A rare day out

The Safari didn't get out again yesterday morning but there was a bit of interest on the work's back field in the form of several Herring Gulls of varying ages and an adult Lesser Black Backed Gull poking around picking up worms after last night's torrential downpours.

But at lunchtime we were out and the first birds we saw were two Gannet (P2 #46) going south. Unfortunately we couldn't add anything more other than gulls.
Later we had a meeting at the zoo about an event they are going to be doing in a month or so. We had a walk round with LS looking at likely spots to investigate on the day...we really liked the look of the Iberian  Wolves apparently they don't howl - has anyone heard them do this in the wild in the Spanish mountains?...and they have now been recorded not far from Madrid, just how long will it be before they are found in the woods around the M25??? don't hold your breath!
This was more interesting then the nearby Wolves, a Silver Birch tree with a load of hibernating Garden Snails band a couple of Birch Polypore fungi bursting out of it.

We continued round having a look at likely bits of habitat and found our first Toad of the year and basking singles of Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock.
Going to be a good day provided the Bank Holiday weather jinx holds off.
In the somewhat surreal Dinosaur zone there is a large lake with large Koi Carp in it which the visitors seemed to prefer to the plastic dinos.
There was Heron fishing on the bank but then it strode deep in to the water, it wasn't going to go for the massive fish was it - eyes bigger than its belly? no...it swam into deep water near to where the punters were throwing bread put its head into the murky water and a minute later came up with a small Rudd right under the bread-throwers noses.

It came back for a second go and this time noticed the eyes on the small boy's frog wellies and was rather too interested for a few seconds, shame it didn't go for the wellies, that would have been worth seeing!

This is bizarre behaviour from the Heron as it's one from the colony in the park a few hundred yards away as in the park they are extremely wary and won't let bread throwing public anywhere near them.
Today we were out early on Patch 2 for a change and again a Gannet was the first bird seen. A pair of Eiders flew past and we also had a grand total of five individual  Common Scoters.
This arvo we had a couple of families out on our beach event. It didn't take long for the youngsters to get the first shells into the tubs and trays. Loads of good stuff was found.

Nice Thornback Ray mermaid's purse in there alongside the bits from three species of crabs, including male and female Masked Crabs and assorted shell fragments.
Razor Shells are always popular but we reckon ours was the longest - honest!!!

Lots of Moon Shells and their egg ribbons were also found but we couldn't find them any Starfish for them, we'd seen some being taken by the gulls as the tide dropped.

One thing we didn't get a chance to photograph was the Red Whelk the young girl in the group found, we don't see those too often -  a really good find! And we did find one of the mums the Beadlet Anemones she wanted to see, being high and dry they were all closed up blobs of purple jelly.
Really great to get down on the beach for a good old rummage around and have some fun again.
Where to next? There's gotta be a Sandwich Tern and or a Swallow with our name on it tomorrow...hasn't there???
In the meantime let us know who's got the biggest shell in your outback.

Gratuitous shooting

The Safari was going to tell you more about the North Blackpool Pond Trail's bioblitz but things have now moved on. 

Another broken off lump of Sabellaria reef was ound on the beach and in was another jelly blob. this time we put it in a bucket of water and kept it still for a couple of hours to see what happened...an anemone appeared that's what. We're pretty sure it's a Sagartia troglodytes due to it living in a hole in the 'reef' and having covered itself with bits of sand and shell fragments. looks to be new for Blackpool.

A small Whelk was also found which needs checking to see if its just a very small juvenile Edible Whelk or something else - at the mo we can't remember what the siphon tube and general patternation should look like on the others.

Now fairly surethis is a Dog Whelk

Masked Crab specimens are rarely as fresh and undamaged as this one the youngsters found.

We were able to have a quick look for butterflies on the nearby dunes this arvo and soon caught up with Meadow Browns, they were abundant in the warm sunshine.

Common Blues too were abundant.

But it was another species we'd really come to see, one which we haven't seen for quite a few years now; well as much as we'd like to we just can't go EVERYWHERE, more's the pity!

We found it when it photobombed a Common Blue.

 Grayling - what a little stunner

Don't ever let anyone tell you Ragwort is a weed, it's actually a vital late summer source of nectar for a multitude of insects not least butterflies and bees.

Where to next? More beachy fun tomorrow - what will the children find this time?

In the meantime let us know who's all at sea in your outback.

Tiny hands = sharp eyes

The Safari was out on Patch 2 briefly this morning checking access fore the little ones. A quick look over the sea only gave us about a dozen Sandwich Terns and not a lot else, two dark looking interesting things approached from way to the south but we lost them in the haze before they got close enough for an ID. 

The little ones hit the beach and their grasping hands were soon filled with all shapes and sizes of shells, they particularly liked the rubbery horseshoe shaped ribbons of Necklace Shell eggs.

They found a few empty Masked Crab carapaces whose occupants are hidden deep in the sand somewhere else.

We had a skutch round the pots with the net and found a few Common Prawns and a single live juvenile Green Shore Crab. The littlies found the tiniest Brittle Star which when put in the water revealed itself to be still well and truly alive.

A sharp eyed child picked up this mangled shell of a Hermit Crab, Pargurus bernhardus, it's a lot bigger than the ones we usually find, the big claw is about three inches (75mm) long. It's actually another shed skin.

Better was to come when a small hand gave us a snotty blob of jelly...we haven't seen anything quite like it before and giving it a squeeze a jet of water squirted out at one end...giving us a very big clue! 

It's a Sea Squirt of some description. Early thoughts leaned towards Molgula manhattensis but those clever iSpotters later suggested it could be Ascidiella aspersa.

What ever it is it's a new one for us.

We didn't get a chance to have a shuffy at Patch 2 at lunchtime but a walk with Frank at teatime gave us some nice patches of Sweet Vernal Grass and our first Lesser Trefoil of the year, the local patch of Common Figwort is coming along nicely...but where are our Swifts?

Where to next? Woooohoooo we're on our hols and anything could happen, might even get the moth trap out tonight...best check the forecast...could be a chance to steal a march on Monika arch-rival in our annual Year List Challenge...it's very very close between us at the moment

In the meantime let us know what the tiny hands are grabbing at in your outback.

 

Half hour blast on the beach

The Safari noted some articles in magazines today. The first two were by 'Twitcher' in British Wildlife both of which struck a chord. (20 quid of anyone's money well spent IMHO) The first about youngsters was particularly relevant in that we had a horde of rampaging young naturalists having great fun laying waste to our habitats yesterday but how many of whom will take that lesson and enjoyment further when they are older? Fortunately our Young Uns don't conform to his stereotype and do go out birding and other wildlife-ing even on their own unlike Mark Cocker's observations "So what is different today? One critical development I notice is the almost total absence of representatives of my childhood self from today’s countryside. In the last 20 years I cannot recall seeing a teenager birdwatching by themselves.

Britain’s deep collective anxiety about paedophilia has devastated the possibility of solitary activity for children. It means that there are no young people of my daughter’s generation wending their way through a self-motivated childhood of observation and intimate encounter with nature to a point where they have highly developed field skills. It means that one whole route to becoming what the grand old man of birds, Ian Wallace, would call ‘purposeful observers’ has been shut down completely. "

Hopefully they'll instil their love of all things wild on their girlfriends, when they come along, and maybe just maybe entice them away from the shallow nonsense that is make-up, fashion and Z-list celebrity that seems to be overwhelming many of the juvenile females of our species.

(He was a contempory of ours at UEA but we don't remember him from the Bird Club...having said that he probably doesn't remember us either).

The other was on the cover of either Bird Watch or Bird Watching magazine, the one with the eagle on the front, when we were waiting in the queue at the pet shop...the article headline was something about being tidy could be causing a mass extinction...something we've been harping on about for ages...and trying to get our colleagues in the Council to take up...need to get a copy and read it...

Enough meandering on with today's show...

This morning R'ouzel Puddle was devoid and Patch 2 almost so with only a solitary male Common Scoter and handful of scattered Sandwich Terns and three Great Crested Grebes to be seen on an otherwise perfect 'cetacean sea'. Also out there was a huge piece of driftwood, but perhaps not quite so big as this monster stranded on the beach.

 Not a lot was o the beach but we blasted away at the nearest Herring Gull for the sheer hell of it. Caught in flight too which almost made a cracking pic but with the gloom it was  just a bit to fuzzy so hit the digital cutting room floor.

At lunchtime we headed on to the beach after news of our coasts first Plumose Anemone yesterday...well found by our marine biologist friend DB. we soon found it, exactly where she'd told us - well it wasn't going anywhere was it?!? But again could we get a decent pic of it through the water...need a waterproof camera or at least a holder for the cameras we've got.

Did find a very freshly deceased Masked Crab complete with seaweed it's attached to itself to help camouflage it.

we spoke to a couple of fishermen coming off the beach who'd had nothing but did have a big bucket of Green and Black Lugworms. They asked a few questions about lugworms we couldn't answer hence the link from our research.

They were genuinely gobsmacked we'd seen the Bottle Nosed Dolphins a couple of weeks ago, likewise we were gobsmacked when they said they'd had a short session off one of the piers last week and caught eight different species of fish including a Tub Gurnard which have only in the last decade moved into our waters perhaps as a response to climatically changed warmer conditions.

Where to next? Might well try again for a pic of the Plumose Anemone.

In the meantime let us know what's sneaking in to your outback almost unnoticed.