The gloom continues but it's sure better than wet n windy

The Safari was taken up to Leighton Moss by CR where we met IH joined by young LH who hopefully will become a more regular safari member although she currently lives in a different  part  of the country.

First stop was a look from Lillian's Hide where there was a good selection of waterfowl and a few well secreted Snipe. However we didn't stop too long as we wanted to show LH one of the reserve's specialities, the Bearded Tits, so we walked down to the grit trays along the path to the Grisedale Hide withall our fingers crossed. The woody walk was quite, almost devoid of life and the reedbed section not much better and we weren't hearing the tell-tale 'pings' of any Bearded Tits as we neared the grit trays. The grit trays are important as Bearded Tits change their diet in the autumn from summer invertebrates to winter seeds. They dine almost exclusively on the seeds of the Phragmites reeds in the winter and to help dogest these swallow grit to help grind the seeds up. Early in the season their crops hold no grit so they visit the trays regularly but as the season progresses some but not all gets passed out the other end so the don't need to top up so often and we're now at the start of that not so often time of year. Today we were unlucky as it seemed to be a no grit required type of day. After waiting around a fair while with no joy we moved on to the hide where we hoped a Red Deer or two might be on show for LH but again they too must have heard a newby was with us and not wanting to get her over-excited decided not to put in an appearance as well. 

On the pool was the usual waterfowl fare, a few Coots swam around in the gloom, like our last safari photos today had to be taken at ISO Ludicrous.

Ducks included snoozing Shovelers

and more active Gadwalls

High up on the Great Black Backed Gull nesting platform (aka Osprey platform) a Cormorant kept an eye on proceedings from its lofy perch.

Meanwhile back on the water a nice drake Teal swam past not too far away

Before drifting off to drift off with a pair of sleepy Shovelers

All of a sudden there was a commotion and a burst of activity off to our right, a Sparrowhawk had launched an attack on some Snipe hiding unseen by us at the water's edge over that way. All the Snipe escaped and were up up and away off to the safety of another pool while the Sparrowhawk flew into a nearby bush and waited in the hope they wouldn't notice her and return.

After casting her beady eyes this way and that it must have become obvious there were no other potential  lunches close by as she soon left the bush and swooped low over the water right in front of us giving superb views but too quick for our cameras, sometimes though the image is etched into your memory far better than binary code onto an SD card and this was one of those occasions. There were no Snipe flushed as she shot low across the length of the pool - time to try her luck at another one. The scattered ducks soon settled down and among them a drake Pintail

came out from its hiding place and started to do a bit of head-bobbing displaying.

A distant female Marsh Harrier simply rerfused to come any closer and soon disappeared into one of the unviewable pools at the back of the reedbed.

It was now time for another wander so back we went past the still quiet grit trays, listening for the tell-tale 'pings' we only heard squaling Water Rails and chuntering Cetti's Warblers calling unseen from the dense reedbed. There was little to get excited about from the Tim Jackson Hide and a good wait in there gave us no real photo opportunities and sadly no Red Deer either. 

Moving on we retraced our steps back to Lillian's Hide where a female Teal was dabbling among the reed bases right in front of us.

She looked up every time she heard the camera shutters clicking

A female Shoveler dabbled, or should that be sieved, past too.

She was approached by a male

who's scratching looked like he was waving at either the female or us.

Food was now on everyones' minds but to get to the butties in the cars we had to pass the Feeding Station which was lively with a good selection of birds. And if they perched in the right place offered some nice autumn colour pics.

Star of the show might have been this friendly Robin singing for his supper (lunch) at the passers-by who might have a mealworm or two in their pockets

He was certainly giving it some welly!

However he was usurped by a tiny Goldcrest that was spotted flitting around a small tree to his right and all attention turned away from the him; we're saying he's a he but at this time of year he could easily be a she as both sexes sing to defend a winter territory for themselves and although they might be able to tell the difference at a glance or by ear us Humans can't.

There was a second one further back flitting around an Ivy covered Hawthorn bush but we didn't manage to connect with that one. Nor did we manage to connect with the Marsh Tit that was repeatedly visiting the feeders. Just as we were about to leave a Treecreeper was pointed out working its way up the large Oak nearby.

It even did some arboreal gymanastics for us.

Pies and butties were taken to the Causeway Hide where a few Black Headed Gulls jockied for position on the post in front of the window. One of which was ringed by good friend KB down at Martin Mere as a youngster in 2022 then made it's way to here by the autumn and has only been recorded in the autumn and winter up here at Leighton Moss since. In fact our record is the first for, give or take a couple of days, exactly a year begging the question where does it go in the spring and summer.

If you see a bird with a coloured ring like this one or even without letters you can report them very easily here.
The posts seemed to be a good place to have a bit of a preen and feather ruffle...good to see some sunshine at last too.

As usual there were large flocks of Gadwall and Coot.

Just look at those vermiculations on the drake Gadwall - taking understated to a higher level!

Coots too are understated with lovely shades of dark grey and almost black when the light catches them right, and then there's that somewhat menacing red eye.

One of the Coots played at being a Black Headed Gull and found a (much shorter) post on which to have a preen and a stretch - enjoy those weird feet!

The Gadwall and Coot had another function apart from their aesthetic beauty, Otter spotters! On a couple of occasions we saw commotion in the flocks and birds fleeing en masse but didn't see what had caused the panic. Then a Buzzard flew across the water and strangely came straight back but had somehow morphed into a male Marsh Harrier andd while watching that a dark shape appeared low in the water right in front of us not too far out, an Otter's head. How had that snuck past all the Coots and Gadwall, was all their attention taken by the raptors overhead? All to soon it was lost behind the reeds closer to the hide but at last LH had got her first view of an Otter even if it was only brief. Now we'd seen it all we had to do was wait for it to reappear which eventually it did but much more distant along the reed edge to the far right and then again again even more distantly but gave much more prolonged views...a scope would have been useful. Somewhat surprisingly that was our first sighting of an Otter this year. We watched it slink into the reedbed and then decided to spend the rest of the afternoon down  on the saltmarshes. Down at the Allen Hide the low November sun (yes that strange glowing thing in the sky) made viewing difficult and uncomfortable, we think everyone still has their retinas! but it did make for nice arty silhouette shots.

Looking southwards from the Eric Morecambe Hide was more or less the same although we did pick out a distant Dunlin among the silhouettes of Redshanks and Lapwings. One such group of Redshanks held a Spotted Redshank which was incredibly difficult to pick out until we were offered a look down the finder's scope. With viewing conditions awkward to say the least we swapped over to the other side of the hide to view the Allen Pool in much better light. We spent the time waiting for a Kingfisher not to show counting the Little and Great White Egrets to make sure IH's Herons were well beaten and following this Redshank around as it waded, paddled and swam across the nearest bit of the pool looking for Brown Shrimps n stuff.

Eventually we did get to see the colour of a Redshank's shanks

and then ended the safari with a cracking male Mallard. We don't care if they are common they're still a fabulous looking bird.

 

All the time we were out LH was borrowing her dad's camera and once home put together this little snippet of video to give you a flavour of the day.

We look forward to her coming along in the future and can't wait to watch her next videos of our safaris

Where to next? Not sure yet but we'll be out on safari somewhere in the north west before too long.

In the meantime let us know who's got the reddest legs in your outback.

Another safari south of the river

The Safari was planning to go north but with IH out of commission new boy AB was invited to take his place but said due to motorway nightmares north was going to be an issue so CR pointed the car southwards to meet him at Martin Mere instead. It wasn't a bad day, a bit of sunshine and not too much wind. First up we headed to the Feeding Station where very little was happening, the feeders were full but devoid of life so we didn't hang around continuing on to the nerw set of hides. On the way the sunshine had brought out a nice mature, or should that be ageing, male Common Darter.

At the firdst hide on the circuit we met a couple of guests from our recent cruise which was a pleasant surprise. Then they told us they'd seen the Snow Goose but it had flown off over their heads only a few minutes earlier. Ouch, that would have been a good one to get for our Challenge now we've upped our target to 170. After a good chinwag they moved on and we settled down to see what else we could find.A quick scan round revealed mostly Lapwings and Teal settled on the water until something unseen spooked them and they rose into the air.

It was in the melee that we heard a call and then spotted a Spotted Redshank among the throng - not a bad sighting for here as they're not that frequent a visitor. Sadly we only saw it on the ground miles away hidden among the Teal. According to another birder in the hide there had been two present earlier in the morning. The Teal were still a bit flighty but we couldn't find anything exotic among them when they took to the air.

They didn't settle nearby for closer inspection from the next hide either, the closest ones being well away to our right and most of them landed on the far side of the pool.

Carrying on there was little happening down the track to the final hide until we rounded the last bend and looked for the Stonechats that are always about. The male was camera shy today but the female did pose briefly on the fence post close to the hide.

Stars of the show here though were the Cattle Egrets that flew in and some did what they're supposed to do, landed on the Longhorn Cattle.

There were several in the flock, maybe double figures but they were very easily spooked and flew off to another group of cattle grazing away across the fields. After enjoying this relatively new 'Mediterranean' spectacle we headed back to the car to grab the butties/pies and other goodies. While walking back a couple of smallish groups of Pink Footed Geese flew over us, obviously they were checked for the Snow Goose as it had left with a group of Pink Feet.

It wasn't in that lot, and it wasn't in this lot either.

A bit firther on there was a cacophany of goose sounds as well over a hundred came in from the north, the 'wrong' direction for the Snow Goose unless it had doubled back unnoticed. Deffo worth a look. No Snow Goose but there was a White Fronted Goose in the flock which are a scarce bird here.

They'd landed some way off and finding it was going to be tricky, we had to wait until they put their heads up but most of them were content to graze or just relax. It is in the pic above so see if you can spot it.

A good find and #166 for our Challenge....right time for LUNCH!!!

Butties were munched in the Discovery Hide - it's the one closest to the car park! While eating lunch there's always the dilemma - what happens if something good turns up mid bite??? Pies win all the time that's what happens, whatever it is will have to wait until the last crumbs of pastry have been chomped. As it was nothing much of over excitement was happening so there were no dilemmas today. After finishing our butties we had a look round at what was on offer. New in Whooper Swans looked lonely, no doubt their friends will be joining them in the next day or so.

A handful of fresh-in Pintails were on the water too. Still not yet coloured up after their post-breeding moult.

We always like to get a pic of the Coots and Mallards that grace this pool and today was no exception. The main challenge is to capture the bright red eye of the Coots

and anything slightly different with the Mallards - hardly different but this one does have a few droplets of water on his face.

AB spotted the best action although it wasn't from the hide it was within the hide - just. Hanging from the door frame was a Garden Cross Spider's web on which was some very gentle courtship action going on. The male on the left trying his best to transfer his genes to the next generation without becoming lunch beforehand. The precarious dance with death was taking a while so we left them to it and so don't know the outcome.

Outside the hide warm sunshine saw a Red Admiral on the wing as we made our way down to the Ron Barker Hide

It was busy in there which wasn't surprising as social media over the previous few days had pics of all manner of good things posted from there, Kingfishers, a male Hen Harrier, Bittern, lots of Cattle Egrets, Stoat, Roe Deer, and of course the regular day-flying Barn Owl. We settled in to our seat and watched and waited, hopefully the Stoat would come out on the bridge, we've not had a good view of one anywhere for ages, we're pretty sure the last one we did was this one on the bridge. We did see one very briefly a few weeks ago when it dashed across the road in front of the car. All the action was on the pool to the right across the dyke, the pool in front of us was lacking in life until someone in the hide pointed out the Roe Deer right at the back that had come out of hiding.

There were three of them but we could only ever get two in frame at any one time. 

A tractor appeared from the left about to do some work, the lad stopped at the pumphouse to rake loose vegetation from the outflow before driving on. Once he was out of view a ginormous flock of Pink Footed Geese appeared, he'd disturbed them from a more distant field - what a sight and what a sound. This is just a fraction of them

Still no Snow Goose though. Undisturbed by the tractor being hidden behind a hedge more Cattle Egrets were being watched by CR. There were four here with the big bull and his two friends, with the other herd of cattle well out in the fields there were at least another two dozen and with the 10+ we'd seen earlier that'd put the site total at around 40 birds - amazing!

Unlike many of the recent Social Media pics we didn't see them demolishing the local populations of Frogs and Toads. CR had also been getting some good close pics of a Kestrel hovering over the field but it wasn't for coming our way. And when it did it wan't that close and the light was deteriorating rapidly now.

After while it had had enough of hovering and came to sit on the big post on the far side of the dyke where it was a little bit nearer.

It was after taking these shots and thinking they're not as sharp as they could be we inspected our camera kit and discovered we needed a brillo pad to clean the salt spray left over from the cruise off the front of the lens, caked on thick it was. Any of our younger readers (do we have younger readers?) probably won't know what a brillo pad is having been brought up on automatic dishwashers, its a wire wool (metal scraping tool) doused in strong detergent for getting baked-on lasagne/cottage pie off your favourite oven proof dish...perfect for getting salt spray off expensive lenses! 

Our friends from the cruise were here too, waiting for the Bittern to show and unlike most Bitterns it has been very showy. striding around on the bank in front of these Canada Geese and sleeping Whooper Swans.

Sadly for them it was a no-show and they had to leave to go to another appointment - it was a no-show for us too. We still had a bit of time left so decided to have another look for the Snow Goose at the other side of the reserve so retraced our steps back that way  passing a gorgously autumn coloured Maple along the nature trail on the way. The tree has unusally shaped leaves for a Maple, almost Oak-like, and we think it might be Paper Bark Maple.

A quick look at the Feeding Station revealed as much (or as little) life as was there first thing in the morning, the light at the Harrier Hide was horrendously glary so we didn't stay more than a minute. Maybe we should have done as the Snow Goose was seen from there the following day holed up with the big flock of feral Grey Lag Geese...which was all we saw on our quick look....should we have given the glare a go? Was it there? We'll never know. 

Our last port of call was the nearby Rees hide where a commotion of Teal had us looking up for a raptor but was actually caused by a Heron striding out of the reeds and frightening them.

It's probably a good job IH wasn't with us as he bats for Team Heron and today they were convincingly knocked out of the park by prodigious numbers of egrets.

Where to next? Back up north next time.

In the meantime let us know who's trampling all over the ungulates in your outback