Highlights from Weeks 9 and 10 of not-really-lockdown-at-all-anymore

The Safari has spent a little more time away from our immediate area now that travel restrictions have been lifted but we've still not bit the bullet and ventured very far away from the Fylde coast. With summer-like weather conditions many places have been bombed out by 'Covidiots' getting far too close to one another in huge numbers so we've played it safe and kept well away, we're quite happy not to risk becoming a statistic in the Second Wave.

A pleasant morning on the dunes early in Week 9 had us looking for lizards, only two very brief sightings, and butterflies which were more obliging in that the few we saw did actually keep still.

Common Blue

While we were there the biggest butterfly in the world turned up and flew directly over our head as it did a few training passes practicing almost landing at our small airport.

RAF A400M

In recent years we've not been seeing many Small Heath butterflies at all an it's been several years since we last got a pic of one so we were especially grateful to see a good few today particularly this one that settled long enough for a quick snap.

Back on the cliffs one morning we watched an angler bring in a Bass, too small to keep so had to be returned to the sea. However, his treatment of his catch was abominable. He left it flapping around on the concrete for nearly five minutes while he faffed around getting a new rig back in the water. Surely as an angler your first responsibility is to your catch whether you're going to take it homer for tea or release it back to the water.

Bass vertebrate photo challenge #149

But this chap seriously abused the fish while trying to unhook it. There's a cloth there could he not have held the fish to get a good look at what his disgorger was doing rather than trying to flick the hook out while the fish was in mid-air with the inevitable gravity-induced consequence when the hook did eventually dislodge.

The poor fish's traumatic time wasn't over even then. It was dropped over the wall probably onto the sloping concrete apron below as the tide was on the ebb, the guy never bothered to check never mind walk the 15 yards to the nearest steps and gently let it swim off. Disgraceful behaviour and sadly he's not the only one to act like that.

Fortunately the fisherman who caught this Lesser Spotted Catshark had it unhooked and back in the sea within two minutes.

Back at Base Camp it was good to see a brood of two recently fledged Greenfinches in the garden. This one hasn't quite got the hang of feeders but you'll be pleased to know it sussed how they work not long after the pic was taken.

A safari to Marton Mere gave us the opportunity to take about 300 snaps of the Swifts cruising around about double tree-top height just to get this one almost usable shot. We've hardly seen any Swifts this year and it's fair to say we've seriously missed the screamy sky-scthyers.

Photo Year List Challenge #150

Another bird we've not seen many of is the Kestrel so it was nice to have one fly past us quite low down, might have helped the composition of the pic if it wasn't quite so close and was coming towards us instead of going away but hey-ho a little stunner whichever way they're going.

Not far away deep in the undergrowth a Wren blasted out his song and for a few brief moments sat out in the relative open. It always amuses us that something so small can produce so many decibels.

Getting back towards the car the farm buildings had a few Swallows and House Martins tazzing about, trying to get one in good light was another matter

House Martin PYLC #151

During week 10 we spent more time in the garden watching the bee hotel where the Blue Mason Bees are still active. The males hang around resting on the nearby plant pots in the sunshine 

waiting for new females to emerge, like this one that's pushing a blob of the mud seal of its cell in front of it.

The Red Mason Bees are still busy too. So busy they have to cleave their growing brood cells backwards and upside down.

Beneath the bee hotel our God-only-knows-where-they-came-from Madeiran Orchids have come into full bloom.

Back at the bee hotels there's been a lot of interest in them from this parasitic wasp, Sapyga quinquepunctata. We've seen it several times hanging around on the sides or tops of the hotels, it seems to be waiting for the right moment to make its dastardly move.

Always keeping an eye open for other stuff around the garden we saw this Sawfly land on a nearby rose leaf where it appeared to be ovipositing on the top surface of the leaf - we'll have to keep an eye on that particular leaf to see what, if anything, transpires...

lso creeping around was this Zebra Spider, one of several in the garden now.

And noticing a flutter had us chasing this pristine only just emerged Mint Moth round the plant pots beofre it finally settled in a suitable spot for a snap.  Who said moths are just butterflys' boring cousins, this one would knock many butterflies into a cocked hat if only it were 3/4/5x bigger.

In the heat we decided to take the mutt round Heron's Reach where he could stay a little cooler in the shade of the trees. We were surprised to see so few bees and butterflies around the flowers - has the very dry weather affected nectar production? There were some good sightings though including our first Emperor dragonfly which flew off as soon as we lifted the camera - many thanks to the photographer who pointed it out to us. We did get the lens up in time for our first Azure Damselfly pic of the year.

Chiffchaffs were singing all over the shop, by the time we'd realised we'd heard about half a dozen we thought we really should have been counting them - similarly the Blackcaps too, just how many are there round there these days?

Back with the invertebrates we saw this damselfly in somewhat lumbering flight and once it settled could see it had captured a rather substantial prey item.  Once stationary we could see it was a Common Blue Damselfly and not another Azure Damselfly.

We'd seen a Large Skipper butterfly sitting on a small patch of Nettles and while trying to get a pic managed to disturb it and then not be able to relocate it. But while trying to re-find it we spotted this unusual beetle. We managed a couple of half decent phone pics and later discovered it to have the rather long winded name of Golden Bloomed Grey Longhorn Beetle and that it could be the first record of the species in the Fylde.

Further on a Song Thrush sat up nicely for us.

A very good morning's walk but the mutt did get too hot despite being in the shade of the trees most of the time - it was a very warm day!

Back at Base Camp the Sapyga quinquepunctata was still to be seen lurking furtively around the bee hotel.

Bottlenose Dolphins had been seen a couple of morning's on ther trot down at the coast so we gave that a go knowing full well that if we took the big lens they wouldn't show. You guessed right they didn't. At least the local House Sparrows aren't so camera shy. This one has seen something moving in the grass and was about to fly down to snaffle it up to take back to its nestlings across the road. Their eyesight must be phenomenal because what ever it was was too small for us to make out in its beak as it departed - how on Earth did it spot something so small tucked up in the grass from about five metres away?

There wasn't much else about although one of the local Pied Wagtails was very confiding and allowed close approach and for us to get down low for an eye-to-eye shot.

On our return, almost back to the start, we spotted a black dot in the water a long way down towards the pier. We knew what it was and wished it was neared, Our first Grey Seal along this section of the prom of the year - can't believe they've been so few and far between, we would have expected to have seen a t least a few by now given that it's the end of May. But at least it's blubber even if it;s not a dolphin.

Grey Seal PYLC #152

The bee hotel is now under constant attack from the wasp and it's venturing across the front inspecting the holes.

Elsewhere in the garden the pond has been very quiet this year until the last few days when we've been seeing Bumble bees dropping in for a drink...what was that we were saying about the dry spell and nectar production earlier...

We've not had any Blue Tailed Damselflies emerging yet, really hope they've not become extinct in there at the hands of the fish - or should that be mouths of the fish?

The garden did turn up this rather wonderful Red Legged Robber Fly which we though tat first might be one of the Spider Hunting Flies. Turns out it could be another first record for the Fylde although having said that the NBN maps we check on can be notoriously out of date for many species.

Much bigger than the tiny Zebra Spiders that scurry around the trellis is this Tegenara Spider that has set up home in one of the plant troughs by the garage wall.

While looking at more bees coming in to the pond fro a drink we spotted this larva moving around, we guess it's some kind of hoverfly larva but could be horribly wrong.

Another fruitless dolphin search did give is a female House Sparrow to compliment the male from a couple of days earlier.

And finally we managed, or nearly managed, to get a pic of the parasitic wasp leaving one of the active nesting holes in the bee hotel, Blue Mason Bee is the victim in this case.

This type of parasitism is the reason why bee hotel tubes should be at least 10cm deep and preferably 15cm. The females bees are produced at the back leaving the males at the front much more vulnerable to attack but the females are much more valuable to the population as a whole, one male can fertilise several females so it doesn't matter if many/most get parasitised. On the other  hand if most of the females get parasitised because the holes are too short then the bee population will start to decline. So take care when buying bee hotels from the likes of supermarkets and garden centres, make sure they are at least that important 10cm deep. Better still make your own but again you'll need long enough drill bits or bamboo tubes.

So there you have it, plenty has been happening almost far and wide.

Where to next? The weather has taken a big turn for the worse so some of our favourite places further afield may be less busy and we can give them a try.

In the meantime let us know what's been seen in your locked down outback.

Stay socially distant - stay safe.

Lockdown week 6 brings a little belter to the garden

The Safari was struggling with the poor weather early in the week especially in the garden. On Monday only a Buzzard low over the chimney pots made it into the garden notebook and Tuesday's only entry was of a Blue Tit collecting dog hair for its nest again. We made no further entries until Sunday! The camera didn't see much action most of the week either.

Highlight of Day 1 was four high flying Whimbrels heading seawards early morning and a few minutes later a Sparrowhawk flew across the main road heading to the park with prey in its talons. 

On our exercise walk round the park - about a dozen times - we had a Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat on the rough field but otherwise it was quiet.

Tuesday was a bit of a better day and we took our exercise walk the other way along the North Blackpool Pond Trail. It was lively enough.  Pick of the bunch were two Lesser Whitethroats, three Whitethroats and a showy Sedge Warbler but we hadn't taken the camera - dohhhh. A shed load of butterflies too, don't think we've ever seen so many Orange Tips in one place in Blackpool before, we also got our first Speckled Woods of the year too.

A modicum of excitement was had in the garden when a female Blackbird dropped in for a quick dip in our little waterfall. It was very wary keeping tabs on us as we raised the camera cautiously from behind the kitchen window's blinds.

The following day we had another change of scenery with a visit to the prom. It was cold and blustery with very little on offer either out to sea or along the cliffs. Out to sea was marginally better half a dozen Gannets and a male Eider versus a couple of flighty Wheatears along the cliffs.

We were back there again on Thursday, not entirely sure why it was always going to be pretty dire. Easily the best sighting was of four Gannets diving for fish just beyond the low tide water's edge, four Sandwich Terns were there too. Again no camera but they would have been too distant anyway. Along the cliffs we had another Wheatear and a Swallow heading north as well as one in the side street where they nested last year.

May arrived on Friday and once again we were up at the cliffs. Slightly better today with a flock of 11 Gannets followed by a few others. On the return leg we stopped for a scan and hit a bit of jackpot - way out on the horizon we spotted the unmistakable cruciform shapes of careening Manx Shearwaters. In the few minutes we stood watching we counted over 50, there could have been many more out there we couldn't see with just our bins.

In the afternoon we broke the rules a bit and went out again with Wifey and the mutt, we made sure we kept well away from anyone else, we prefer five metres rather than two anyway. This time we went up to the North Blackpool Pond Trail and came across our first brood of cutesy Mallard chicks.

A Robin was 'cock of the rock' singing from the top of the tallest tree in the area. We didn't have much opportunity to point the camera at anything else but as you can see from the colour of the sky it was a very pleasant hour out.

Saturday saw us having an earlier start down at the park. Not taking our phone was a mistake as when we got back to Base Camp we learned we'd missed a couple of Hooded Crows only 200 hundred yards away over the road. Found by the same lad who found the Redstart we dipped for the very same reason. Once is unlucky, twice is a bad mistake, thrice is just plain stupid - there'd best not be a third time!

The afternoon was warm and sunny and saw us in the garden at Base Camp hunting down whatever invertebrates we could rummage out.

There's still a few a few Gooden's  Nomad Bees about.

While watching the bees we spotted a Green Shieldbug, then another then another, four in all.

Their underside is pretty impressive - don't think we've ever noticed it before

Also out n about were the first Honey Bees we've seen this year, that's bees plural we did see a solitary one a few days ago.

Other solitary bees included this long thin dark Andrena species - as yet unidentified. Any one got any ideas.

Much easier to identify, especially now we've got used to them, are these bonny male Blue Mason Bees.

The only bird to report wasn't seen by us but 'discovered' on a friend's Facebook page - a Cuckoo calling at the crem along the North Blackpool Pond Trail - - that'll need further investigation next week for sure. Fingers crossed it sticks around.

The morning started cool but it warmed up just before lunchtime and while out in the garden we spotted a row of faces peering out of the Bee Hotel. We dashed inside to get the camera but by the time we got back out they'd all left bar one.

Red Mason Bee checking the coast is clear before launching in to the clear blue beyond

The compost heap is a good place to watch spiders, mostly Wolf Spiders, but further inspection had us looking at a dangly thing which when we touched it the spider shot out to defend its nest or at least check it wasn't damaged by the huge lumbering oaf of a human. The dangly thing looks like it's made from a Nettle leaf, the spider is most likely to be Tetragnatha extensa, quite a beauty when inspected closely. 

In the dark so not so a bit too grainy even with the flash

The other spiders out in the light don't hang around for their pics to be taken they're always on the move.

Some looking for prey, some looking for mates.

Judging by the way this one is signalling it would rather be the latter than the former.

After getting the pic of the tiny Ichnumeon Wasp last week we've been keeping our eye out for some more. We'd seen a few tiny flies when we saw another that looked a bit different so we fired a few shots off, but without our specs couldn't really see what it was on the screen. Downloading the pics on the laptop we saw it was a beetle, indeed a Longhorn Beetle, but which? CR offered an ID Grammoptera ruficornis. Turns out to be quite a little find - emphasis on the little - not recorded in the Fylde before (or if it has it's not reached the NBN maps yet) and there is quite a big hole in Lancashire away from the Morecambe Bay limestones.

We're confident C has got the ID right but have put it on iNaturalist to see if we can get a confirmation or two. Not a bad (but very lucky) find in a small garden that's just been left a little to wilderness. 

Where to next? Lockdown continues so it'll be more close inspection of what's on offer at Base Camp and the same three walking sites where something is bound to turn up, after all it is May and anything can turn up anywhere.

In the meantime let us know who's turning up in odd places in your outback

Stay safe - stay socially distant - enjoy the wildlife on your doorstep, it's out there for you to find all you need to so is look..and have a bit of luck.