Not quite dipping out

The Safari has been out most days this week. Most mornings we've been round Patch 1 at the crack of dawn mostly counting the Blackbirds, Robins and Wrens we come across. The other day we had a 'good' count of three Moorhens although with two juveniles around there should really be at least four present, and a singing Chiffchaff was a nice bonus to the usual 'extras' of Goldcrest(s) and/or Coal Tit(s). 

Visible migration has been slow to get going, Patch 1 has only given us a single Chaffinch and a couple of Greenfinches which could have been local birds although we rarely see them in or over the park and these were quite high 'overs'. The same morning as the singing Chiffchaff we had one grounded at Base Camp too.

'Vis mig' over Base Camp has been limited to a solitary Meadow Pipit - where are they all??? - and a few skeins, up to a maximum of about 55 birds, of Pink Footed Geese. A Golden Plover flying over during an annoying Monty wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-take-me-out-for-a-pee-NOW was a bonus! We've probably had more Red Admirals migrating through the Patch than birds this week, there certainly seems to be a good number of them about.

After breakfast a morning saunter round Marton Mere reserve started at the lively Feeding Station. Good numbers of Chaffinches, Blue and Great Tits and an acrobatic Grey Squirrel doing its best to squeeze at least a nose between the anti-squirrel wires around the feeder.

Along the path a Rabbit crouched motionless on the recently cut meadow area hoping Monty didn't spot it - we were hoping that too and holding on tight just in case he did! Fortunately for the Rabbit and our arm he didn't we were able to walk right past it within only a few feet without it being noticed by the Monster. 

All pretty quiet around the reserve with only a lone Meadow Pipit and a couple of Skylarks heard passing overhead.  Down at the Viewing Platform we heard a Water Rail squeal and a the first of half a dozen Cetti's Warblers sing a quick blast.

A sneaky peek under the refugium gave us our third mammal species of the morning in the shape of our first Short Tailed Field Vole of the year not counting the one being carried aloft by a Buzzard at Leighton Moss earlier in the summer. Also under there were a couple of Great Crested Newts, always good to see and especially good to see a juvenile even if it was trying to do a runner.

We gently picked it up and positioned it on a leaf for a better pic. The adult is a male, told by the white stripe down the centre of the tail which they wave amorously in front of the females during courtship. Seeing the juvenile was good news as it means we've had some local breeding success especially as the surveys undertaken earlier in the year came back negative and with worrying news that most of the ponds looked at had been stirred up so badly by dogs that they were now unsuitable for the newts to breed in - if the water's too turbid the females can't see those frantically waving tails! 

A Sparrowhawk and a brief glimpse of a Reed Warbler at the Heron Hide broke the monotony but then as we were leaving we heard a rustle in the long grass to the side of the hide. We could see the grass being disturbed by something fairly large at times too. Crikey! A family of Stoats exploded in to full view for a few milliseconds before vanishing back in to the undergrowth - excellent views if so fleetingly brief. We've not seen a Stoat for soooooo long so to see at least three was great - and our fourth mammal of the morning. A Goldcrest called from a nearby Willow too.

At the Fylde Bird Club Hide the view is still a bit hindered by the summer's Reed growth, need a strimmer, a large flock of roosting Starlings and/or another good gale to knock them down a bit.

Not a lot about, the usual suspects of Mallard, Coot and a couple of Gadwall with a fly-over Snipe. But then what's that big duck asleep over the far side - blimey a Pintail, (MMLNR #80). It's been a while since we caught up with one of those here too it was turning in to a decentish sort of a day! Shame it slept motionless all the time we were there, probably only dropped in from Iceland or the far north of Europe, perhaps even further afield, earlier that morning.

Moving on it was good to see the Snake's Head Fritillary meadow had been mown, lots of Meadow Cranesbill and Agrimony are present too but the number of Cowslips seems to be declining a bit. Perhaps due to the meadow become inundated with Common Reed for much of the summer.

Nothing else of note - where is that Bittern when you want it?
The following morning dawned rather chilly, the coldest morning since the end of last winter.

The cold hadn't brought anything new to Patch 1 though. After breakfast we set off east down the country roads to a little river we know. Looking downstream from the bridge it looks like this and moments later a Kingfisher sped through and straight under the bridge and out of sight. 

Our gaze followed the Kingfisher and fell upon our hoped for quarry for the day. A Dipper was feeding a few yards beyond the far side of the bridge - a little distant but hey ho at least Dipper (YBC #151) makes it on to our Year Bird Challenge tally doing what they do best - dipping!

Perhaps we might get a closer shot downstream so off we went passing a few Robins and a small flock of Long Tailed Tits as we walked along the river bank.

We got all the way to the end and only managed to flush another distant Dipper. On the way back we spotted another, quite likely the same one, that hadn't spotted us so we secreted ourself behind a tree and waited for it to walk/swim up the stream a bit and in to view. Thankfully it obliged.

Back at the bridge our first Dipper was nowhere to be seen but a Grey Wagtail flew down and had a bob around on a rock mid-stream.

A short but productive morning out.

This morning we went back to the nature reserve but it was desperately quiet. Looking under the refugium again had us disturbing the Short Tailed Field Vole again but now there were three juvenile Great Crested Newts - nice. As we hadn't made a note or taken a pic of the underside of the one the other day it was impossible to tell if one of these was that one or if none of these three were that one.

The best of the rest was a passing Mistle Thrush and we didn't even see a Blackbird all morning - told you it was quiet!

So quiet the next best thing we found was a fresh Shaggy Ink Cap fungus.

It didn't help when later we discovered we didn't quite stay long enough to see the Otter and a couple of Ravens, a species which has become much more numerous in the local area but which we've still not seen there.  Dohhhhh!!! can't win em all!

Where to next? We'll be out somewhere tomorrow but we're not sure where yet -0 could well be weather dependent.

In the meantime let us know who's doing the dipping in your outback.

A cracker and a bad dip on a very wet day

The Safari was able to get to the nature reserve fairly early this morning. We walked in past a quiet and very wet wetland seeing very little on the way to our first stop at the Feeding Station. There was a bit of activity with several Chaffinches, Blue Tits and Great Tits coming and going. A bright male Pheasant displayed furiously to a non-plussed Woodpigeon while a pair of Dunnocks skulked around in the Brambles waiting for a lull in the fighting on the feeders to do a lightning smash and grab raid on the seeds.

A tidy male Reed Bunting (MMLNR #48) appeared briefly and Rabbit refused to come out in to the open for a pic. Just outside the hide there was a pile of droppings on a stump which looked rather Stoaty; a species we've not seen for far too long.

As ever we were time constrained and had to move on after a few minutes. Before we reached 'Ice Station Zebra' we stopped at the wet meadow for a quick can. The Cowslips are coming into flower but we were after Snakes Head Fritillaries, a couple of scans later and Bingo there was one with the flower about to open.

ICZ was warm and there were no druggy scrotes today thankfully. A Great Crested Grebe graced the water but there was no dancing today, no gulls were in view either; we hoped the Iceland Gull would put in appearance, assuming it's still about. A Cetti's Warbler sang loudly to our left but refused to show itself as usual.

Carrying on to the Bird Club hide the rain started and came down heavy for a good while so we were stuck in there so as not to get the camera wet. It wasn't a plan but it turned out OK. A Sparrowhawk (MMLNR #49) came wafting over the scrape flushing about 30 Teal, no Green Winged Teal today - as usual. A few Shovelers came out too as did two Snipe (YBC #97).

Unfortunately they didn't circle close enough for a decent pic in the dull conditions.

We kept hearing another Cetti's Warbler but it wouldn't come out of the reeds, and then we saw a dark brown shape flit across the gap. It went in deep but then appeared on the corner of the area of cut reeds. Arrghh - a Wren!

A pair of Little Grebes (MMLNR #50) kept us entertained while the rain continued to fall.

And then a movement in the cut between the reed caught our eye and we swung the camera round as fast as we could. We fired off a burst of shots roughly in that direction and hoped the settings would be OK and that the auto-focus had found something to lock on to.

With far more luck than judgement Water Rail (YBC #98) finds its way on to our Year Bird Challenge list.
The rain was still failing heavily and at last Monty had settled and laid down when a little bit of magic happened. A Cetti's Warbler (YBC #99) came out close to where the Wren had been and proceeded to put on a show for us!

Holy Shamoly they never come out like this for us especially when we've a camera in our hands. but when they pose like this once in a Blue Moon wil do us nicely. A Blue Moon when there's a bit of sunshine wouldn't go amiss sometime this year.

It was a relief to get a good pic of this tricky species that rarely gives good views, not here at least. It was a shame this white Grey Lag Goose wasn't the Great White Egret it superficially resembled.

Getting back to the car as quickly as we could didn't give us anything extra but there were a lot more gulls to look through from the new bench - still no Iceland Gull though.
Back at Base Camp we learnt that a Chough had been in the big Park for much of the morning only a few hundred yards from where we'd been. After lunch we headed out in the rain for a look. If it wasn't for the queues caused by the nearby bridge being out of action we'd have seen it missing it by only a few minutes. With a bit of luck it should be around tomorrow so we might get out before family duties are required.
Where to next? Hopefuly the Chough but failing that we might see something along the motorway network.
In the meantime let us know who popped out to say hello in your outback.

Yet more dipping - will we get lucky this spring?

The Safari didn't get out yesterday until about lunchtime, we parked up and straight away bumped into AL who was just leaving the reserve, "Owt about?" we asked "Nah, just a load of Chiffchaffs and not a lot else". "No Willow Warblers?" "Didn't hear a single one!" And with that he was off to the pub. Seconds later we got a txt from SD saying he was on Patch 2 and an Osprey had just flown over him. We ran to the middle of the field and put the bins on the tower but then noticed a shed load of gulls going up a little way to the north, probably about the start of Chat Alley, the lower sky here was obscured a by tall trees and the narby hotel so we missed yet another Osprey this spring, how many's that now 4, 5?

Starting our walk proper we went around the outside of the reserve listening to several Chiffchaffs on the way but only really getting glimpses of them when we stopped to look for one. We anted to see if the Long Eared Owls were still on site, arriving at the spot we were a little disappointed to find the 'easy' one wasn't there but a quick scan with the bins gave us the one that normally sits behind it and then the tricky one which was extremely tricky this time. But there was a big bonus, the first one was facing us AND had its eyes wide open, the first time we've seen it like this all winter! Could the camera (which is playing up after a recent soaking) find it and focus??? Yes it could!!!

We were able to show a young lad and his mum the pic on the camera and wished we'd taken our scope so he could see it for himself, we hope he googled it when  he got home like he said he would.

On we strolled into the reserve and along the embankment, all quiet along there apart from a couple of Cetti's Warblers.

The gulls on the mere went up and we scanned hopefully but found the cause of the consternation was the regular Buzzard not an Osprey.

 The flood in the nearest field has dried to a soggy mud but still looks good for stuff to come in and hunt flies and other invertebrates but it was devoid of bird-life as was the stubble beyond it and the still very wet floods in the field the other side of the dyke. All we could find of note in the stubble field was a solitary Stock Dove.

From the trees by the bridge (there's a songbird who sings...) we heard our first Willow Warbler (130, MMLNR #84) of the year and then heard another somewhere in the scrub near the hide. At the hide we met MJ and EP who hadn't seen too much of seasonal interest other than the nearby Willow Warbler and several Chiffchaffs, it was still more wintry fare out there although numbers of waterfowl are now well down with four Goldeneyes, 16 Tufted Ducks, and just eight each of Teal and Mallard. A Coot sitting tight on its nest and the occasional passing butterfly told us it was really spring after all. All of a  sudden a Heron came and landed on the 'goalposts' it's only very rarely that we see them on there. It looked like it had seen something in the reedbed to the right and eventually flopped down into rather deep water for a closer look.

MJ and EP went off to look for Water Pipits while we continued our circuit in the warm spring sunshine, well it was warm if you were out of the increasingly strong easterly breeze, that had a bit of an edge too it.

On the lawn there were several Rabbits that were nibbling away totally un-phased by the numerous passing humans and their dogs.

Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock butterflies fluttered along the sunny edge of the lakeside scrub but we're still to come across a Comma this season and a Brimstone here would be a very nice bonus, they're still barely annual on site.

We weren't too chuffed with the Rabbits a little further on, a look at the wet meadow showed that they'd nibbled off several of the Snakeshead Fritillary flowers. We snuck carfefully into the meadow and was disappointed to see bicycle tracks all over the place in there, people don't seem to understand that a fence means you shouldn't enter any more, there were foot prints all over the place too and several of the Snakeshead Fritillaries and Cowslips had been trodden on as well as ravaged by the Rabbits.

At the hide we sa tand watched the gulls coming and going without finding anything out of the ordinary until an all black billed winter plumaged Black Headed Gull had us getting a bit twitchy for a while. outside a Wren sang loudly and then we spotted it on the window sill when it flew into the hide. up it went to a nest and out again in a tiny brown blur.

We waited ages camera poised ready for action and when it returned we fired off  a few dreadful shots at only 1/8th of a second, maybe we should have used the flash eh?

The Wren doesn't appear to be carrying any food and this is deffo a male bird  as we've seen it singing so this might only be one of several 'cock' nests that its made of which his mate will chose the one she likes best to raise their brood in - good luck to them we hope they have a good season. 

From there we went round the other side only stopping very briefly at the Feeding Station, we wanted to watch somewhere were there was plenty of sky and were rewarded by the gulls find another Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk but no Ospreys.

Down the path a bit the Gorse we planted many years ago was looking good if being blown about a bit in the wind. Standing in the lea of it the whiff of Coconut coming from the flowers on the breeze was gorgeous. Sadly we doubt if any of the several passers-by noticed the somewhat exotic fragrance.

And looking into the sun across the mere the light catching the  tops of the old reeds and giving them a  silvery wash was gorgeous too.

All too soon our time was up, we had an errand to run before the shops shut, it always seems too soon to leave!

Just outside the reserve gate we were rewarded with the only butterfly we saw stationary all afternoon and overhead a flock of about 25 Sand Martins appeared, but no Swallows or House Martins for us yet.

Back at Base Camp a little later we discovered there were two Ospreys fishing in the river near the bridge we'd taken Wifey across on the way to see her Hares.

Our Extreme Photographer has sent some more snaps from his garden in south west Wales.

Dunnock

Marsh Tit

Female Siskin

Male Siskin

Male Sparrowhawk, taken through his non-opening kitchen window

He tells us he's had to order another 100kgs of bird food, he must go through more in a week than we do here at Base Camp in a whole winter!
He's got some pics of non-garden birds for you coming shortly.

Where to next? We hope there's more on Patch 2 tomorrow than the single Herring Gull, single Lesser Black Backed Gull, two Eiders and two Pied Wagtails today. But a walk up to the shops did give us a Great Tit for our Patchwork Challenge tally but not our Patch 2 tally.

In the meantime let us know who's giving you the runaround in your outback.

Glorious day but more miss than hit

The Safari had a day off today and so we went twitching for a local specialty. We arrived at the marsh well early with the intention of watching the tide up. Despite the early hour there was already a significant heat haze making anything over half way across the marsh a bit wibbly-wobbly and anything across the river virtually unidentifiable.

It was on our first scan that we found our first Avocets of the year (125). The soundtrack to our visit to the Lesser Spotted woodpecker site was Little Grebes trilling today's sound track was the lovely exaltations of the Skylarks and the chewitting of the tumbling Green Plovers, the superb soundtrack to our youth many years ago.

If the was a sound theme there was a colour theme too, black n white! The Shelducks are black n white (at a distance) the Avocets are black n white, the Little Egrets are white, the Whooper Swans were white, the Mute Swans were white, in the river the Cormorants were black and we won't mention the wibbly-wobbly gulls.

The warm sun brought out plenty of butterflies, mostly Small Tortoiseshells and several Peacocks, big Bumble Bees buzzed around the Dandelions too.

A Merlin (126) flashed past inches above the grass and landed on a large piece of driftwood away across the marsh.

We went back to our start point and saw that a small crowd was gathering for the main event. The extra pairs of eyes and ears soon found a Raven and we spotted a second soaring way way above us in the azure blue.

Loads of Little Egrets were scattered across the marsh, at one point we had seven in the scope at one time! It's not that long ago we really did twitch these, no sign of the Great White Egret today which was  a bit of a dip although it does tend to favour the south side of the river.

A Peregrine was picked up as the tide rose but on the whole it was a bit of quiet morning. A Buzzard and two wibbly-wobbly blobs over the far bank could have been this species of Marsh Harriers, probably the former.

The tide rose slowly flushing the Redshanks and Curlews but only three Snipe and no Jack Snipe. A Reed Bunting called from the hedge beside us but really there were few small birds about, particularly pipits. The target species were the summer plumaged Water Pipits two of which were seen yesterday. Sadly no luck today, the tide wasn't high enough by just a couple of inches and there was enough just about uncovered patches for them to hide in right across the marsh so they weren't pushed up to the sea wall...a bit of a westerly breeze was all it needed  but it was all very calm today.

With the tide at its peak and no sign of the target the crowd drifted away and we headed for the nature reserve.

Cetti's Warblers were everywhere! We had six and MJ had had another so at least seven singing males on site this arvo.

By now the sun was quiet summery and the bees and butterflies were out in force. Several of the Peacocks were nectaring on the Pussy Willow flowers.

We also saw our first Comma of the nature reserve for this season.

The gulls went up in a huge commotion bet we didn't find any raptors going over. Later a slightly less loud commotion gave us a soaring Sparrowhawk.

Walking round to the Feeding Station we heard a Blackcap (MMLNR #68) burst into song and then found him flitting through the edge of the scrub.

In the tame wildflower meadow the Snakeshead Fritillaries are coming into flower, looks like there'll be over 100 heads in total whcih is good. The Cowslips are looking good too and there will be a fine show of Agrimony later in the season.

So there you have it a really good day off, OK so we didn't see the target species but we did get to chat to a few old friends we don't see so often these days and the sun shone all day long - all good stuff!

Where to next? Back to Patch 2 where there WILL be a Wheatear - won't there?

In the meantime let us know what wasn't where it should have been in your outback.