Back to the Southside

The Safari has just about recovered from our hand surgery and we are now fit enough to try some longer shorter drives, if that makes sense. So rattling with Ibruprofen pills we picked up CR and made the hour's drive over the river for a day at the splendid Martin Mere WWT reserve, easily the furthest we've been since getting back behind the wheel. The day was supposed to be sunny but ominous clouds developed right over where we were heading, thoughts of why didn't we bring a waterproof went through our head - well it is the August and supposed to be summer so we didn't grab our jacket on the way out. 

The previous day there'd been sightings of a juvenile Black Necked Grebe, a Red Kite, Hobby and when we arrived and read the sightings board a Curlew Sandpiper, a couple or more of those would be good for our Challenge.We figured that the grebe would still be on site after last night's very heavy rain, the kite could be anywhere in the county (or beyond), the Hobby wouldn't show unless the sun appeared and brought the dragonflies out and the Curlew Sandpiper might still be about so we'd wait for news. The moth trap was advertised as being opened at 10.30 so that gave us just short of half an hour to look for the grebe. We went straight to the Harrier Hide and were immediately told a Bittern had flown past not long earlier; doh if only we'd not been stopped by those traffic lights or that rediculous speed restriction hadn't been imposed we'd ahev seen that. We've been coming here for the best part of 50 years and never seen one here. We were also told the Black Necked Grebe was on the pool but diving repeatedly, we looked in the general direction of where the chap was pointing and voila up it popped in our bins. before we could swing the canera into action it dived. We missed the opening of the moth trap in the procvess of trying to get a decent shot and although it came nearer it never really came near enough so this  is the best we got. Still it's #158 for our Challenge and a 'bonus bird' as it wasn't on the radar to come across between now and the end of the year.

A few Little Grebes were on the pool as well and often confused us by appearing in the field of view where we were expecting the Black Necked Grebe to. One even came up with a small fish, we got a decent pic but then deleted it by mistake while going through the out of focus or dived out of view shots of the Black Necked Grebe. 

From there we went to the 'new' Rees Hide where there were several Lapwings loafing about

and a Green Sandpiper that we probably flushed from very close when we opened the door to enter the hide. It was a bit further away than we would have liked for a such a small bird but did give good views in the bins.

Much further away were a few Ruff moulting out of their breeding finery.

A much closer Snipe proved to be too camera shy, being not very showy to start with then getting up and moving right behind a thick tussock of rushes. We took that as our cue to move on to the next hide. Here we found another Green Sandpiper again a little distant across an arm of the pool.

There's a small island in the pool which today held a family of Black Headed Gulls, we followed the two youngsters begging for food from the adult for ages waiting for the moment of delivery...and missed it when we took our eye off the ball for a second. Here's the one that didn't get the food squealing with rage.

And here's the one that did get fed keeping well out of the way of its peeved sibling.

With possiblities here now exhausted we moved on again on the long treck round to the final hide. We saw the cattle were safely ensconsed in the field to our left not stampeding up the track towards us this time - which was a relief! We chatted about the possiblity of seeing some Stonechats up by the corner and noted that they often sit on the wrong side of the light on the fence, it's much better for pics if they go the other side of the track into the natiral habitat and on the 'right' side of the light - would we see them today and which would they do? They often flush into the dense vegetation behind the fence. Rounding the corner it wasn't the Stonechats atop the fence that caught our eye but three bright orange butterflies at the bottom of the fence, one settled and two whizzing around each other in a blur of wings. Wall Browns, a species we no very very rarely see on the Fylde nowadays.

The stationary one was a female so we assume the other two were battling male sutors. Above them the Stonechats were atop the fence as predicted.

Luckily as we approached they flew to the right side of the path which is the left-hand side and perched on natural vegetation in good light.

It was while taking snaps of the Stonechats we spotted a juvenile Kestrel sitting on the nearby gatepost through the tops of the reeds. Getting a clear shot was tricky and involved a lot of waiting for the breeze to blbow the intervening reeds out of the way.

Once in the hide we scanned around for any sign of the Curlew Sandpiper to no avail, there were no small waders to be seen. The only close birds was a small flock of Black Tailed Godwits most of whom were asleep, especially the most brightly coloured and nearest as it happened.

We waited for it to wake up but it was spark out so we had to make do with a couple of preening birds stood a little way behind it. We waited for these two to do some synchronised or mirror image preening but they didn't.

There's a bit of synchronised preening going on with the one at the back

Time for lunch so we hit the long trail back to the car to retrieve our pastry-encased scran which we ate in the deserted Discovery Hide, deserted inside and out with only a handful of tatty moulting Mallards on offer and a distant Cormorant sat doing nothing much in particular. The only real action was provided by a few Swallows skimming fast and low over the water before shooting over our heads possibly to a nest(s) in the staff area behind us. All the distant md was scanned for the Curlew Sandpiper but again we had no joy.

From there we wandered up to the Ron Barker Hide chatting to a very enthusiastic and knoweldgeable young lad on the way - good to know our brilliant wildlife is being enjoyed and appreciated by the younger generation, lets hope there's a big recovery in our wildlife so he sees more than we have in the last few years. At the hide it was pretty quite, the flooded marsh had been drawn down to reveal lots of oozy black mud but again no Curlew Sandpiper so we assume it had done an overnight flit to the coast or even beyond. One species the youngster is likely to see more of than we could ever have dreamed of when we were his age is Cattle Egrets, there were 17 of them until more than half of them flew off, and nowhere near the cattle either.

With not a lot happening we cut our losses and headed back to the Rees Hide passing another Wall butterfly by the bridge over the big dyke. This one has the big bold black mark on the wing, the scent brand, so is a male.

At the hide we watched a female Black Tailed Skimmer doing some serious ovipositing.

There were several males around keeping a watchfiul eye on proceedings too.

Close to all this action we spotted some small blue damselflies which kept coming out from the bankside vegetation to our right and settling for several minutes on the floating green stuff. Through the bins we could see they had dark eyes so weren't the norrmal Blue Tailed Damselflies we're very familiar with. If truth be told they were too small and too far away to have any chance of a pic but we fired a shed load of shots off on the off chance one or two might be just about useable. In the end they were all as bad as each other, this one being being the best by the slightest of margins.

If you look very closely you can just about see three blue segments at the end of the abdomen which makes them Small Red Eyed Damselflies, a Lifer for us having not long since colonised our region. We scanned again for the Curlew Sandpiper without any luck and in the distance a Kestrel hovered, possibly the one we'd seen earlier. All of a sudden a falcon was really close and high up, not the kestrel but a Hobby which took a dragonfly as it carreered over the hide and behind us, just a really fleeting glimpse for us and some in the hide didn't manage to get on it at all. That was enough to make us get back outside and do the Reedbed Walk who's wide vistas would offer us the best chance of catching up with any more Hobbys and we might even see the Bittern flying back from its morning outing. The sun had brought out many more dragonflies, hence the sudden appearance of the Hobby, and more butterflies, including a few Peacocks, our first of the day.

A male Black Tailed Skimmer gave us the run around for a few minutes before finally settling in a good spot for a pic.

Up by the rather smelly sewage works a Hobby came out of nowhere and sped past us giving superb if brief close views. Unfortunatley it kept going and eventually disappeared over the treeline nearly a mile away before we could swing the camera into action. Well at least it vindicated the decision to take the Reedbed walk. On we went passing more Peacocks and more Wall Browns, we saw more today than we've probably seen in the last 10 years combined! But as we progressed the expected wide open vista was lost, the Willow bushes had grown considerable since last year and it was becoming more like a woodland walk with no view out. Eventually we came to a warm open area and after seeing several very active Brown Hawkers patroling their territories CR spotted one land, which they hardly ever do! It's one of our most frequently seen dragonflies and yet we cant count on the fingers of one of our mutilated hands how many pics we've ever got of them.

No more Hobbys appeared and neither did the Bittern as we nearer the end of the trail but while looking across the pools for any sign of the Black Necked Grebe we saw a Great Crested Grebe sat on a nest, quite late in the season we thought. Looking closely you can just about make out a little lump on her back which is a little stripey faced chick.

Time was now nearly up but we were able to get a few more minutes back in the Rees Hide where there were now two Green Sandpipers and another very keen youngster to keep us entertained until it was time to leave.

In the end there was only one new species snapped for our Challenge but that didn't take anything away from a really good day out on safari.

Where to next? It could be anywhere and it'll most probably be weather dependent.

In the meantime let us know who's perching up bold as brass in your outback.

Finally some very welcome sunshine

The Safari has been waiting for the promise of some sunshine for weeks and at last the weather forecast looked promising. We joined CR for a drive up the motorway to our favourite little reserve where we met IH. Drops of rain at the start of our journey had disappeared by the time we arrived and the sun was trying  to get out from behind the clouds. Time to look for some things with scales...and not before time! 

Up in the eaves of the warden's house House Martins investigated their old nests from last year but didn't hang around for any pics. We checked the walled areas of the gardens for Grass Snakes and Slow Worms without success nor were there any Bee Flies hovering around the Primroses. Maybe the sun needed to climb a little higher and come out from the clouds a little longer as it was still quite cool. In the little bit of scratty woodland beneath the empty Osprey nest we found lone Red Deer. Through the gate into the reserve 'proper' there were no Adders to be found on the remains of the old wall either. We passed slowly through the wet (very very wet) Silver Birch dominated woodland checking the base of the trees and edges of the boardwalk for Common Lizards - again no joy. But we did hear the song of a Pied Flycatcher and following flits of movement through the trees soon got half a glimpse of the little fellow. A nice one for our Challenge, #137

He wasn't for showing himself at all. From the end of the boardwalk we battled bravely through yards of  thick, gooey, welly-sucking mud to where the wood ends and drier ground with another boardwalk begins. Here we heard a Redstart sing and then witnessed a couple of male Redstarts were having a ding-dong of an aerial dogfight - a veritable blaze of red hanging in the air! We've never seen that before, and then spotted why all the fighting a female was perched not far away. #138

It wasn't long before one of the males reappeared, chosing to sit on a rather unphotogenic gate and fence rather than perch on some more attractive foliage.

For some reason best known to themselves both our cameras seemed to have trouble focusing on it...it might not have been all the cameras' fault, the operator can be a bit flaky at times. 

We expected the track across the moss to be a lot wetter than it was and soon came across a Tree Pipit which, like the Pied Flycatcher, wasn't wanting to show itself to best advantage. #139

A bit further on we looked back across the moss to the Osprey nest but there were no birds sat on it.The sun was doing its best to come out and in the brief moments it did it was much warmer and butterflies began to appear, we had a couple of Peacocks and a Small Tortoiseshell in fairly quick succession. only the first Peacock settled for a pic though.

Crossing the bridge, where the stream was much lower than expected, the large patch of Bilberry hadn't begun to come into leaf so our chance of a hoped for Green Hairstreak butterfly was slim to remote. There were no Red Deer faces peering out of the woods beyond the Bilberry patch today. We did see a couple of Crossbills disappearing into the distance from the next patch of woodland after picking them up on call but sadly we couldn't find any others still feeding in the cone laden conifer trees where they'd flown from.

Soundtrack of the day once again was Willow Warblers and as usual they were invariable singing from the back side of the trees and bushes. We waited ages and passed how many 'hundreds' before we found one on the right side of the tree and even then it was partially obscured. See them or not it's still a great sound to listen to when the spring woodland is full of them.

Given our squelching, slipping and sliding along the non-boardwalked sections of this path it was inevitable that we'd come to a sticky end. This is a circular route back to the bridge the final stretch of which runs alongside the stream...it was inaccessible today the last few yards before the stream being far too muddy to contemplate trying to cross unless you were wearing chest waders - which we weren't. Here's a couple of habitat shots of the tangled and mossy wet Willow woodland, you wouldn't want to go off-piste into there, you'd never be seen again until your peat-preserved body was dug up some thousands of years into the future.

Nothing for it but to retrace our steps. Still no Common Lizards and no futher sign of the Crossbills and no Raft Spiders but we did see a trio of cronking Ravens and a somewhat out of place Little Egret land in field of sheep. We had more but not better views of Tree Pipits while crossing the moss and a far to brief for a pic Lesser Redpoll landed briefly on the electricity wires crossing the site. Back in the Birch woodland we soon came across the Pied Flycatcher again and this time it was more obliging but still a litttle distant.

The tumble-down wall wasn't for giving up its Adders again as thoughts turned towards pies and butties. A Mistle Thrush landed not too far behind the wall and for a moment thoughts of lunch disappeared.

While scanning the wall we happened across our first Large Red Damselflies of the year, first a teneral (recently emerged) individual then a fully coloured up one.

And then a Dung Beetle crossed our path - would we ever get to our pies???

Fortunately we did make it back to the cars and our lunches. The sun came out while we were tucking into our goodies and we enjoyed sightings of Brimstone and Orange Tip butterflies and then heard the unmistakeable high pitched yickering of Ospreys calling. We grabbed the camera and pointed it at the nest where one bird was hunkered down not showing very well but then the male flew in and landed on the nest. #140. The sun was strong now and there was a serious heat haze going on so the pic isn't that good.

Not that we mind strong sunshine - it means the snakes come out to bask so as soon as we'd eaen it was back to the wall where....there were no snakes...b*gger! In fact the most exciting thing we found was a Banded Snail that had stashed itself among the delicate Bracket Fungi of a rotting stump.

Our route after lunch took us up the 'hill of death' but today wasn't too bad and we weren't huffing and puffing like an old steam engine by the time we got to the top. We discovered a new pond had been dug which will require much inspection later in the year, the older new ponds would have been inaccessible due to feet thick gloopy mud in the valley today so we gave them a miss. We'd brought a pot to see if we could nab one ofthe Nomad Bees that like this stretch of the road but didn't see any. Seeing them is one thing,catching one would have been something else entirely. Why were we after catching one? Well, we've seen them many times over the years but have yet to identify them, we don't know if anyone else has tried to identify them either. 

Passing the tarn the Little Grebes were calling, there's always a Little Grebe or two, or three, on there. Down at the entrance pond we looked in vain for tadpoles - how come there weren't any, there's always loads at this time of year, surely with all the cold wet weather they can't have metamorphosed and left the pond already? IH spotted the only newt of the afternoon, probably a Palmate Newt given the site. Then he found another Pied Flycatcher, like the first it wasn't for showing itself.

We went to have a look at 'Great Crested Newt corner' and obviouslty saw none, we didn't see any other water life either, no water boatmen or other swimmy things just a few Whirlygig Beetles buzzing around on the surface, we guess the water must still be very cold. Then CR beckoned us to join him on the other side of the pond, he'd got much better views of the Pied Flycatcher...at last!

And it alllowed a stealthy closer approach...bonus!

Also in the woods around the pond was a Blue Tit with a beakful of nesting material. It hung around a while perhaps waiting for us to get out of the way before delivering it to a nearby nestbox.

A bright male Orange Tip wouldn't do us the courtesy of landing on a Bluebell but shot straight past and promptly vanished. 

Around the reserve IH had noticed that the winter storms had smashed up a lot of the trees, the Silver Birch being especially badly hit, much more so than any of the other tree species. Large numbers had high broken branches like these.

On the walk back yet another Willow Warbler gave us the runaround and while we were trying to get on it IH found a tiny Crab Spider on the top of a gate. Top banana eyesight that lad has.

We've no idea what species it might be, one for our good mate and expert in all things spidery AB. 

Unfurling Bracken fronds are always worth getting down to eye-level with - do ferns have eyes?

Cambrian Poppies were in flower along the roadside too.

Time was now getting short but with the sun out for a while and warmth in the air we just had to have another look for the Adders. Through the gate we went, ignoring the snail secreted among its fungi friends, and for some reason we looked to the right rather than scanning the wall to our left. Oh joy of joys there was an Adder, no there were two. We hastened the others to come for a look.

Two Adders - fantastico - - but wait - - - look closely, there's two heads down there at the bottom of the pic. Three Adders even better than fantastico. And they even started to move about a bit as we got as close as we dared without disturbing them.

The sun kept going behind a cloud and this made them flatten themselves down to get the maximum warmth when it came back out. The two males might have been tempted to do their dance had it been just a bit warmer. The female was more or less stationary all the while.

With such a superb opportunity we just kept firing shots off.

At no time were they upset by our (fairly) close presence although we're sure they knew we were there.

To break the snake monopoly a Longhorn Beetle landed on IH's lens. Rhagium mordax to give it its full name.

A fabulous wee beasty. anyway enough of that back to the Adders.

What a brilliant experience, well worth that last look.

And to finish we had a couple of really bright Large Red Damselflies on the wall by the car park before we had to leave.

Where to next? Maybe something a bit different to report on, if we can remember to take some pics.

In the meantime let us know who's slipping and sliding round your outback.