The Safari has been out and about to all sort of weird and wonderful places this last week. The week started well with friend LGB phoning to say a couple of Little Terns were on their way to wards us past his watchpoint down the prom. Great stuff and a big thank you as they aren't a species we can guarantee to see on Patch 2. The eventually came past but were a little distant to 'enjoy' properly still they made it on to the list, Little Tern (147, P2 #48). More enjoyable was the lone Black Tern (14, P2 #49) milling around going back and forth with 11 Arctic Terns followed by a couple of Common Terns (149, P2 #50). So at last we got to see one of the throng of Black Terns that passed through the country last week, what a relief! No chance of getting any of those on the Year Bird Challenge though, the easy two we'll pick up later in the season but the Black Tern won't now be entered in the challenge unless something weird happens.
Something weird happened when one of our work colleagues told us there was a dragonfly dead on the windowsill in the main hall. Further investigation revealed it wasn't (quite) dead and wasn't a dragonfly but a Blue Tailed Damselfly. We'd seen plenty of pics of Large Red Damselflies on social media but none of this species. It was a windy day with the wind from the east so it could have come from anywhere, even from our work's pond just a few feet away - a very thorough check of the edges and reed stems gave us no exuvia so it was most likely from elsewhere. We put it outside but didn't really rate its chances.
A visit to the zoo to help prep up for a Bioblitz later in the month gave us the opportunity for a wander round. We were looking for native species rather than at the exotics but we have to say the Aardvark is very cute if not particularly cuddly. By far the best find was among the dinosaurs, a species of Blood Bee, Sphecodes sp, we've not seen anything like it before and a look on the national database would suggest almost no-one else has locally either. They warrant further investigation and better pics! This one is a phone-pic as we didn't have a camera with us. One of the species is known as the Sand Pit Blood Bee and this one was in what could loosely be called a sand pit...but there are other very similar looking species.
Next up LCV and the children came to visit. A twitch was called for on Saturday morning when we just had to go and have a look at the two Wood Sandpipers that had been found the previous day, another species we can't guarantee to see in any particular year. See them we did but always at some distance in the muddy hollow of a farmer's field. Still it's always good to see a Wood Sandpiper (150, YBC #123).
One of the reasons LCV had come up was to go to see the now resident Pallid Harrier in Bowland - just about the most dangerousd place in England for any type of harrier, or falcon, or hawk, or anything else with a hooky beak. The pics floating round Twitter, Facebook, Flickr etc were impressive so we had to go. An early start was called for so the kids were in the car by 07.00, a bit cruel on a Sunday morning especial with the prospect of a 3 mile hike ahead of them, little P is only seven. But they didn't know about the length of the hike at that time - it was a surprise to come later!
Once parked up it didn't take long for the youngsters to find their stride and they soon covered 'Stage 1' - kept them in a better state of mind to have visible targets to reach on the hike. Not far into Stage 2 we heard a Cuckoo caliing from up the fell t oour left. Almost at the top it was and just out of effective range of the lens but we fired away anyway. Cuckoo (151, YBC #124) being mobbed by what we assume to be a Meadow Pipit.
A little further on we heard a Tree Pipit singing (152) but were unable to get a pic.
We were making good time despite slowing down to look for Common Lizards in any likely spot but sadly we didn't find any to show the children. At the bridge we peered into the water to look for fish, there's usually a few but none today. There was a Grey Wagtail (YBC #124) collecting food for its recently fledged chick on the rocks around the concrete spillway.
Unfortunately we didn't see the adult feeding the chick. A Common Sandpiper was also hunting invertebrates between the rocks nearby.
Birders coming down the hill, they must have been early risers!, told us the Pallid Harrier was still about and with that news the hill didn't seem so steep. We reached the fairly substantial crowd and had our breakfast picnic to the news that it had flown a good distant off and into the next valley. Not good but there was nothing to be done apart from watch and wait and enjoy the serenity of the mountain. LCV caught sight of a distant Ring Ouzel (153) and managed a digi-scoped shot.
And from the hillside opposite our vantage point we heard the go-back go-back go-back calls of Red Grouse (154) several times before spotting one and LCV took another digi-scoped pic.
Eventually the cry went up that the Pallid Harrier (155, YBC #126) was up and sky-dancing over the hill at the head of the valley. We could just about make it out in the bins and even through LCV's scope the views weren't much better. At about two miles away it was almost definitely the worst views of a Lifer we've ever had. The whole group hoped and prayed it would come closer, it did but not by much. At about a mile way it was just photographable, nothing like the awesome pics we'd seen over the past few days.
What made matters worse is by the time we'd got half way down the hill unbeknown to us it was doing a hat and cane routine right over the heads of the watchers we'd just been standing with, but being time limited we'd had to leave - cruel!!!
On the way back down we kept eyes and ears open, hearing Siskins but not the hoped for and seen by everyone else Crossbills in the woods and spotting a family of Mallards shooting the rapids on the river.
This one was suckling a well grown lamb but to fit all the action in the frame of the big lens we'd have had to have backed off that far we'd have fallen ar*e over breakfast in to the river!
The riverside woods near the bridge almost at the end of the walk gave us two nice birds. The first we heard first doing it's lovely thrush-like warble and using the song we located it high in the branches of an Alder tree on the far bank. Stunning views with the bins of one of our favourite birds, a male Redstart (156). It took a bit of finding in the twiggery of the treetops with the camera and once we had found it found it a b*gger to focus on - we know - - shoulda used manual focus!!!). A millisecond before we pressed the shutter button it stopped singing and did a flit.
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A few yards further on a small group of birders and photographers had gathered and were looking up at the top of an Ash tree on our side of the stream. A cracking male Pied Flycatcher (157, TBC #128)
Ice cream ended a memorable but slightly frustrating walk in the hills.
Back at work on Monday we saw the first of the season's Cinnabar moths emerging from the grass in our wildflower area. What little belters they are!
In other late news we've been stuck in the office and missing passing Puffins, not an easy bird to come across along our coast. But did see our first Pipistrelle bat of the year, at Base Camp, last night. Hope this isn't the only sighting of the year, we only saw one at Base camp all last year and that was in April. A lunchtime look over the sea wall this lunchtime didn't give us any Puffins which we'd hoped for but just about the first thing we did see other than a few white dots on the sea which turned into Gannets was a pod of about four or five Bottlenose Dolphins way out on the horizon. We called some passers-by over for a look but they were too far into the haze to be seen with the naked eye. We then saw a second pod of two or three animals, maybe more, about a mile to the north of the others. The next half hour was awesome watching them chase, charge and leap after their unseen fishy prey with a melee of Gannets and gulls above them, no skuas came in though which we thought they might given the commotion - what a way to spend your lunchtime - - lucky lucky us - so lucky we almost forgot about not seeing any Puffins! You really can't beat a bit of blubber!
Where to next? We've taken Monty round a new site for him and have a couple of pics to show you and there may be a more far flung safari in the offing, we're not sure yet.
In the meantime let us know who's leaping seriously high in your outback.
