A swift demise

The Safari saw the Peregrine on the tower again last night – have we had a failed breeding attempt somewhere, would have thought that any young from this season would still be dependent on both parents bringing them food. Unless of course this one is catching locally and flying off to wherever, he’s long gone before we get to Patch 1 for our ‘early’ morning visit.
This morning was a warm muggy drizzly morning after yesterday’s beautiful sunshine which ended up being almost hot! Great Spotted Woodpecker – check; tail of Sparrowhawk – check; several broken-off branches and smashed saplings – check...all present and correct then after a warm evening of chavviness.
Also present were lots of uncounted juvenile Woodpigeons, they seem to have had a good year. And we saw four Swifts overhead briefly when the weather got a little wetter than drizzle. Don’t know about your outback but around Base Camp and Patch 1 they are in very short supply this year. Not been able to find any nests, barely even seen a bird – hardly had a single one around/over Base Camp yet and certainly not seen any anywhere near our lovely nest box! The brilliant sound of them screeching round the houses in the evenings hasn’t been heard at all, in fact can’t recall having heard it anywhere this year! It’s all a bit worrying – please tell us they are doing OK in your outback.
Patch 2 wasn’t brilliant, drizzly dull would be a better description and the only sighting of any note was a single Common Tern.
A school group came down to learn about habitats and do a bit of pond dipping which they engaged in with plenty of gusto! One of the classes managed to pull two Water Mites, of perhaps two different species; a red one and a black/dark at least, one out of the pond which were a good find as we’ve not seen them in there before. Our pond is isolated from other fresh water by some considerable distance so how did they find it? It’s a long time since we seeded it with mud from other ponds and there are a lot of 3-spined Sticklebacks; too many probably as they do tend to eat anything smaller than themselves.
After the group had gone back to school and we had put the kit away we took a few pics of the flowers they’d been bashing about in searching for mini-beasts – just to let our ears settle down to normal noise levels!

Viper's Bugloss - great name for a good bee attracting plant.

If the Gorse hedge hadn't have been so severely hacked by the window cleaners we'd probably have a family of Linnets who would enjoy ripping the seeds off this Prickly Sow Thistle.

This year we have had nobody to attend to our veggie plot and the soil hasn't been dug at all but against all the rules of cornfield annuals this Field Poppy has appeared from ??? and no we haven't sown any seed. It was in full flower at lunchtime when we first noticed it and thought of getting a pic but by the time the group had gone and we'd tidied up all the petals had fallen off.

Meadow Cranesbill - we had loads of this super bumble-bee attractor until the grounds maintenance gang came and sprayed it with weedkiller - numpties! Now we'll have to wait until the end of the season and find some able-bodied volunteers to split the small remaining clumps for replanting

Lesser Trefoil or Black Medick? The tiny spike at the end of the leaf means it is Lesser Trefoil.

Where to next? More patchy news and yet more pond life, with maybe a pic or two, tomorrow.
In the meantime let us know how many decibels were heard in your outback today.

And then the sun shone

The Safari was on Patch 1 as usual and as is becoming usual the Great Spotted Woodpecker was heard again. The Sparrowhawk’s tail was seen protruding over the edge of the nest so it would seem the young haven’t fledged just yet.
Of floral note in the park was a specimen of Nettle Leaved Bellflower, a species we don’t recall finding in there before. It’s growing at the base of an old felled Elm tree, all the other stumps are encircled by weedkillered dead vegetation around them, as are the live trees – very pretty – NOT except this one – what’s the point of that unless its to reduce the population on Speckled Wood butterflies which like to lay their eggs in the grass on the sunny side of a tree trunk - wonder if the NLBF will survive to set seed. But is it native native or is it a garden eswcape? you can also see the Elm suckering so the stump isn't all that dead - long may it cccontinue to grow as this is very close to the favoured egg laying tree of the White Letter Hairstreaks.

We met up with AB on the sea wall as arranged but today was a totally different day to yesterday – there was no wind to speak of and even at that earlyish hour we enjoyed lovely bright warm sunshine. Not the best conditions if you’ve come down to the coast especially to see the Manx Shearwaters and perhaps pick up the odd Skua or two. In fact apart from the regular small number of gulls, a couple of Sandwich Terns and a single Common Tern there was naff all! Way out in the developing shimmery haze we saw a large flock of around 200 Common Scoters with dribs and drabs heading towards that general direction, possibly totalling another 100 or so. Certainly the most Common Scoters we’ve seen for some time. No Manxies for AB just a few distant Gannets cruising about and only a little diving from them.

Then on the way to the Land Rover to nick off home we found this pair of touchy -feely Small Tortoiseshells.

Where to next? More of the same with maybe a little pond life thrown in
In the meantime let us know what’s sprouted where in your outback.

Deprived?

The Safari has been looking at a bid being worked on by the BEAT Naturewatch group and partners for extra habitat and access works around the nature reserve and its environs. As with all funding these days you don’t just get the money to do the work you have to justify it by encouraging people from all walks of life to join in and the nearer your project is to ‘deprived’ areas so much the better. Well we should be OK as much of Blackpool regularly finds itself in the top 10 of the most deprived areas in the whole country and a trip through the town centre at any time of day or night will confirm that...how can you stomach Tennant’s Super at 8 o’clock in the morning? Although it has to be said that the imbibers of such strange liquor are probably about to turn in for the day after a long night of doing very little.
But are they deprived or just depraved?

Within half an hour’s walk from the deprivation of the town centre in the last few days we have seen a pod of Bottle Nosed Dolphins fishing, watched a Barn Owl hunting voles for its young whilst listening to the evening chorus with hardly a man-made sound to be heard, found two endangered Great Crested Newts and marvelled at the wing-beat free flight of Manx Shearwaters, all that is but a mere snippet of the wonderful wildlife available on tap in our town at any one time. Sorry but that smacks of privileged rather than deprived!
This morning Patch 1 in the heavy rain only gave us the now regular(?) Great Spotted Woodpecker and the Sparrowhawk’s tail, although driving up the hill on the way to work later we noticed that the Peregrine was once again on its ledge on the tower – another privilege!
Patch 2 before work was well worth the drizzly visit. No sooner had we put the scope on the wall and peered through the eyepiece than we found a pale phase Pomarine Skua arching its way through the substantial waves – now seen two (+ one 'probable' ) of these this year almost doubling our lifetime tally!!! More was to come though; whilst watching the Pom track southwards we spotted a Fulmar (P2 # 60) coming towards us much closer in - superb views. This was a good find for Patch 2, we’re fairly sure it was a patch tick! A handful of Gannets completed the morning’s sightings.
At lunchtime a similar thing happened, we put the scope on the wall and no sooner started to take a look and found another Fulmar – how weird was that! Don’t think we’ve ever had two in a day from anywhere along this coast not even during Leach’s Petrel autumn gales! In the distance a few Manx Shearwaters and Gannets mooched about – no matter how well Gannets can fly, and they are pretty majestic, their efforts are paltry when compared to the Manxies; they are an order of magnitude better – we watched one for over a couple of miles or more and not once did it need a wing beat – just flipping from side to side using the updraughts from the waves to tirelessly cruise along at a cracking pace - - awesome. More were seen close in making their way south, could have been a big cruising circle involving some of the same birds but definitely we were privileged to witness them pass by so close!

Out by the marker buoy a dark raincloud meant the thirty or so Gannets stood out brilliant white while, again nearer in, a younger darker bird cruised past through the troughs giving excellent views. We were only out about twenty spirit lifting minutes but definitely felt privileged rather than deprived. Just need to find a way of encouraging all those ‘others’ into getting involved with the wonders of the natural world on their doorstep...well it does give a better high than drugs... and costs a lot less (our cheapo scope only cost the same as a few heroin fixes)...maybe that’s the way to sell it to em...

Patch 1 also gave us a patch 'lifer'. An old tent has been lying under the hedge for a couple of years. We often lift it up to see if there any amphibians under it but this evening was better - a Short Tailed Field Vole - didn't know there were any left on this isolated field. well wadda yer know there is!

A search for butterflies in the afternoon sunshine didn't give us anything other than Speckled Woods. The Sparrowhawks may have fledged as there was some anxious calling going on near the empty nest.

Where to next? The youngsters hv txtd wnting to meet up on the prom early 2moz - can't say we blame them!

In the meantime let us know what privileges have come your way from your outback.

Three of a (different) kind

The Safari forgot to mention we had our first Large Skipper yesterday afternoon in, you guessed it, the Butterfly Zone. At first we saw a small goldenish butterfly flitting high up across the canopy of a Sycamore tree - White Letter Hairstreak??? But something didn't quite ring true. We watched it for a good few minutes and eventually it came down to feed on a Bramble flower and gave its true identity away.
First of the 'three' this morning was opening the moth trap, it went a bit chilly overnight - hardly June is it??? - so we weren't over-hopeful of a good catch. It was immediately apparent that there were a few Heart and Darts in there - 14 came outin the end. We had a bit of a palaver with this tiny Straw Dot giving us the run around before it eventually succumbed to the lens.

Also in there was a single Dark Arches.

And a very imaginatively named Treble Lines.

Dark Arches is a much bigger moth than the Treble Lines.

Our second 'event' was the national RSPB summer garden bird count. We spent a very pleasant hour watching the comings and goings at the bottom of the garden. We saw three different male Blackbirds, two first summers and a full adult, also a well grown youngster. A well grown young Dunnock was a welcome sight. The local Magpies have'nt found every nest - well they never do do they? Several juvenile Goldfinches and a single Great Tit completed this year's broods. No Greenfinch young were seen but of the two stunningly bright males one was ringed - no chance of getting a read unfortunately - unless someone would like to bob down with a net...

Despite the cool conditions there were plenty of Common Carder Bees visiting the Jasmine bush.

We could have thrown some bread on the garage roof to attract some gulls but wouldn't that be cheating? - - like putting sunny seeds out???

After lunch we had a kiddies event on the beach but by now the weather had deteriorated even further, now only 10 degrees, very cold for June and cooler than when we were sorting the moths out at 07.00!

The event was abandoned but we still had to go down on the beach for a quick look in the worsening rain. A Grey Seal bobbed out a little way beyond the surf but nothing else was out there.

There were several large Lion's Mane Jellyfish

And one Compass Jellyfish - we'd have liked to have found a Moon Jellyfish and made the 'three'

Looks like the cold winter has damaged our Sabellaria 'reefs'; normally the worms don't allow the growth of seaweed and you can see where the waves have damaged part of the structure - several patches were like this. we hope that there are still some worms still alive to keep this interesting UK BAP species/habitat going.

Where to next? Back to the patches, wonder what we'll find...could be absolutely anything...

In the meantime let us know howmany different groups of animals/habitats got investigated in your outback today

On schedule

The Safari went out last night to see if we see find the Barn Owl that has been out and about at all times of day this last week. While we were waiting we were treated to low hawking flights ofSwifts, watched a Whitethroat hop in-between patches of Greater Willowherb collect food for hungry mouths and listen to a chorus of Blackbird, Song Thrush, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Robin from the bushes behind us we were using as cover.

Over on the far side of the field we spotted PL on a stake out. Nothing happened - not a Barn Owl in sight. after a while PL made his way round to our side of the field and we started chatting about the owls, he'd had some great pics earlier in the week, and the town centre Peregrines and those on the water tower which we told him we'd not seen for ages...lo and behold it was there later when we took Frank round for his last sniff of the day! The Fox was out too.

After our chat we had to get back home, where we'd parked the Land Rover is a little lane popular with tw*ts for dumping their rubbish. There was a smelly old mattress lying over a small piece of ply-wood...well you've just gotta turn em over and have a look; haven't you! Two Short Tailed Field Voles, two of last years Toads and this striking wee beastie! A female Great Crested Newt from last year or possibly the year before, certainly not fully grown; she was a little longer, (probably half as long again) than an adult male Smooth Newt and at least twice as bulky. One for the FARG records! (is everyone elses connection to this site as slllooowwww as ours?)

We were actually hoping for the voles and wanted a pic so at least we could show you what Barn Owl nosh looks like but they were far too quick for us.

Today we were invited along with the BEAT Naturewatch crew to view these little beauties...Great Crested Newts might have the rarity value but these chaps and chapesses have the rarity value and good looks in spades too...Sand Lizards!!! Ohhh boy do we like or what!!!!!

Read all about our visit on the Fylde Amphibian & Reptile Group's blog

After tea it was back out to the nature reserve for the small matter of the invisible Barn Owls. One appeared briefly (187; Nat res 89) but set off away from us over the fields and far away. We saw PL again on the far side of the field and met up with hin to tell him the bad news. After chewing the fat for a while we headed off to see if last night's Great Crested Newt was still under the matress as he'd not seen one for a number of years. Tonight there were no Short Tailed Field Voles and no Toads but the number of Great Crested Newts had doubled to two!!! More (and better) pics on PL's Flckr site.

As we were rattling off a few frames the Barn Owl appeared only a few feet from us. Time to cover the newts and head off in chase...

A few near misses later we got thi atmospheric shot of a Barn Owl carrying prey back to the nest against the setting sun....chuffed to bits fo another great evening on the nature reserve.

We also have to mention the two Kestrels on the barn and two Stock Doves flying around too. With all the excitement we forgot to look for the Little Owl...dooohhh

Where to next? Probably nowhere with 'Scheduled' species.

In the meantime let us know what the little beaties are in your outback.

Off to turn the moth trap on.....

Quadruple WOW - Wot a way to start the day

The Safari left for Patch 1 this morning blissfully unaware of what how the day was going to unfold – nothing unusual in that, isn’t it the same for everybody. We saw that since the Drought Orders had been announced on the news last night that it had rained heavily all night! We’re not covered by those Orders – yet! – but hopefully some of that rain will get down to the roots of the struggling new trees.

In the park we had a quick check of the Sparrowhawk’s tail, all present and correct! Further round we heard the Great Spotted Woodpecker tapping away in a dead Elm so we got the camera out. Locating the bird we moved round to get a good angle and was about to press the shutter when a friend’s dog came bounding up and unusually for this mutt started barking...the woodpecker flew – darn it!!! Probably woulda been a dark grainy shot anyway...
So we went off to work with a minor frown.
Patch 2 was about to initiate a facial change from minor frown to major ear to ear grin. A Red Letter Day was about to unfold!
We put the scope on the wall and started to scan the falling tide. Straight away we came across a small string of six Manx Shearwaters (P2 #60) – a good start. Following these they passed in front of a few Gannets but caught up with a much larger flock of Manxies, about 45 all in a line headed in towards the outer river mouth. More Gannets were noticed going that way too. Close in a Grey Seal poked its nose above the glassy wavelets and a handsome male Eider bobbed about not too far from him.
Whilst watching the Gannets fishing and the Manx Shearwaters cruising around we saw a splash far larger than those of the Gannets...a few minutes later a Bottle-nosed Dolphin breached, leaping clear out of the water - stunning! Wide-eyed we concentrated hard on that area of sea. Even better was to follow - the number of Gannets increased to about 100 and more Manxies came in; it was then we noticed there was another dolphin further out. Checking back to see if the nearer one hadn't moved offshore we saw that there were now TWO still 'close' in!!!! WOW....and then a second distant one was noted - FOUR!!!!! Having only seen one from here in the last 7 years this was utterly fantastic, we were euphoric!
For about quarter of an hour we witnessed several full breaches (only from the two distant animals) and dozens of feeding rolls. We phoned the Rangers and as we were describing what we were seeing we noticed we were actually shaking with excitement – this is what watching wildlife is all about – the totally unexpected treats - this morning ranks in the top 5 of our 45+ years worth of UK wildlife experiences!!!!!
Even if the Bottle-nosed Dolphins hadn’t have been there the show from the Gannets and Manx Shearwaters was stunning in itself. The only downside was they were too far away to even contemplate getting you a pic.

Back into the office to let the world know and get a well earned cuppa – scrap that – anyone got any champagne???
Now the politics – Bottle-nosed Dolphins in the UK at least are restricted to areas of coast adjacent to numerous good quality Salmon rivers – according to Chris Packham’s recent TV show...not Springwatch, the other one in the weeks before. Hence the Moray Firth and Cardigan Bay populations. Not sure if the ones seen off the Isle of Man are different to the Cardigan Bay ones - the Seawatch Foundation are asking people for good shots of the dorsal fins for photo-ID purposes so if you're close enough get clicking away.

But here’s the rub...Liverpool Bay has a plethora of rivers, namely the Conwy, Clwyd, Dee, Mersey, Ribble, Wyre, Lune, Bela, Kent, Levens, Crake and Duddon, some are already quality Salmon rivers others have Salmon but could have more and a couple need further improvement but all could eventually hold good populations of Salmon - so come on guys continue cleaning up those waters and stopping the run-off of excessive amounts of peat from the uplands. We could then begin to see another population of Bottle-nosed Dolphins develop and thrive...now that would be tourist attraction!!! Assuming the commercial vested interests in the Salmon didn’t want a cull like they seem do for Otters, Cormorants, Herons and Ospreys, some even take it in to their own hands – allegedly – like here not that Hen Harriers eat fish but they do take another ‘commercial’ species.
At lunchtime the sea was empty, no Gannets, no Manxies, no Bottle-nosed Dolphins, not even the Eider. The Grey Seal was still there but had drifted away to the south.
Where to next? Different but equally exciting (perhaps even more so!) stuff tomorrow.
In the meantime let us know what’s leaping out of the water in your outback.

Keeping a nose ahead

The Safari took Frank out late last night and for the first time in quite a while we came across a Fox, which promptly disappeared into the Golden Triangle but got a certain Chocolate Labrador very over-excited.
He was still sniffing where it had been on our Patch 1 visit this morning! From his reactions and state of general excited sniffiness we think the Fox, or Foxes, had been all over the place during the night.
The female Sparrowhawk’s tail was spotted,sticking out over the rim of the nest as usual.

Up at the top end of the park we heard the distinctive ‘chip’ of a Great Spotted Woodpecker, the first we’ve heard or even been told about in here for some time.
At Patch 2 the wind was cool in our face but the sun was warm on our back. The tide was on its way out and there were a few gulls working their way down the beach, nothing over exciting with them though. Scanning the sea gave us another flock of gulls in the middle distance clumsily diving for fish; there were no terns or anything else on any interest with them. But further out a few Gannets wandered northwards. A couple started to dive and within a couple of minutes they had been joined by some more. The fishing couldn’t have been that good and certainly not as if a bait-ball was developing. There was enough activity to attract the attentions of a marauding Great Skua (186). It had a good go at one of the Gannets, from this distance and in the shimmer it looked as though it grabbed it by a wing tip! Once this bully-beast had turned up the Gannets soon dispersed. The Skua either landed on the sea or dropped in to a trough, which ever happened we didn’t see it again.
The lunchtime patch 2 visit didn’t amount to much. A distant ‘Commic’ Tern was far, far more likely to have been a Common Tern from the small colony on the nearby docks than an Arctic Tern which should have all moved through by now. It does beg the question where are the Sandwich Terns, although they don’t breed locally there should be some fishing up and down the coast – have we no fish?

Still no Water Vole updayte for you.

Where to next? More of the same and that Barn Owl to visit.

In the meantime let us know what's protruding from your outback...shudder to think!!!

Check out this new site have to find out if wecan get a record your sightings page on there.