More gull trouble

The Safari got back to Base Camp after work yesterday evening in better weather than anticipated and had a shuffy round the garden after noticing that Wifey's red Calla Lily was out and looking rather splendid.

Nearby a long thin wasp flew round the Sweet Peas with waving antennae which unusually had a central white stripe and bright red long dangly legs. It wouldn't land in a patch of bright sunshine that would show it's colours to best advantage, it barely settled anywhere for long preferring to hunt in flight by scent using those massive antennae.

Earlier the sea had been pretty poor on Patch 2 with nothing to report. Today however saw a very slight improvement in the shape of our first Great Crested Grebe of the autumn and a bit of Cormorant movement.

Mid morning we had a group of disabled children to entertain on the beach up by the pier. They had a great time collecting all manner of shells, rocks and gull feathers. The best find of the day was towards the end of the session made by one of the young girls, a medium sized Native Oyster shell with some holes from a Boring Sponge in it; that's a sponge that makes holes not an uninteresting sponge!

Unfortunately somehow we've managed to delete all the pics we took of their finds. We don't like to take the 'proper' camera on to the beach salt water and sand don't mix well with optics and electronics but we had brought it deliberately. Last time we were here we'd had to make do with a distant phone pic of the Yellow Legged Gull which lurks round these parts.

We didn't see it while we were waiting for our group to arrive but it appeared right in front of us when we were taking our kit back to the Land Rover at the end so we dropped our pots and nets and swung the camera into action.

Back at Base Camp once downloaded we saw that it is not a Yellow Legged Gull at all but probably a hybrid Herring x Lesser Black Backed Gull. It is deffo not the same bird as was here a few years ago.

Although mantle shade-wise it stands out like a sore thumb between the Herrings and Lesser Black Backs looking more closely at it you can see it has a pink leg and a yellow leg and the eye-ring is orangy yellow not red.

In flight it's very moulty so we'll lhave to keep an eye on it over the coming months and see if we can get some open wing shots once it's replaced all the worn feathers it has now.

The head doesn't look square and heavy enough for YLG being quite domed in almost all the pics we took and perhaps the primary projection even allowing for the worn tips isn't enough either. Some YLGs have the red gonydeal spot 'bleed' over onto

the upper mandible, that clearly isn't the case in this individual.

It could just be a rather dark backed manky legged Herring Gull or even a (H x LBBG) x Herring Gull back-cross. Any thoughts anyone?
There was more gull trouble when we heard that a Sabine's Gull had arrived at a site tantalisingly close but sadly just out of range - even worse, we saw the pics people were getting of it and it's a really stunner. The big question is how long will it stick and can we get there in time...we've not seen one since the mid 90s - far too long ago! Oh for more time, a faster car, less traffic...

After work we had an important mission, to meet a bloke who had reported a Grass Snake and photographed some eggs in a compost heap on a small patch of rough ground at the back of his house...and only a mile from work!!! When we first heard the news we expected the sighting to have been from our 'snake pit' on the allotments but it was nowhere near there being in a well established residential area instead.

We met up with the lad who was eager to explain what had happened and where the action had taken place. He'd been helping an elderly neighbour tidy a bit of overgrown garden that was formerly a bit of veggie patch but the old fella could no longer manage it and had had to abandon the garden. Setting too with his clearing our new friend moved some junk lying on the ground and saw a strange curled 'snail' beneath it. He went to touch it with his rake and it slithered off taking him by surprise. About 4-5 inches long as thick as a pencil about the same colour as the ground and he noted it had an orangy mark on it but couldn't say where on the body, he was a bit taken aback by his find. Not sure what type of snake - he was pretty sure he had just seen a snake - he wasn't too happy about the chance of getting bitten.

Later in his clearing duties he said he was moving a tarp over an old compost heap and discovered some eggs beneath it saying most had a hole in them. He left the area once he'd finished work but didn't cover it back over and the following day some eggs had gone leaving only already hatched ones. We were hoping he'd kept one or more of these but sadly not he'd swept them up and put them with all the other sweepings on his bonfire.
Not the best pic sent from his phone to CR - thoughts anyone...

Apparently there were more behind the four showing.

We have no reason to doubt the lad's tale and so we're 99% sure there are still some Grass Snakes left in town, if there's been eggs and now there's at least one juvenile there must be at least two other bigger ones! We just need that 1% more proof so we've asked him to put some metal sheets down in around the area and lift them carefully, camera at the ready, every couple of days...we're confident he'll strike lucky soon enough - pun intended btw...watch this space!

Where to next? Back on the beach tomorrow with another group of youngsters - will they find that Native Oyster again and we have a mini-beast safari in the big park too?

In the meantime let us know what's lurking in the compost heaps in your outback.

On safari later than anticipated

The Safari started early this morning emptying the moth trap which was rather wet, from heavy overnight dew. Only two Hebrew Characters to report :-(

It did go quite chilly last night while we were having a good old gawp at Saturn in the clear conditions. A really brilliant view, even Wifey was impressed. At the time of riting this rubbish there is heavy cloud cover, let's hope it clears so we can try to get a pic or two...also need to check if we can see the gap between the inner and outer rings known as the Cassini Division. The rings are only between a hardly credible 5m and 30m deep and yet easy to see with the scope even though Saturn is about 830 million miles from Earth.

We faffed around at home far too long an didn't get out until nearly lunchtime so decided to go to one of the local farmland feeding stations to look across the fields for Brown Hares and Roe Deer and perhaps that invisible Hooded Crow. A couple of photographers had the feeders staked out so we drove past them to the gate where we saw naff all apart from of a very high soaring Buzzard which did a bit of display flight-ing

So cutting our losses w headed to the nature reserve. The lovely spring sunshine had gone and a cool wind was picking up. Not a lot was about although we did find a Goldcrest (MMLNR #72).

The Snake's Head Fritillaries in one of the small meadow areas were just coming in to flower, a sure sign of spring, plenty of Cowslips here too.

The feeders were busy with the usual stuff but no Siskins or Brambling today.

Great Tit

Blue Tit & male Reed Bunting

Reed Bunting

The walk round the rest of the reserve only gave us a few Bumble Bees and a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly. No Chiffchaffs and no Sand Martins.
A Carrion Crow in the garden (recording area) brought the garden total to 25.

Where to next? Back to work tomorrow so Patch 2 will be back in play
In the meantime let us know who spent too much time faffing around i n your outback.

Swimming in Greece?

A far flung safari to report on this time. A trip to the lovely island of Rhodes. The swimming bit in the title was great with tepid calm water and a multitude of fish - all of which seem to like bread even more than Stanley Park ducks. Sadly, I do not know the names of any of them so if there is a reader out there who can suggest a good field guide to the fish of the Mediterranean the safari would be very grateful. Med fish aren't as bright as those from tropical reefs but there are some subtle beauts down there.

The first creature of note was this lovely Preying Mantis who posed very nicely for her picture.

After seeing the Red Backed Shrike family in Poland it was rather sad to find this youngster covered in ants dead on the road.

However some of it's siblings were alive and kicking and eating the rather large Hornets that were flying around all over the place.

I'm not sure if they were migrants or a resident family that nested somewhere nearby but this was the only male I saw all week and boy was he wary, he wouldn't let me anywhere near him for a better shot. I saw him for a few minutes on just one morning's walk.

The cliffs at the end of the bay had a selection of fossils including several of these perfectly preserved Scallops.

The sunset before the big storm was a picture - the storm itself was a humdinger, the first rain for five months apparently.

Other highlights included single Cory's and Yelkouan Shearwaters out at sea, four Eleanora's Falcons together in off the sea, 2 Long Legged Buzzards and a very obliging Kingfisher. I only managed to track down three species of lizard, Starred Agama, Anatolian Rock Lizard (juveniles have stunningly blue tails) and Levant Skink.

Amongst the insects the stars were Humming Bird Hawk-moths, and Long Tailed Blue, Oriental Meadow Brown and Southern Swallowtail butterflies. The former wave their long tails like pretend antennae and with the eye-spots look like the head, I've never noticed them do this before and not realised that the tails could be deliberately moved. Cunning eh?

Where to next? Could be anywhere! There are high tides and strong winds coming this week....not Stormies this time but Leach's Petrels......tiny, but enigmatic, ocean wanderers.

In the meantime let us know what you have found in your outback.

Sticklebacks and more pictures from Poland

Yesterday a pack of Cubs and Beavers had a go at pond dipping at the Solaris Centre and managed to find the queen of the Sticklebacks - she's a whopper, almost the full width of a Flora margarine pot!

I have just had some more pics from my mate in Poland of our trip sent through the 'ether'.

Common Toads were numerous in the garden of the place we stayed. In the forest we found a Slow Worm on one of the sandy tracks.

Whilst this photo of the young Grass Snake was being taken there were two Golden Eagles soaring about 100 feet above my head!

We searched for an adult snake but had no luck, these Yellow Bellied Toads were probably its prey whever it was.

This Leaf Cutter Bee was a lucky find at the hill top view point at Zakopane and the only wildlife of note we saw up there at 'Blackpool on the hill'.

Back at the base for our trip the garden and surrounding trees held a White Stork roost each evening. A few blogs back (the Zakopane post) I showed a photo of my mate taking a picture of a stork on a post - here is his result...not bad!

This Fox cub was very inquisitive, one night we were on the patio and it was sniffing around the wood pile. With a bit of encouragement it became a bit tamer over the next couple of evenings and posed for a photo.

When I left I suggested that with a bit of patience they would be able to tame it and it would have a basket by the fire next time I visited...that was supposed to be a joke!

Where to next? This coming Sunday (17th) we will be Rock Pooling again at South Beach, Blackpool. Meet at 4.00pm at the Mirror Ball. Bring your buckets, pots and wellies.

In the meantime don't forget to let us know what you have seen in your 'outback'.