Anyone seen any butterflies?

The Safari has been wanting to do counts for this summer's Big Butterfly Count but the weather has been constantly putting the mockers on proceedings so much so that we've only managed a couple of counts over the last fortnight and they haven't revealed prodigious numbers of butterflies. Meadow Browns have been the most numerous but well below what we would normally expect on our rough fields, followed by the not counted for the Count Small Skippers.

Small Skipper

Only a handful of other species have been seen, a couple of Red Admirals, a few Gatekeepers and a Common Blue on our second visit not many Large or Small Whites and a single very fresh Small Copper on our first visit.

Small Copper

But where are the Small Tortoiseshells? Are you seeing any round your outback? Maybe all that mowing and weedkillering of the Dandelions is having an effect on the early emergers and they aren't able to get into good enough condition to lay lots of eggs and even if they do the 'Tidy Brigade' lay waste to the all important Nettle patches destroying eggs and/or caterpillars in the process. Or maybe it's just bad luck with weather conditions and parasitoids?

Like the butterfly counting opportunities to put the moth trap out have been sadly lacking too and when it has gone out the catches have been nothing to write home about, mostly a few Large Yellow Underwings with fewer Dark Arches, Common Rustic aggs and Uncertain/Rustics - doubt we'll ever get the hang of separating those too despite watching videos and reading articles on how to do it.

We did get one good night though and that produced the best catchy of the year so far with no less than 53 moths of eight species although 37 of them were Large Yellow Underwings. Pick of the bunch was a nice Iron Prominent.

Iron Prominent - don't you just love that furry face

We took the chance on the weather and did an on-line booking for a visit to Martin Mere WWT and was lucky enough to send round our Scouse mates for JG to also get a place before the day booked up so a great opportunity for a meet up.

The day was a little cool and windy but at least the rain held off. The morning started well with a Common Sandpiper appearing in front of the Discovery Hide.

There were plenty of other birds about to keep us on our toes too. Lapwings appeared to have had a good season with a sizeable flock already building up.

A flock of settled Black Headed Gulls held a fair proportion of juveniles but despite scanning through them repeatedly we couldn't find any Mediterranean Gulls lurking. Over in the distance the Black Tailed Godwits looked resplendent in their bright golden summer garb. Buzzards sat on posts and we had a couple of distantish views of a hunting Marsh Harrier. Our next stop was all the way round to the far side of the reserve to the recently opened Gordon Taylor hide stopping at the feeding station on the way. That was really busy there were birds zooting here there and everywhere. All tyhe common feeding station birds, pick of the bunch being a really bright male Greenfinch. The Brown Rats were fun to watch too until a drake Mallard appeared and shooed them off the fallen seed. At the Gordon Taylor hide we had a short wait outside for people to leave before we could enter socially distanced from the other birders already in there. Everything on view from here was a bit distant, more stunning Black Tailed Godwits and Lapwings, a few moulting Teal but no Avocets, they've already left for pastures new. More birders arrived so no wanting to 'hog the hide' we moved on umming and erring as whether or not to do the Reed Bed Walk time was getting to wards butty time so we opted for the return to the car park option where our butties were still in the boot of the car. A stop at the Unitied Utilities hide was fairly quiet until someone mentioned they'd not seen a Peregrine on site for quite a few weeks and no sooner had they got the words out of their mouth than one appeared - how often does that happen - -  it's spookey!!! We got some more Marsh Harrier action too. Moving on we passed a nice bright largeish orange fungus - we're useless at fungi so if anyone knows what it might be please let us know.

We decided on a quick peek from the Harrier Hide and bumped into KL looking to get to some pics of any butterflies that might be about in the warmth of the sheltered flowery dip behind the hide but he was having little success chasing the few Gatekeepers that were flitting around. There wasn't a great lot to be seen from the hide, best being a pair of Little Grebes, a new species for the day.

A very brief look at the Feeding Station gave us the Mallard still keeping the Brown Rats at bay.

With our butties retrieved from the car we made our way to the relative comfort of the Raines Observatory. Never really understood a hide without opening windows but the full height glazing does give a panoramic view of the site and keeps the wind out, you don't half get a crinkle cut ar*e off those wooden seats though. Anyway while butties were being munched a tractor working in the distance came in for lunch and as it got closer flushed a Heron from the water's edge.

Now as you're probably aware we have a penchant fro agricultural machinery, for more so than the average Joe...but certainly not as much as this odd chap

Stolen from Twitter with apologies to the original poster

We're loathe to admit it but Masseys and John Deeres are our faves too, but NO we haven't got anything like 5000 images of tractors on our PC! 3000 maybe but none are in provocative poses.

Agricultural excitement over our window seat then gave us some avian excitement in the form of a Green Sandpiper landing close by but mostly obscured by a large fence post. We had to wait for it to wander a little further away along the bank of the pool before we could get anything like a decent pic - not that that's possible through the glazed window. Photo Year List Challenge #164.

The glazing also prevented any pics of a really close Marsh Harrier, the third different individual of the day and a very well marked one at that.

After lunch we moved on to the Kingfisher hide where we had superb views of very lively Tree Sparrows at the feeders but unfortunately the light was poor for getting any pics so not waning to hog the best seats we moved on to the Ron Barker hide where little was happening until after a few minutes the lady to our right heard a Kingfisher and then briefly saw it. Not long after it flew to a favoured perch, a branch deliberately poised over the brook. We filled our boots as it repeatedly dived, not for fish but to bathe.

While intently watching the Kingfisher said lady called out a Stork on the bridge. We'd not seen that fly in and only a few feet from the Kingfisher lifting our eyes from the camera's viewfinder we could see no Stork, how did we miss that??? Happens she's said Stoat and we'd misheard here accent. then she called it out again and there it was a Stoat on the bridge and the first we've seen for a couple of years - can't believe we didn't see one at all last year.

We were relieved when it stood still long enough to fire off a few snaps but it soon disappeared under the Bramble bush never to be seen again. Photo Year List Challenge #165.
Then the Kingfisher put in another appearance, a little further aay but did catch a fish which we missed wit the camera as it flew off with it just as we were about to press the shutter...so annoying.

Having a look what else was about we checked through the gull flock as always especially when a large number of Black Headed Gulls flew in from the neighbouring fields, nothing out of the ordinary was with them this time. It was nice to see some July Whooper Swans, obviously not fit enough to make the flight to Iceland back in the spring. We'd have loved to have seen them on their breeding grounds this summer but that darned virus thingy put paid to plans of an Icelandic adventure.

Returning to the Discovery hide we had a few minutes in there seeing another Common Sandpiper

Also close by were two broods of very young Mallards and a well moulted drake Teal.

In the distance we could see the sun shining on a few Black Tailed Godwits and a couple of Ruff - time to move round there to see if we could get closer views in better light.

The waders were having a bit of sticky time wading through the thick soft sticky peaty gloop.

And then a last look at the Feeding Station where we saw our first Green Veined White of the year - how come it's taken so long to connect with one of these very common butterflies?

And with that it was time to say our goodbyes to JG and thank her for the great day out before heading back across the river to Base Camp.
A sunny afternoon in the garden gave us the chance to have a go at getting some bee pics. We've been doing our best to get to grips with solitary bee ID this season and hoped the much needed sunshine might have brought some out but we only saw a female Blue Mason Bee sunning itself on the garage roof and out of range of the macro lens. All the other bees we saw were either bumble bees or Honey Bees.

Honey Bee

Believed to be Bombus terrestris

Male Common Carder Bee

The cliffs on our dog-walks have given us a stonking juvenile Willow Warbler and a couple of juvenile Wheatears. We've also done four, or more accurately 3 1/2 as one was abandoned due to atrocious weather, watches for National Whale & Dolphin Watch. Sadly due to inclement weather the only blubber we got were a couple of Grey Seals and a very brief view of a Harbour Porpoise. The birds weren't too brilliant either, a flock of over-landing Common/Arctic Terns at the very start of the final watch was the  best sighting among distant Manx Shearwaters, mostly distant Gannets and a couple of Little Terns and Fulmars. Annoyingly the weather on the Friday and Monday around both weekend's watches was much better tha nthe weekend s themselves - isn't it always the way! On the first saturday we left the watch with the car's heated seat on and the heater set to 25C we were that cold - it's the end of July for crying out loud that shouldn't be necessary!!!

A sunny morning the other day saw us meet up with CR and young EM to see if we could find any lizards on the dunes at St Anne's. The promised sunshine was actually a bit better a bit earlier than forecast and that had warmed the sand up too much before we got there and so we couldn't find any Common Lizards but it did mean that the butterflies were on the wing ready for our arrival. the site speciality here are the Graylings and this morning they were out in force - don't think we've ever seen so many in an hour or so before, they were everywhere we turned. Fantastic!

One thing you never see are the upper-wings of the Graylings, they never sit with their wings open. We tried a bit of a trick and very nearly succeeded and almost got to show you the unseen but it just needs a bit more perfecting in both camera settings and technique.

Another feature of the morning was the large number of Dune Robber Flies, like the Graylings they were everywhere.

We might get another bash at our tricky trick on Sunday when we have a short window of opportunity to get down to the dunes again, lets hope the sun is shining and the butterflies are out on the wing.

If you fancy a giggle have a watch of us doing our Attenborough impersonation on the beach for a virtual beachcombing kids event. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3720130018015073

Where to next? After Sunday's short safari there may be the chance of longer further flung safaris later in the week if the promised weather holds out.

In the meantime let us know who's been keeping their wings folded in your outback.

Enjoy your local wildlife - Stay safe stay socially distanced.

Top day out with the gang up north

The Safari had a day out with CR and our chums from the South-side on Friday. With poor weather forecast we decided to make for Leighton Moss RSPB reserve where there is a decent amount of shelter in the form of comfy hides in case the impeding inclement weather was as bad as predicted.

With a late morning high tide in the bay we started out at the saltmarsh pools where we hoped the rising tide would push some waders out of the bay and on to the pools - it didn't - they were largely birdless.

There were only a few Redshank and a handful of Greenshank to be seen on the first pool and further out on the marsh mostly hidden in the creeks a small number of Little Egrets showed themselves briefly before disappearing again.

Greenshank and sleeping Redshank

 A diligent observer found a small wader tucked well away in the far bankside vegetation. Through the bins it was just a white dot and it wasn't much better when viewed through the scopes. There was some discussion ass to whether or not it may have been a Curlew Sandpiper but no detail could be seen. Once back at Base camp and the day's pics downloaded the camera had picked out some black spotting on the belly to make it 'just' a juvenile Dunlin.

125% enlargement on the original on the SD card

The second pool was even quieter although IH did manage to pick up a very distant Peregrine that cruised over the marsh disturbing not so much as a single feather until it reached the tide whereupon masses of waders took to the skies in a panic. It had several stoops at them but was unsuccessful as far as we could tell.

Moving on to the main reserve a Garganey was soon picked out from the limited number of ducks present. The light wasn't the best for pics, but you can just about tell it is a Garganey - if you squint!

There are a couple of rafts put  out to attract nesting Common Terns and to help matters along there are some very authentic plastic dummies positioned about the place, they haven't attracted an Common Terns yet but they are a handy place for the Pied Wagtails to survey the proceedings.

Still not too much happening so it was time to move on to the next hide via the leg busting Skytower - really must get a bit fitter! On the way JG stopped to admire a timy juvenile newt that almost got trodden on, gently picking it up we turned it over to reveal it had a plain 'fingernail pink' throat suggesting it was a Palmate Newt. A young family coming along behind us caught us up and the children were delighted to have a little hold of the tint wee beast.

The hide was quiet again for birds at least. After a minute or so the back of a Red Deer came in to view just above the tops of the rushes and after a short wait it came out in to full view, a nice young hind.

Another appeared and then another this one was a young stag but it kept its head down enjoying a good feast of rain soaked grass and reeds.

 After a long wait it did deign to raise its head and luckily for us looked in our direction.

Over at the Causeway Hide we watched a Buzzard  soar over but there was no sign of an Ospreys today.

The little island had been strimmed of its vegetation now that the nesting brood of Great Black Backed Gulls have left, their place being taken by a much more delicate juvenile Common Tern.

There were a few Greenshank mooching about to which were joined by two sizeable flocks of Redshanks.

One of the Redshanks flocks must have held a Ruff we didn't spot flying in with them as one appeared not muh later strutting along the front of the island.

A White Wagtail was with a few Pied Wagtails flitting around the top of the island but we didn't manage to get a pic of the more unusual visitor. We did try to better our Sand Martin pic from Marton Mere the other day to 'upgrade' our post on the Challenge, well over a hundred shots later this slightly better effort was easily the best of the day.

A movement in the reed edge across the pool atttracted JG's attention which turned out to be a Water Rail, just about photographable but we weren't able to get a pic of another mystery wader tucked up in the reed fringe she found a few feet to the right so it remains a mystery.

CR knows we have a thing for tractors, must be the thwarted agriculturalist in us, and called out a yellow one away in the distance. Turns out to be a Massey Ferguson - not often you see them in yellow!

...wonder if it was related to this calamity we spotted from the Lower Hide

Oops - that's not supposed to happen.

The juvenile Common Tern was flying round here with a shed load of Sand and House Martins, so many it was an 'Attenborough' moment - you could almost hear the great man's voice describing the scene. A couple of Little Egrets and Great White Egrets were best of the rest.

Time was now running short and it was a long gallop back to the car park when the rain we'd successfully dodged all day finally landed on us.

Despite the late rain which didn't really dampen our spirits a good day was had by all.

The following night was our moth and bat night for the North Blackpool Pond Trail. Well attended as usual and after a barrage of fireworks from a nearby garden and a corresponding clatter of Woodpigeons launching themselves from the nearby trees a bat then showed up a minute later - on its way out anyway or frightened by the bangs???

Young EM showing us how its done - again!

The bats put on a super show for us and several of the public got 'hits' on their 'bat-attracting sticks'. Over the water it was bat-tastic, they were zooming about everywhere. One of these days (nights?) we'll have to have go at trying to get some bat pics. 

It was when we got to the moth part of the evening it all went horribly wrong. The generator we'd borrowed from our usual source wasn't the one they normally give us and didn't come with a standard plug socket and no adapter either so we weren't able to put the trap on. whilst wandering round the woods looking for/at the bats we'd seen lots of moths so we were hopeful of a decent haul to show everyone. Innovation is the name of the game in these circumstances so we rigged up a couple of white ground sheets to the fence and shone PT's van headlamps at it. but it was to no avail, not a moth to be seen. Not really the fault of the van more likely to have been the position by the lake that was a little away from the best vegetation and shelter from the increasingly strong and chilly wind. Bit of a shame but you can't win em all and at least the bats were superb. JS had brought his professional bat detecting kit and laptop with him now he's a pro ecolgist and hs access to this rinky dinky newfangled stuff and analysing the recordings his detector had made showed there were an awful lot of Common Pipistrelles about. The torches across the lake had shown up the white bellies of some Daubenton's Bats and there were a couple of times when the detectors set at 55kHz were picking up echolocations that those set at 45 weren't suggesting a small number of Soprano Pipistrelles were around too.

Yesterday news broke of a Black Tern at Marton Mere that we had no chance of going to see but foul weather overnight meant it was still present this morning and we were able to nip down for half an hour to have a shuffy. We picked it up straight away as it dipped and rose over the Lily pads but kept losing it for several minutes at a time until eventually a Heron flew in and revealed why we lost it - it had been resting on the Lily leaves. 

Not the best of views at range and not the best of pics in the gloom but very nice to see one here as it's been a while since the last once we've seen there. (173, MMLNR #79, PYLC #153)

Where to next? Might get out with Monty for a dog walk and safari somewhere tomorrow.

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