Our first post-operation safari

The Safari was very kindly taken up to Leighton Moss by CR for our first day out after jour recent surgery. 
Our first stop was at Tim Jackson hide where a noisy pair of Oystercatchers were on and off the Sand Martin nest bank/box, they must have had a youngster somewhere but it was out of sight from our vantage point. The obligatory check for Red Deer under the trees to the right was negative - again! A family of Mute Swans cruised around the back of the pool but there wasn't really enough going on to keep us interested for long. having seen all that was on offer we soon moved round the corner to Grisedale Hide. Here a Heron and a Great White Egret were having a preen-off in the large tree across the pool, if you look closely thesere's a Cormorant up there too.

Below them in the pool was another Heron fishing in quite deep water.

Hardly anyone was about, the early morning rain keeping people tucked up at home, but that did give us the rare opportunity to get into 'Photographers' Corner'. last time we were sat here a Reed Warbler was singing from very close by but deep in the reeds, this time, probably the same bird was singing from the Willow bush a bit further back.

A very late addition to our Challenge tally coming in at #153. While scanning over the reedbeds for any Marsh Harriers that might be up now the rain had stopped and maybe a distant Osprey hovering beyond the tree line over the Causway/Lower Hide pool we spied something in the field on the far hillside that didn't look like cattle, two Fallow Deer were in 'Fallow Deer Field', so named as decades ago the Safari and IH (who couldn't be with us today) saw a herd of Fallow Deer in there. Closer scrutiny revealed there were three, if there were any more hidden by the large Ash tree we never saw them. It's a long way from here to there and any sensible photographer wouldn't have bothered to press the shutter but hey-ho if you squint hard enough you'll see them.

While continuing to scan for raptors and check if any more Fallow Deer had emerged from behind the aforementioned tree we ddi get a big brown bird in flight circling not too high over the reedbeds in the middle distance - not a raptor but a very welcome Bittern...#154. Not the best pic- we should have upped the shutter speed a bit...but when it all happens in a moment we'd didn't get a chance to think to do  that before it had descending into the reeds never to be seen again.

With no Marsh Harrier activity this morning - where were they all? - we trundled off back down the path to Lillian's Hide. From there we saw numerous Coots and a Great Crested Grebe with an almost independent youngster doing its own thing and another Heron or two. So far today Herons were easily out numbering egrets. A few Swifts scythed through the air above the pool but nothing like the numbers we've seen in the past. Are we going to be able to reverse this dramatic loss of wildlife or are we just going to document its inexorable decline to almost nothing, hopefully not the latter but if it's not to be that then a lot of people have got to do make serious changes starting with governments doining joined-up thinking across all departments and policies to include nature in their thinking....and more impotantly DOING.

One species that is sort of thriving and making a comeback from being extirpated from the British Isles is the Osprey, and we saw one briefly from the Causway Hide while chowing down on our pies and butties. From tentative nesting attempts in the 1950's and then protection in the late 50's followed by more recent re-introduction schemes there are now maybe 300 pairs and a good number of non-breeding individuals around the country. 300 pairs might sound quite a lot but there's more people than that in our street!

Sadly it didn't hang around and do some fishing like they seem to do for everyone else but flew over our heads towards Lillian's Hide but didn't stay there more than a few minutes either according to other birders. 

With butties munched it was time to take the path down to Lower Hide, all quiet along there now that putting seed down has been discouraged. The only thing of note we saw was a juvenile Cetti's Warbler skulking along the pathside ditch. In the hide it was good to catch up with KL and his mates and while chatting we spotted more deer on the far hillside, not more Fallow Deer but a pair of Roe Deer in the field to the left of where the Fallow Deer had been, they'd moved on by the time we'd got down here. Once again too far away for a sensible photographer but you get the gist and it's always great to see them no  matter how far away.

The chat and banter continued as did the Heron's annihilation of egrets with a Heron doing a balancing act on a stick taking the biscuit.

No more Ospreys turned up and the only Marsh Harrier was very distant and not very active on the far side. A prominent wake disappearing behind a reedy island had us going, was this to be our first Otter of the year...no -  a Cormorant appeared at the other end of the island a minute or so later. The best of the rest was a female Emperor dragonfly ovipositing among the Water Horsetails in front of us but although we had good views through the bins she was too obscured by intervening vegetation for a decent pic.
Heading back to the car we'd not gone far when we saw a group off photographers pointing their lenses at something close by in the bushes. It turned out to be a trio of juvenile Cetti's Warblers waiting patiently for the/an adult to come back  with a  beak full of delicious grub(s). One of them was probably the one we'd seen earlier as they weren't far from where we'd seen that one. Getting a pic through the jungle was far from easy, the could have done the decent thing and sat a foot or so higher where the vegetation was much thinner.

You might ask if we didn't bother with the ovipositing Emperor why did we bother to get a pic of these? Well you do see Emprerors egg-laying fairly often if your out n about along the water's edge but a trio of Cetti's fledglings is a whole differrent ball gane - a once in a lifetime event! 

Our next stop was the Allen Pool out on the saltmarsh but it was deserted apart from looking far left against the light. So straight to the  Eric Morecambe Hide it was. KL had told us where he'd seen the Wood Sandpiper, a good bird for us it's a feair few years since we've seen one. It had moved since he was last in the hide but it didn't take us long to find it although it was now quite a bit further away than he'd seen it. A good one for the Challenge, a 'Bonus Bird' taking us to 155

After a while it left the sanctuary of the fringing reeds on the far side of the pool and joined a few Black Headed Gulls on the slightly nearer island.

With our boots filled with Wood Sandpiper and helping get several other birders onto it we turned our attention to the other side of the hide where rumour had it a Greenshank was somewhere to be found. While scanning around for it we saw plenty of Avocets and Redshank, a few Little Egrets (at last!), more Herons(!) and some Shelducks. The large flock of Black Tailed Godwits which has recently held several of the needed for our Challenge Bar Tailed Godwits was miles away and didn't even flinch when everything else was put to flight by a passing Sparrowhawk. Eventually we did come across the Greenshank just about close enough for a pic #156 - only 9 more species to photograph to reach our target!

For several minutes it worked its way back and forth along that far bank.

Once it had flown off we turned our attention back to the other side of the hide where a couple of well grown Avocet chicks were swidhing their growing bills through the shallow water.

On the loppy exposed mud a flock of Lapwings loafed about, one got hungry and went to get a snack.

A young Pied Wagtail was close by scampering about picking off hatching flies.

An adult Avocet flew in and landed among the Lapwings and showed the young Avocets how to use their bill once it had grown to its full length.

Guess who blew the highlights - is it really the cardinal sin of photography? Darn not having time enough to check and change those settings!

for much of the afternoon birds had been walking round a bit of wood stuck in the mud close to where they  were feeding. When a Lapwing walked very  close to it we saw there was an eggshell caught on it. Looks like either an Avocet's or Black Headed Gull's and if you look at the full size image you'll see a hole in it which may be from predation or it didn't hatch and got damaged floating into the stick.

Meanwhile a Little Egret flew past prompting a check of the area for any more but we couldn't see any 'new' ones so the day ended with a narrow but very welcome victory for Herons 11-10.

Back on the mud more lapwings were pulling out worms, through the bins it appeared there were two or maybe even three species involved - how the Lapwings saw them is another matter, they can't have been deep cos a Lapwing's beak isn't very long but when we scrutinised a particular Lapwing until it caught one we couldn't see anything on the surface that would suggest a worm  was present, the Lapwings must be able to detail down to almost individual grains of mud moving 'in the wrong direction'. They were almost 100% successful, rarely bending down for a peck without coming up with a worm.

That one with the wind-blown curly tuft is my favourite shot of the day

We finished the day with a fly-by Black Headed Gull

A reflective Oystercatcher

And a gaggle of Avocets

It was a grand day out on safari which on the face of it appeared to be a quiet day but then looking back you can't sniff at Bittern, Osprey, Marsh Harrier, 2 species of deer, egg laying dragonfly, Cetti chicks, Avocets and much much more. Add in the fresh air, craic and banter and you've got the makings of a proper good day out on safari. Big thanks to CR for sterling work behind the steering wheel too.

Where to next? We're out on safari  again tomorrow, somewhere we don't visit perhaps as often as we should.

In the meantime let us know who's the not so early bird catching all the worms in your outback.

June didn't really improve

The Safari received an email from the water board imploring their customers to save water. Well that did the trick it has hardly stopped raining since! And as a consequence our forays with the camera have been somewhat curtailed.

Needless to say though we have been out on safari looking for all manner of interesting wildlife.

Our first trip was down to the docks at Preston to have a look at the tern colony which apparently hasn't been doing so well this year. A Combination of ferocious predatory Coots and ever-present Lesser Black Backed Gulls have meant far fewer Common Tern nests this year. We met up with SB to give her a skull a dog-walking friend's son had found at the bottom of their garden. We thought it was a Fox as it had extremely worn teeth but as soon as S saw it she said Cat. taking up our usual position on the south side of the dock where the light is supposed to be better it was immediately obvious that there were no  tern nests at all on the pontoons on this side. Rather than take the car round the far side and look into what little light there was we walked across to the bullnose within the dock and tried to get some shots of the Common Terns coming and going along the short channel to the lock gates. Had we gone round to the other side and viewed the northern set of pontoons there's a chance we might have seen the pair of Arctic Terns.

Common Tern - PYLC #154. the spikes are to keep the Lesser Black Backed Gulls from swooping down to steal the chicks

Nearby in a gap between the blocks of flats is a small patch of 'amenity grassland' which has  a superb range of wildflowers on it including a sizeable population of Bee Orchids. Unfortunately it had been mown the day before because long grass is 'untidy' not that it was very long anyway. This was the only Bee Orchid to survive the mower out of at least a dozen others apparently in flower a couple of days earlier - what a shame! This out-dated out-moded Victorian 'control nature at all costs' attitude has to stop or be stopped and soon.

Meanwhile the millet CR donated to us is going down a treat with our regular male House Sparrow

so much so that we went and ordered a ginormous bag of the stuff so we're praying he sticks around and brings the wife and kids to the feast in due course too.

A visit to the rock pools at South Shore which we ransacked regularly when we worked down that way was a little disappointing. The loss of the old over-spill pipe along the beach seems to have allowed much more wave action on the wall and there is now far less seaweed for the creepy-crawlies to hide in. 

We struggled to find more than a handful of Common Prawns although this one in berry was a welcome sight.

Green Shore Crabs were similarly hard to find unlike the Periwinkles of which there appeared to be more than we've previously noticed.

One of our main aims of this safari was to find some fish for our Vertebrate Photo Year List Challenge. In the pots we saw a few small Blennies but couldn't catch any, they're just far too quick for us with no seaweed to hide in they see you coming long before you can lift a net. The runnels below the seawall held a a small number of Sand Gobies but agaqin they were too quick for us. Normally another net is required and some team-work to out-wit them; fancy being out-witted by a fish with a brain the size of a pin-head - sad but true!

Further down the beach in the next runnel over the sand-bank we did catch this juvenile Sole (PYLC #155) and some rather large Brown Shrimps that were bigger than it.

Also on the beach were masses of Sea Gooseberries. There were several different strand-lines of them as you went down the beach.

A quick back of the fag packet calculation gave us a figure of somewhere between 10 and 15 million between St Anne's and Fleetwood, based on the density we noted above and there may have been more as photos on the local media sites showed them much more tightly packed than we saw them in various places along the coast.

The following week we had a surprise visitor to Base Camp. A Coal Tit turned up - not seen one here since the end of the winter.

A wander round Heron's Reach starting out in the Woodland Gardens gave us this massive Parasol Mushroom, a real corker!

Once out on the more open track we came across a few butterflies including our first Painted Lady of the year.

Another good find was this hybrid Marsh Orchid spotted in a place we regularly check but have never seen one there before.

An interlude of bright weather had us nipping out to the Rock Gardens to see if the earlier hot spell had brought the White Letter Hairstreaks out. It was a bit blustery and their favourite tree was being tossed around so we didn't hold out much hope after half an hour we gave up and went around the rough fields to see what else we could find - not a lot was the answer. but we did get great views of this hoverfly holding territory in the lee of the big trees at the edge of the park.

Volucella pellucens - a bumble bee mimic

Back at Base Camp the first juvenile Blackbird of the season turned up. Rather late, either a second brood and we'd missed the first or the first broods failed when it was so dry that the adults couldn't get food.

In poor weather the driest, cleanest place to walk the mutt is along the cliffs where there is far less opportunity for him to become a mud-mop. So far this year we've not had much success with Grey Seals so it was a nice bonus to have one bottling not too far offshore although another 50 yards closer to the lens might have been better - can't have everything that'd make us spoilt and no-one like s a spoilt brat!

With Lockdown restrictions easing still further we arranged to meet CR for a mooch round Marton Mere. Gee it's different (good/better) in the summer when the dreadful caravan site adjacent is closed, no numpties, far fewer dogs around and no booming music from the clubhouse.

A good selection of wildlife was enjoyed

Freshly emerged Narrow-bordered Five Spot Burnet  moth

Small Skipper - who's going to first to find an Essex Skipper on the Fylde?

A species we had hoped to see well and until now had had only fleeting glimpses, nothing to point the camera at was the Reed Warblers. But from the Fylde Bird Club Hide we were entertained by a family flitting around the reedbed for about half an hour, just great to watch.

Reed Warbler - PYLC #156

We left the Reed Warblers to their business and carried on the circuit. After a few yards C says look at this...there was a small mammal we assumed (never assume nothing!!!) was a Short Tailed Field Vole. We fired a few shots off but even the best one's not that brilliant but does show a pointy nose rather than a blunt one so it's a shrew not a vole and from the tail length it's a Common Shrew (PYLC #157). Not a species we expected to see out in the open and certainly not one we'd have expected to add to our challenge tally.

 Further on still we could hear nearby Cetti's Warblers but as usual they were all doing remarkably well at staying hidden and out of camera sight. While waiting for a particularly loud and therefore close one to show - it didn't - we spotted this awesome nest of Peacock butterfly caterpillars.

For the final week of June the weather was more like March although we did get a couple of hot days (see previous post about our safari to Lunt Meadows).

First up we headed back out to Marton Mere inspired by our previous visit. This time it as much duller and much quieter. we'd got half way round before we'd come across anything to point the camera at and when that happened it was at this very distant but still lovely and brightly coloured male Linnet.

Nothing else made it on to the SD card, which has got to be a record, there's always something worth pointing the camera at there.

The following day we were back, this time with CR. We'd hardly left the car behind when we came across this very confiding Sedge Warbler. he was totally oblivious to our presence flitting from song post to song post and giving a us a chorus of his extensive and loud repertoire.

A few Swifts were about too.

But again the weather wasn't conducive for a lot of the wildlife to be on show, particularly the invertebrates.

Back at Base Camp we tried a different tack with the mealworms trying to entice the local Starlings to come into the garden. no Starlings just this brute polishing the mealworms off in a matter of seconds again. We're sure he can smell them, there's no sign of him when we put them out but within a matter of minutes he's turned up.

An early morning dog-walk round the rough fields at the Rock Gardens had us see some ginger movement close to one of the big Bramble thickets. We only had our phone with us at that time of the morning and were very surprised that the Fox sat and watched us fumble in our pocket for it, turn it on and point it in her direction AND the dog was sniffing around very excitedly where she had been only moments earlier. We had to use full zoom and couldn't see the screen for the low early morning sun  hence the rather grotty pic. But hey it's identifiable (just) so goes on our Challenge tally as #158 - Result

And so ended June.

Where to next? Well the rain continues into July but we've already got a few wildlife moments to share with you next time.

In the meantime let us know who's sitting still watching in your outback

And don't forget to stay safe and socially distanced.