Roadtrip Part 1 - Base Camp to Our Extreme Photographer's gaff

The Safari has been on a bit of a cross country trek. The first leg was a run down to Pembrokeshire to have a few days wildlifing while Wifey went to work in their office down that way.

On the drive down through mid-Wales of course we came across Red Kites (147)

Our Extreme Photographer took us through the lanes and byways to all manner of great places to find us Cuckoo (148), Dartford Warbler (149) (he saw we only heard it singing deep in a Gorse bush on a very cold and windy morning), Yellowhammer (150), Chough (151) and Willow Tit (152) (on his garden feeders).

Here's a few pics from our trip:-

Plumstone Mountain - Cuckoo here

Common Dolphin at Strumble Head

Bluebells at Llys-y-Ffran reservoir

Bee Fly at Our EP's place

Chrysolina banksi larva on Ribwort Plantain at St David's Head

Chrysolina banksi

Unknown succulent plant at St David's Head - Rockrose?

Lichens

Lousewort at Plumstone Mountain

Spring Squill - everywhere!

Red Kite - Lettterston

Rock Pipit - Strumble Head

Pond Skater - EP's pond

Water Cricket - after surviving an attack by the Pond Skater above

Brown Trout - a stream somewhere out in the wilds

The following birds are in EP's garden

Great Spotted Woodpecker - At an angle through the dirty kitchen window

Jackdaw - At an angle through the dirty kitchen window

Jay - At an angle through the dirty kitchen window

Nuthatch - At an angle through the dirty kitchen window

Lesser Redpoll

Siskins

Siskins - courtship feeding

Common Lizard - on a recycled plastic boardwalk

Adder - escaping before allowing a proper shot, note doggy poo bag top left - yuk! Strumble Head

Adder - One of two that were dancing moments earlier - St David's Head

He spotted us!

That's enough for now.
Where to next? More tales and in depth details from deepest darkest Welsh Wales tomorrow
In the meantime let us know who's been on the road in your outback

And the answer is...

The Safari was totally underwhelmed by your response to our little picture quiz the other day. Thousands of you didn't send your answers on a post card by snail mail or Tweet. C'est la vie!

We're sure you know and have just gone a little shy.

 So what was it??? Last chance to fire off an answer...

Too late

The shadow from a Pond Skater. You all got it right I take it.

With wet windy weather, the strong wind bringing the high tide over the wall on Patch 2 at lunchtime we've not been able to get out when we would have liked. Slightly annoying as our friend FB saw what would have been five year birds for us yesterday - always assuming we'd been able to be out when they passed our watch point.

So we have very little for you and it's a good job that our Extreme Photographer had sent a few pics from his kitchen window the other day. He's been having a bit of trouble with a Jay that has bashed a hole in his steel peanut feeder.

Again he apologises for the poor quality saying they were taken through his dirty kitchen window which doesn't open.

He says there should be some improvement when he gets his hide set up.

On a far less frivolous note most if you will have seen this despicable news today. As Chris Packham demonstrated with a Constable painting recently - 'they' are destroying our national natural  heritage - far better than a one moment in time masterpiece, a living breathing every-changing masterpiece...time for someone to go to prison and the whole lousy 'sport' of driven grouse shooting with all it's collateral damage eg dead Foxes, Badgers, Stoats, Polecats, Wild Cats, Pine Martens, Crows, Magpies, Ravens, Buzzards, Golden Eagles, Red Kites, Black Grouse, Common Lizards, Adders, pet cats, pet dogs, runners, lack of upland scrub including Juniper, increased risk of flooding, carbon emissions, lack of carbon sequestration, increases to our water bills and a stupid looking totally unnatural patchwork landscape  consigned to the history books.Time to get shut of the lot of them - Up the Revolution Brothers and Sisters! Enough is enough.

Come on new government bring in a ban preferably on Friday morning!

Where to next? Not a lot of point going to Bowland to look for Hen Harriers - they've all seemed to have turned their toes up.

Not much of  a logo for our Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is it?

#HenHarrierDay August 9th it is then - WE ARE NOT AMUSED

In the meantime let us know who's viciously attacking the bird feeders in your outback

A safari across the county line

The Safari was invited to join CR and his mate, Other Dave, up on OD's patch just over the county border this morning.

It's a different world up there, totally different habitats to what we have down here.

On the way just before turning off the main road to OD's village a Swift (151) cruised alongside the car for a few moments.

We visited a variety of sites including dry flower-rich limestone grasslands 

Field of Cowslips

and peaty raised bogs with some mixed woodland some of which has been clear felled and some being flooded out by raising the water level by bunding and stopping up old drains.

And some very dry rocky areas too

We saw a plethora of wildlife including the pics below which are in no particular order

Any ideas what this might be folks?

Our first dragonfly of the year, 4-Spotted Chaser nice but not the one we really wanted which we couldn't find but might not be on the wing just yet due to the recent cold weather

Bog Hoverfly

Common Heath moth

Early Purple Orchid above and below

Forest Shieldbug

Green Veined White

Large Red Damselfly above and below

Unknown but apparently not a fungus but a fruiting body of something else

Scorpion Fly on OD's jacket

Tiny spider on limestone

We saw a Roe Deer but no Ospreys, Peregrines or Ravens.To be fair we weren't interested in the oh-so-far-away Ospreys or other birds it was more of a get down on your knees and sink into the habitat macro sort of a day. Tree Pipits (152) were singing on one of the mosses where we were looking for the White Faced Darter dragonflies.

One of the site specialities are the Slow Worms but no snakes were found.

These were under the second old tin we lifted, the first had at least 10 under it in a knot but we couldn't take a pic as we were holding the tin which was an irregular shape and couldn't be propped up against our knees.

The other is a small brightly coloured butterfly, Green Hairstreak - little jewels they are.

There's so much more to see up here as the season progresses, incredible butterflies, plenty of orchids and other wildflowers; there's two species of snakes a couple or three rare birds and more inverts than you can shake a stick at. Can't wait to go again.

Many thanks to CR for the invite and doing the driving.

Where to next? A little closer to home tomorrow we're back on the beach with a gang of youngsters - what will they find for you to enjoy?

In the meantime let us know who's too brightly coloured in your outback.