Avoiding the cold and windy local patch

The Safari is getting fed up with the grim weather, there just seems to be no respite from it...Noah only had to put up with 40 days and 40 nights of rain, we've had six flamin months of the stuff!!! And the wind...did Noah have to suffer howling gales week in week out? Our wildlife garden is beyond battered and bruised as well as mostly underwater, we really hope it recovers.

When news broke of a Common Scoter on Stanley Park lake it gave us the opportunity to get away from the promenade and the worst of the weather, at least there's a bit of shelter in the park. As it happened we bumped into a couple of our neighbours also walking their dog here to escape the weather. T'mutt and old Paddy had a sniff around while we pointed out the Ring Necked Parakeets and Nuthatches to our friends. At the lake we quickly found the Common Scoter but it was a long way off, against the light and asleep, so perhaps not the best thing to show newby wildlifers, it was just a dot in the distance, although a much bigger dot than we normally see through our scope from the prom, and wouldn't have meant much to them - brighty coloured parakeets and Blue Tits crossed with woodpeckers were much more easily appreciated. We left them to their walk while we went to try to get a closer look, or at least a further look but in slightly better light, from the bridges. Still not the best view and it hadn't woken up as you can see.

Good to see a bonus Common Sandpiper too. It was swimming around whilst sleeping and drifted to the front corner of the island so was a little nearer.

We strolled on anticipating it would have woken up by the time we'd done a circuit of the lake. As we crossed the bridge a pair of Great Tits scolded us loudly, they must have had a nest somewhere close by. The roadside path wasn't producing anything much and as we said in our last missive we're not going to take any more shots of Tufted Ducks unless they're engaged in some unusual behaviour, which they weren't today. We hoped to find the Great Crested Grebes engaged in thir weed ddance display but only one was out on thevwater and that was right in the middle. It did catch a decent sized fish but 'processed' and swallowed it facing away from us so no photo...Rude! Passing Heron Island we saw the wind-felled tree and the nest with two youngsters thankfully OK and doing well after the calamity.

Every day out on safari has a soundtrack and today's was Wrens, they were everywhere blasting out their happy little ditty.

Robins, Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps provided the accompaniment although all remained unseen or seen only very briefly. The fallen tree in the top corner of the lake held an acrobatic Moorhen - we do like a Moorhen up a tree they just seem so incongruous and ungainly clambering about in the twiggery.

Not jumping just unbalanced, the twigs are too small for its huge feet!

Nearly down now and at least it can grip this thicker branch.

You've got to ask why? It climbed up from the lake shore to about 10 feet then seemed to get vertigo and clambered down as quick as maybe. But what made it go up in the first place, it definitely wasn't looking for food while it was up there - more concentrating on not falling out of the tree. They must just like to go up from time to time to get a different persperctive on their world. 

Continuing further round the lakeside path we came across another showy Wren, most of them were singing from deep cover.

On the remains of the barrier across the lake separating the Conservation Area from the main lake stood two more Common Sandpipers.

Eventually we made our way round the north lake and saw the Common Scoter again at least now it was awake and in abit better light although back on the far side of the island.

Off we went round to the south bank for, hopefully, a better view. On the way we heard a Nuthatch calling loudly from behind the boathouse and went to investigate. We soon saw one go into a hole in a tree and waited for it to come out.

We waited round for it to return which it did a couple of times before coming back once more with a massive bit of stick which, after a good look around to make sure no -one was watching, it took inside.

As for the Common Scoter, yes it was a bit nearer and yes it was awake but the light was still dire.

The following day we decided to avoid the prom again and with some bright sunshine hoped to get better pics of the Common Scoter. We found it straight away, tucked under the overhanging branches fringing the island fast asleep - no chance of a pic! A Cormorant made a nice silhouette against the early morning sunshine.

And today the Great Crested Grebe was a little easier to get a pic of zthough still not perfect nor doig the dance thingy.

We had another look at the Heron chicks in their water-side nest but waited for a pic of one off the adults stood calmly at the water's edge ignoring photographers, dog walkers, joggers etc passing close by.

Today's soundtrack was Blackcaps but they refused to be photographed as we walked along the lakeside to go and have another look at the Nuthatch nest. We stood there for the best part of 20 minutes but not a sniff of a Nuthatch today. The best thing we noticed was a Horse Chestnut sapling growing out of a hole on the truck of a neighbouring Plane tree. We wonder how that's going to turn out in the future.

Wandering on past the boating jetty we noticed a couple of Cormorants enjoying a bit of sunbathing, and why not - the sun has been a rare commodity in recent weeks if not months.

We love the green eye and scaly patern on these prehistoric looking beasts.

Especially when they get a bit closer.

And are very striking in their full breeding attire, the white head feathers we usued to think of as representing the continental subspecies 'sinensis' but this one is difinately 'just' a 'regular' north Atlantic 'carbo'.

As for the Common Scoter? It didn't come out from under the foliage.

With the weather being so bad we've spent quite a bit of time garden watching and had a few unusual sightings to report. First up a Blue Tit on our feeders is a real rarity, no doubt an inordinately common sight in many of our readers' gardens but here not so. Last year we only had 39 sightings of Blue Tits in the garden, that's less than one a week, and normally they're too afraid of the three dozen rumbustuous House Sparrows to go anywhere near the feeders.

An unknown neighbour feeds the local Grey Squirrels a mixture of Hazel nuts, Walnuts and monkey nuts. These get eaten or more often than not stached for later. We've got a couple of Hazel seedlings growing in our borders and one near neighbour has them growing among her pot plants. We regularly get craters dug in the lawn where a Walnut has been buried. We like seeing the squirrels carrying these around - a nut as big as their head!

Over our back fence ther's a pair of Blackbirds nesting and they regularly visit our lawn to forage...too many local lawns are made of lifeless plastic and totally useless to the Blackbirds or indeed anything else. If you're on X (formerly Twitter) have a follow of @ShitLawns. The Blackbirds find worms and sonmetimes what look like leatherjackets (Cranefly larvae) from our lawn but this time the male has found a large slug and spent several minutes wiping across the grass to deslime it, fascinating to watch.

Those three pics were taken through salt-encrusted double glazing so apologies for the lack of quality.

Yesterday we joined the volunteers at Marton Mere again. They were getting a pond ready for a pond dipping event coming up soon so we had our wellies on ready for work.We got stuck in forking pulled reeds and rushes into the wheelbarrow for disposal...it felt like being a teenager on the farm shoveling horse do-doos again...until our back had a little ping and we knew it's been a very long time since we were a teenager! With a big excting safari coming up soon we had to stop work, can't rick a bad back for that. Instead we had a gentle stroll around the reserve to see what we could see and then meet up with the group of volunteers working further on. At first we didn't see much but our ears heard plenty. Our first Reed Warblers of the year, a singing Reed Bunting trying to make itself heard against the strong wind, soundtrack of the day were the numerous Cetti's Warblers and best of all a Grasshopper Warbler which we caught a couple of brief snatches of in the distance when we were sheltered from the wind. In a more sheltered and sunny spot wec saw our second butterfly of the year, a Peacock.

From the scrub came the songs of Chaffinch, Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler. A single Greenfinch sang too.

No Sedge Warblers, Whitethroats or Lesser Whitethroats yet though. Passing the Paddock, looking good after a bit of winter management, we saw our second butterfly of the day another Peacock and then our third, a Small Tortoiseshell. It's great what a bit of warm sunshine can do, but sadly we didn't see many bees or hoverflies on the multitude of Dandelions. 

The gulls began a commotion, but it was 'only' a Buzzard upsetting them not the hoped for Osprey. After having a chat with the other volunteers we continued on our way and out of the reserve and back towards the car. A pair of Linnets by the reserve gate were good to see. Then another species of butterfly, a Speckled Wood which wouldn't settle for a pic. Not far beyond that we heard a Bullfinch call close by and looked up to see a female high in a Willow tree joined by a male a minute later.

The female left while the male flitted about among the twigs but never really showed himself to best advantage.

Ah if only he'd faced the front!

The rest of meander back to the car was uneventful apart from a minor detour to have a look at a couple of ponds - big mistake...t'mutt was in and now stinks of foul pond bottom! 

Another sunny morning saw us back at Stanley park where we bumped into FB who, like us, was on the fingers crossed hunt for Redstarts, Pied Flycatchers and all things migratory and scarce. He hadn't had any joy. He hadn't seen the Common Scoter since yesterday morning either. We aimed for the bridges anyway and thence the roadside of the lake where we hoped the Great Crested Grebes might be performing. At the bridges a couple of Moorhens were squaring up to each other tails aloft and we got thee impression it was going to excalate. We scurried across the bridge hoping to get down the bank where the light would be over our shoulder and the birds more eye-level with us but they couldn't care a jot about our photographic wishes and kicked off big style before we'd crossed the bridge.

Far more serene were the pair of Gadwall at the top end of the lake.

The Great Crested Grebe was out again, right out in the middle of the lake as usual, and the Heron chicks were tucked up deep in the cover on their water level nest so no pics of either of those.

For once we got up close and personal with one of the many Robins. Most camera wielding visitors to the park get excellent Robin shots but for some reason the seem to shy away from us.

We'd not seen any of the Red Eared Terrapins this year until today when we found four. A bigish one, two medium sized ones and this one a real monster about the size of a dinner plate!

With nothing happening at the Nuthatch nest again it was time to head back to base camp and a well earned cuppa.

That's all folks...sure we've heard that somewhere before

 

Where to next? We've got a more distant safari coming up soon.

In the meantime let us know who's doing all the kicking off in your outback.

New year safaris are go go go

The Safari has been out and about all over the shop since the turn of the year. Almost here there and everywhere but mostly south of the river. Our Bird Photo Challenge has kicked off again, now in its eighth year and we have to say we're doing pretty well - homing in on 100 species photographed already. Maybe we should 'save some for later' as the Law of Diminishing Returns has got to kick in very soon. However, there is a little method in our madness; we've got (yet) another hand issue which is likely to require surgery sometime in the not to distant future (NHS waiting lists permitting) meaning we could be out of action for a few weeks. There's a proviso in the rules too this year - no more than 75 miles from Base Camp; tricky as at least 30% of that circle for us is inaccessible sea and annoying that the superb seabird cliifs of South Stack on Anglesey are about 18 inches outside the line. There is a wide variety of habitats and a large number of good reserves and other sites contained within the blue line though so here goes...

The year got off to a good start with a number of Common Gulls on the beach at Base Camp, they're not that common here and not guaranteed on any particular day.

Our first safari away from the immediate environs of Base Camp saw us not far up the road at Fleetwood where a rather wet morning gave us a Stonechat on the golfcourse and a  flight of Mute Swans over the beach after they'd left the marine lake, makes for a diffent pic to the usual 'sat on the water pose' we usually get.

The reason for nipping up there was the recent stormy weather had brought in a trio of Red Breasted Mergansers, a bird we didn't see there last year in fact there were very few reports of them at this previously fairly regular winter site. Today there were only two, the male having left the party.

Next time out we were further afield at Martin Mere WWT reserve with the Southside gang where we filled our boots with waterfowl and woodland species. It wasn't the best day with spells of heavy rain resulting in possibly the worst Brambling pic you'll ever see but hey it is identifiable so it counts towards our Challenge. 

We always like a Pintail and it was good to see the Red Breasted Goose had stayed over the new year and now taking full advantage of the free food handout of the daily 'Swan feed'. The minor limp it had before Christmas has become much worse though, it was really hobbling.

Calm conditions, rare for this year of non-stop storms, offered some nice Little Egret reflection opportunities.

That safari brought our tally up to 41. The following day we ventured local again, this time to Stanley Park. A couple of dry day's meant the paths round the lake wouldn't be too muddy and the sun was shining too, a real bonus.

If anything the sun was too bright often creating severe shadows where the birds were spending most of their time. We managed a few decent shots of several species, pick of the bunch being a Stock Dove that flew over the lake and landed in the tall Poplar tree over our head.

A visit to the park isn't complete without a pic of its noisiest inhabitants.

Another safari up to Fleetwood found us a Red Throated Diver not too far away in the surf, normally a tricky species to find close enough to photograph. We usually have to wait for our annual pilgramage to Spurn and keep our fingers crossed there's one close enough there. Off the prom here they're usually little more than a dot in the scope.

Staying with the diver theme and another carry-over from last year, the Black Throated Diver was still at Crosby Marina so another safari over to the Southside was  organised.

Better still a male Smew had turned up at nearby Lunt Meadows LWT reserve. How long is it since we last saw a male one of these???

Unfortunatley it remained fairly distant, just out of effective range but fantastic to see nonetheless especially as many others only managed even further views and it spent a lot of time hidden in the bankside vegetation. A bonus was the long-staying Green Winged Teal which didn't wake up all day.

But better still was a Mediterranean Gull we were told was on the Pumphouse Pool by other birders, but was it to be bird of the day?

Surprisingly for us it wasn't! That accolade went to the Grey Partridge that eagle-eyed IH spotted lurking furtively in a piece of rough ground set aside for shooting just over the reeserve boundary. Distant and camouflaged it was impossible to see it in the camera's viewfinder but we fired off a whole heap of shots in the general direction...and just about got lucky...you thought our Brambling shot was bad!!! But beggars can't be choosers and this is a species that was really common round here in our early days of birding but one which we didn't even see last year.

Not many minutes later we had a 'wow' moment. Above us a Peregrine sparred with two Marsh Harriers stooping repeatedly at them for over five minutes. Now most birds try to get above a Peregrine where they hope to be a little safer, not the Marsh Harriers they just kept on doing what they were doing which was not a lot. Each time the Peregrine stooped the 'victim' just turned on its back and presented its talons the the incoming missile, totally nonplussed by the whole affair. A fabulous day just slightly marred by the fact we couldn't find the Richardson's Cackling Goose although neither could anyone else on site that day. By the end of play our Challenge tally stood at the amazing total of 72.

We were cracking on a pace now but could we keep that pace up? Our next safari took us local again to Marton Mere nature reserve. We picked up CR and headed for The Nook and as soon as we got out of the car we were photographing a Tawny Owl which wasn't for showing itself.

Walking on we hadn't got far when two Sparrowhawks flew past us.

Reaching the reserve all was quiet. It was a cold frosty morning which at least had frozen the mud into a solid surface that wasn't too slippery to walk on. The local Cetti's Warblers were keeping their heads down, by the time we've usually got this far we've heard at least three. CR said he'd seen pics of Bee Orchid rosettes on social media so we had a look in one of their favoured spots on the reserve but couldn't find anything remotely orchidy. However a pair of Bullfinches flew over us and landed in a nearby Hawthorn bush. The male went round the back and the female although on our side of the bush stayed mstly in cover. However, we did get our best pic of a Bullfinch we've taken here.

We wandered on enjoying the lovely sunshine but not the lack of birds, the scrub was very quiet until we saw a male Kestrel in the top of the trees near the gate but again on the wrong side of said tree.

Taking the detour down to the viewing bench the light was terrible and there wasn't much on the water so we didn't stay long. Back on the main path the Kestrel was now in a better place but as we raised the camera it saw something and swooped low into the scrub not to reappear. The Feeding Station was busy with the usual garden/woodland birds but strangely no Pheasants, which was the species we really wanted to get a pic of. On the way back to the car the Tawny Owl had turned round - thank goodness.

Not a bad visit all in all.

Next up was a safari Over Wyre to have a look for the Twite at Knott End. There were none at the slipway when we arrived until just a single one flew  over us calling. We decided to have a walk down the prom to give them a chance to come back from wherever they were and there's always the chance they could be on the saltmarsh there. No sign of them there either but there was a nice little flock of Redshank to have a dib at.

Once back at Base Camp downloading the day's shots we discovered a sneaky Knot lurking in the flock, it's in the pic above but showing better in this one even if out of focus.

Returning to the slipway we saw there was  no chance of seeing any Twite cos a council van complete with workers was parked up there, the oppos getting on with whatever job they'd been sent to do. We were scuppered so slunk back to Base Camp early. We'll be back! 

CR kindly drove us up to Leighton Moss where we joined IH for a frozen mooch about. It was bitterly cold and almost all the open water was frozen solid so there was hardly water fowl to be seen. This put a mockers on our hopes of Great White Egret, Snipe etc. Water Rails had been showing ridiculously well along the Causeway but we had no luck, just a couple of very brief glimpses. The wooded areas were good for small birds though, the feeders soon gave us a nice Marsh Tit. But again there were no Pheasants present - there's always Pheasants here.

High in the nearby Alder trees a flock of Siskins was feeding, craning our neck for the shot we pressed the shutter button a nano-second too late as the last of the flock left for trees further away.

The trials and tribulations of wildlife photography ehh?

A Wren along the boardwalk gave us the run around but we caught up with one on the, surprisingly dry, path to the Lower Hide.

And we got a shot of the last thing a spider sees when a Treecreeper is working its way up a trunk. Normally you only get to see the back or sides of these creeping tree huggers but this one landed on a branch too thin and exposed its ventral surface.

After exhausting the main reserve we went back to the cars for a drive down to the saltmarshes. In the car park there was a sizeable flock of Fieldfares taking advantage of the remaining Hawthorn berries above the bonnet of CR's motor.

Along the path to the saltmarsh hides we eventually got our Pheasant pic.

Here as well, even though the water is brackish, the pools were frozen solid with very little to be seen. A hopeful pair of Goosanders flew over and on the marsh a handful of Shelducks could be seen but not a lot else. Way out in the distance on the seaward edge of the marsh eagle-eyed IH picked up two Peregrines sat on the deck a hundred yards or so apart.

CR took the scenic route back to Base camp heading Over Wyre in the hope of a Barn Owl or two. We passed fields full of Curlews and Lapwings and eventually came across a big flock of Black Tailed Godwits with some Golden Plovers nearby but no Barn Owls.

It was getting dark whe nwe stopped at one of Fylde Bird Club's farmland bird feeding stations only to see a Grey Squirrel filling its face with the copious freebies on offer. In the village there is another of their feeding stations but by now it was getting bvery gloomy but there was a large number of Tree Sparrows getting their last feed of the day before tucking up chattering away in the adjacent hedge. It was going to be a long cold nnight for them. We don't get involved in the bird club as much as we'd like but we're very happy to know our subs goes at least a little way to keeping these important feeders topped up.

A brief stop at a known Barn Owl site did give us a brief view but where did it go, did it disppear over the fields and far away or circle round the old building and bunk back in round the back, either way we never saw it again and it was there then gone far too quickly for us to raise the camera. The day ended with our Challenge tally now on the giddy height of 90!

A break (= a slight easing of the rains and lessening of the ferocious winds) saw us back at Knott End looking for the Twite again, this time with success, there were about 20 present feeding on seeds washed up in the strandline.

Most unusually a Rook was there too. Just one on its own, when we we much younger one Rook was a Crow and 100 Crows were Rooks!

From there we headed north towards Lancaster with swans in mind. At Conder Green we bumped into DP & JS and their students from Myerscough College but they had negative news of the Bewick's Swans for us. Little Grebes in the river were too far away and in the stormy wind the pool was far more choppy than the sea was for most of our last summer's cruise to Greenland - we didn't stop long. Driving down the lanes we stopped at all the Whooper Swan flocks but couldn't find the Bewick's Swans, if they were there they must have been in the flock that was mostly hidden behind a hedge and in a bit of a dip. Behind a distant flock of Whooper Swans were three Cattle Egrets which we made a right pigs ear of photogrphing in the bright light - note to self: Always check the camera settings!

They brought the tally to a very respectable 93 after only 22 days. Then followed a few blank safari-free days as Storm Isha merged seemlessly into Storm Jocelyn, although we did find another Snow Bunting while out walking the dog along the prom in the teeth of the gale. Will it stick around or be a one day wonder like the one we found before Christmas?

Where to next? As the next storm approaches and the wind picks up again we're going to try an inland site we've been avoiding for a few years due to traffic problems - have we worked out an alternative route we should have figuered our a long time ago?

In the meantime let us know who's been braving the winds in your outback