hear a Tawny Owl (120) hooting in the middle of the day.

Yesterday we took Monty for yet another walk along Chat Alley in the afternoon and this time we struck lucky even though it was late in the day there were two Wheatears (121) on the cliffs, they have usually passed through along here by mid morning.

Then just to prove migration can be all day thing we heard Whooper Swans (Garden #18) going over Base Camp as we sat at the 'puter - probably the 13 seen by SD minutes earlier a mile or so to the south of us and reported on Twitter.

So yet another great week out on safari and we're thrilled to get the ton-up for our Photo Year List Challenge beating last year to 100 by five days, the Stanley Park Chough on 19th March last year. The front runners are approaching 200 but they do have the advantage of having had a foreign holiday to sunny climes away from the northern snows, two other challengers are a little ahead in the low hundreds and two are nipping at our heels in the high 90s...still all to play for and it's all a bit of educational fun, we're certainly enjoying seeing pics of birds we've never heard of before and learning about the birding in places we'll almost definitely never visit.

Where to next? Not sure what's happening this coming week we have family duties on the Southside that may give the opportunity for a stop off somewhere and then there's a bit of a trip coming up.

In the meantime let us know who's doing the quality wildlife spotting in your outback

Some news from our Extreme Photographer

The Safari went to work full of optimism this morning, the sun was shining the sea was like a carpet all was well with the world. We got to work grabbed the scope and went over the road for a shuffy. Our optimism was short lived, a thick sea mist had rolled in and bizarrely there was a heat haze over the water too. Visibility was down to less and about a kilometre and what we could see was wobbly. All we could see was a couple of Great Crested Grebes and a pair of Eiders becalmed on the water.

In the absence of any other news here's a few pics from our Extreme Photographer down in south west Wales. The reservoir at the bottom of his garden has had a Great Northern Diver, occasionally two, a decent gull roost with a regular Ring Billed Gull and good numbers of commoner waterfowl, even a solitary Moorhen which one of his birding pals down there has never seen at the res in many years watching there.

Drake Goldeneye

After the excitement of his Palmate Newts being still active on News Years Eve they went down just after that and haven't been seen since. However his Toads have now woken up and are doing what Toads do when the come out of hibernation.

Far more interesting was a snatch of drumming coming from the wood at the bottom of the garden that he sent to us. We had a listen and independently came up with the same answer as his local birding mate. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker!!!! He's heard it a few times since and managed to triangulate where the sound was coming from and discovered this recently dug hole.

We're looking forward to seeing pics of the bird itself.

Not only that he saw one in a park well away from his garden a while back and now someone else has seen one/it in the same place to confirm his sighting. All fascinating stuff - we're really looking forward to going down there before too long.
Back at Base Camp the House Sparrows were chirruping noisily in the garden opposite again this morning. On the way back after work we stopped at the shops to buy a feeder and a load of suitable small seeds and put it up on the pergola over the front gate - hope they find it tomoz.

Where to next? It's the weekend again  so snotty nose and pounding man-flu infested head permitting we'll be out on safari somewhere.

In the meantime let us know who's having all the luck in your outback

Can always take Moore of that!

The Safari had a very early start this morning, as soon as Frank had been walked and breakfasted we fired up the Land Rover and headed south for our annual jaunt for a meet with our mates of old and a special little bird.

On the way we spotted a Brown Hare, our first live one of the year, then a solitary Shelduck on a flood in a roadside field. The main motorway was dead Pheasant carnage but we were somewhat relieved not to see any Hedgehogs lying on the hard-shoulder, either they haven't woken up yet or there are no so few of them they are no longer showing up as roadkill. A large dead Badger near our destination reminded us we haven't seen a live one for far too long.

We arrived early but one of our comrades was still in the radio studio doing his monthly slot so we had a bit of time to kill. Nothing for it but to go and have a look for the target species to see if we could nail it down for the late comers.

Only one person was in position but he was photographing a displaying Wren so we left him in peace and had a wander a little further down the track where we saw several patches of beautiful Primroses.

Coming back we saw that an organised group led by recent returnee from an amazing trip to Extramadura, Spain (with our compadre AB ), JC . Before long someone gave the cry "up there!" Everyone spun round and there it was, a male high in a dead tree and it started drumming - Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (122) - well chuffed but would it stick around long enough for our late arriving chums to see it too?

There wasn't a great lot else about, a Chiffchaff sang sporadically and we wee put onto a Willow Tit (123) calling behind us but none of the group were able locate it finding a nearby Treecreeper instead.

We left the group to continue their tour and went to wait in the car park for the rest of the gang to arrive. It took them a while but the wait provided us some exceptional views of a Jay in the woods and then flew into a tree which also held a pair of Magpies and a pair of Carrion Crows, three corvid species in one tree!

A chat to a birder who had finished his rounds revealed an Iceland Gull had been on the river earlier and they were now arriving at the arby tip - we must have looked at well over a couple of thousand coming in without finding a white winger amongst them. The day 'looked good' for a passing Osprey and every time there was a little more noise than normal from the gulls we scanned hard but only ever found the local Buzzard.

The others turned up so it was time to have another go at the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker but sadly we had no luck. We shudder to think how many hours we stood motionless on those few yards of path over the years, must be well into double figures now!

AB suggested me drive down to the far end of the reserve to have a look at the reedbed, on the way the first pool we passed was seething with gulls - of course we screeched to a halt - you didn't expect us to go straight on past did you? As we came to a halt they were spooked by something unknown and most left leaving just a few to search through.

Nothing outstanding apart from a nice almost white winged 'argentatus' Herring Gull with only small flecks of black on the closed wing tip.

All of the water was packed with gulls when we drew up this is all that remained after what we think was a Buzzard flushed them, could have been a Peregrine we didn't see as a pair is apparently nesting nearby.

At the reedbed a tame Robin entertained us.

We tried to tempt it with some breadcrumbs laid out on the top of our flask which it liked but wouldn't stay still long enough for a pic. Eventually it took the cheese from our butty and was never seen again?????

Across the reedbed we had a couple of Sparrowhawks going north and a superb Buzzard perched on a snag nearby but was very annoyingly flushed by a Carrion Crow milliseconds before the auto-focus had locked onto it - so no pics.

A few Sand Martins (124)were picked up high over the water but they didn't stick around and a single Swallow was missed by us.

Time to go back for another motionless stand on THE track, throwing our gear in the back of the Land Rover two if us simultaneously saw and called 'Brimstone' - our first properly ID'd butterfly of the year.

At the Lesser Pecker track by far the best sighting of the day was had, a day-flying Noctule Bat which hawked over the tree tops for about quarter of an hour.

Again we gave it a while but then gave up and went to look at the feeding station where this little fella turned up.

Two species of woodpecker for us today but no Green Woodpecker, they usually at least give us a couple of yaffles when we visit here.

A change of tactic saw us sneaking round the back of the Lesser Pecker wood to confuse it. On the boardwalk we had a couple of Peacock butterflies and a really bright Comma. At our usual waiting place another tame Robin was performing to the patient crowd and a couple more Brimstones were enjoying the warm afternoon sun, but STILL no mini pecker for our crew...nightmare.

All too soon it was time to say our goodbyes and head back north.

Did we get a pic?...yes we did - mid drum!

What a great day full of laughter, tales of wonder from Extramadura...if you haven't been - GO we'd love to having heard what we've heard today and raking up wacky wildlife memories from the last 30 odd years - is it really that long??? Liked the 'fell asleep and out of a tree while Badger watching' tale the best - you've all done that - right?

Where to next? Mother's Day duties tomorrow so no safari-ing.

In the meantime let us know which patch of ground you spent hours motionless on in your outback.

Spectacular dipping followed by spectacular scoring

The Safari loaded up Frank just after dawn and pointed the Solihull Special southbound down the motorway for the annual rendezvous with our southern buddies at Moore Nature Reserve. The motorway gave us our only Kestrel of the day and a couple  of Jays.

We meet up at this time of year as the Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers are quite active and the trees don't have many leaves making it still possible to see them. There is a good selection of other stuff to be found and at this time of year anything can turn up...and it did!

Wandering round to the LSPker 'tree' we staked it out for a good while without much success. The usual small woodland stuff was about Wrens, Robins, Blue and Great Tits, Nuthatch etc but not our specific quarry. We gave up and decided to stroll round to the feeders. As we left we heard aBlackcap (140) which all three of us had been hearing for a few minutes but none of registered it as year bird...the penny dropped with a decided clang!  At the feeders a similar suite of species was present with the addition of Reed Buntings and Coal Tits, but no Willow Tits :-( A Great Spotted Woodpecker drummed solidly nearby and two Jays flew across the back.

Returning to the tree we did another stake outonly to learn from some other birders that had we stayed five more minutes before we'd have seen it....dohhhh. This time we had more luck as we heard it call the 'Kestrel' call and ddo a bit of drumming...Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (141) on the list, but we'd still like to get a glimpse of the stripy little fella. After another good half hour of standing round we got the briefest fly past with totally untickable views as it by-passed the 'tree' and shot off into the woods in the distance.

No chance of catching up with it so it was off on a trek to see if we could track down a recently seen Ring Ouzel. More Blackcaps and a plethora of Chiffchaffs were heard on the way. We stopped at a hide which overlooks very little and while watching a Buzzard lazily meandering its way over the site a Swallow (142) zipped past well above it. 

At the river we learnt that the Ring Ouzel had been showing well but a 4x4 had come past laden with hay to feed the horses in the field and it hadn't been seen since. A long wait ensued with the briefest of glimpses of something that could, with a lot of imagination, have been a thrush sp. 

Our two mates wandered off after about half an hour on the search for spiders and all other things invertebrate

...then just as we were beginning to give up hope there it was, about 50 yards to the left of where we'd been looking - a shout to the others and Ring Ouzel (143) was in the bag and showed nicely in the rather duff light for a good few minutes - success!

No Sand Martins were seen on the river but a very nice Tawny Mining Bee (Andrena fulva)was potted by AB.

The walk back to the 'tree' gave us our first Comma butterfly of the year.

Once again at the tree we learnt we'd just missed the LSPecker...how unlucky can three lads get. We hung around hopefully anyway and are glad we did as we found a splendid 3rd winter Glaucous Gull (144) in a mass of gulls circling overhead..TWICE!!! Oh the Safari just loves gulls!

Giving up on the LSPecker with time running out for Haddy and Anno we headed back to the car park aiming for a brew and a butty and picked up a fine male Orange Tip on the way.

With flasks of coffee drunk and butties munched the other two depated and we were left - what to do? Head home or have  another stake out...just in case. With it being quite early and not needing to rush back to Base Camp we opted for the stake out...and oh boy are we glad we did...

OK they aren't feather perfect but hand held at that range through the twiggy stuff while shaking like a leaf with excitement we're quite pleased with them!

A great end to a great day out - thanks guys, same again next year?

Where to next? Back on Patch 2 where it would seem some goodies have been seen today.

In the meantime let us know what looks like  tree climbing miniature Zebra in your outback.