Oh no not more wind AGAIN - AGAIN

The Safari yet again was only able to manage a very much shortened Patch 1 walk which yielded nothing! Absolutely zilch!

The overnight increase wind speed was scary at times – what happened at 03.00? Sounded as though the house was going to come down!  

At Patch 2 the sea was still ferocious; very lumpy with massive white breakers with spray racing off their tops and some foam as well. Double blustery with the wind running smack bang straight in our face at 39 mph (17.75m/s). Out to sea was a solid wall of dense grey nothingness blanketing the world.

Only a few Common Scoters were seen this morning. We really feel for the poor things; it must be like trying to live in a maniacal washing machine for them at the moment. On the water with the scoters were a couple of Cormorants.

It wasn’t long before an adult Kittiwake carved its way through the troughs followed shortly afterwards by the black 'W' of a 1^st winter.

Our lunchtime session was fortunate to coincide with a window in the rain. The sun was out!!!!! But that made half the patch unviewable due to the glare on the wet sand. Geeez - these birders are always moaning about summat!

The sea was still rough with 15 foot (5m) rollers crashing into each other as the wind and tide ran against each other making the sea a boiling mass of white.

About 100 or so Common Scoters were seen and a steady stream of adult Kittiwakes eventually numbered 12 but no 1^st winters this time. In the far distance three tiny white specks were probably Little Gulls but untickable on the views we had. They just vanished into the mess of waves after a nanosecond’s view never to reappear. Do you think we can have this one on our list as if we HAD have been able to go to the nature reserve we WOULD have seen it?

A Common Gull bobbed along the receding tide line wings outstretched pattering on the water like a giant, pale Storm Petrel. Plenty of other gulls were rummaging around along the strandlines.

Unusually a 1^st winter Kittiwake was flitting about amongst is ‘congeners’ again (or at least the other larids as we doubt very much if any members of the other species of the Rissa genus were present :-) )

There were only a few Oystercatchers and no Redshanks today and despite the low tide the storm surge meant that the outfall pipe remained mostly covered so no Turnstones for the year list either.

Did get a first for the year in the form of a flippin puncture, a split in the sidewall so no repair – in the tyre with the best tread, over 12mm left - isn't always the way - - never rains but it pours!

Back at Base Camp, a feat achieved without the use of headlights - things are looking brighter! - a Dunnock poked around under the shrubbery in the front garden an unusual occurrence but one which takes the garden list to a whopping five.

No pics despite the sun :-(

Where to next? More of the same...and a Little Gull please.

In the meantime let us know what you would have seen if you were out in your outback today

Oh no not more wind AGAIN

The Safari endured a dire day...
Kittiwake (65)
Redshank (66)

Wall to wall howling gale and lashing rain...

Best three sightings were a) a 1st winter Kittiwake on the beach - unusual but there were a lot of other gulls working the tideline and shellfish wreck lines. If the wind keeps up like this all winter there wont be any shells left in the sea!!!

b) a Sanderling trying to have a scratch and being blown off its feet and then bowled ar*e over breakfast a few times before righting itself and looking around sheepishly to see if any of its mates had noticed.

c) Everybody's seen gulls on inland grass doing the 'Paddling Pete' thing with their feet to get worms to the surface but we've never seen/noticed it done on the beach before, two Herring Gulls were successfully catching what looked like Ragworms using the technique down on the tide line.

Where to next? If we don't get a Little Gull tomorrow we'll wonder what it is we're doing wrong. Some just up the coast this morning.
In the meantime let us know if the wind let up for at least a minute in your outback.
Sorry only mirror ball pics again...but you'll get the flavour of the day...

Oh no not more wind

The Safari was up and at em for very windy and shortened Patch 1 predawn walk this morning. The only things to show for our efforts were single Blackbird and Robin seen – not a sound was heard everything was very sensibly hunkered down.

Our hopes for a few year birds at Patch 2 were dashed cos when we got to the wall, some three hours after a low high tide, the water was still lapping at the base due to the very strong wind. All we could see out in the raging tempest were a few Common Scoters (62). Away to the south hundreds of gulls faced the wind on the bit of exposed beach there along with a handful of Oystercatchers. Those five minutes were enough watching – time for a warming cup of tea, with the expectation that low tide at lunchtime would be more interesting.

A quick nip to the shops for some hardware supplies for Base Camp had us whizzing up the road a couple of miles further to check out the five Tundra Bean Geese (63) again. There they were sat in the field at some not inconsiderable distance. Their friend the Pink Footed Goose was still with them and in the next field was a monster of a Peregrine sitting on a tussock looking around no doubt wondering who was going to be lunch. With little time to spare and not having the scope with us sadly all we could do was ‘tick n run’. The Bean Geese look settled in for the duration so hopefully we’ll be able to come back and have a proper leisurely gawp at them at a later date.

By lunchtime although it was low tide the storm surge meant that almost all the beach was still covered in water. The sea was heaped up like the Himalayas with spray breaking of the top of the breakers all over the shop and big dollops of foam coming across the beach and over the wall. All in all unpleasant!

We struggled to keep the scope still on our new, but seriously off-gassing plastic-chip beanbag; you could get high in the Land Rover after leaving it in there overnight!!! Just 47 Oystercatchers and three Sanderlings (64) were counted.

The usual gulls were all present with the strange exception of any Black Headed Gulls, won’t struggle for them later in the week though.

By the time the light faded and dusk fell Patch 2 had opened its account with a remarkably unimpressive massive score of nine species.

Nine species of birds in a day (nearer ten minutes more like, with a extra few peeks out of the windows at the birdless back garden) might not be too good but during the festive break our marine biologist friend found what we think is a new species of shell for the beach here, the Banded Venus Clausinella fasciata...one we’ll have to keep an eye out for when we are next able to get down on to the beach....it’s not all birds you know!

Back in the office we listened to the storm driven hail trying to break through the windows and longed to be still on holiday and sat back at home cozy warm close to Little Bertha or in a freezing cold draughty bird hide somewhere.

Where to next? More of the same gale force winds in the morning and with several Little Gulls being seen this afternoon from Chat Alley perhaps we should be a little braver and stick out the adverse conditions a little longer tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know where, given the choice, you would be sitting in your outback.

Below is a map of our recording area for the nature reserve, which actually only covers the area within the dashed line, although much of the rest is designated as a County Biological Heritage Site or is under review by the BEAT Naturewatch group as a candidate CBHS. To the east is the farmland known somewhat inspired name 'the East Fields'.

Mid afternoon the sun tried to come out between humongous hail showers so we went all arty-farty for five minutes with the mirror ball, while the kettle boiled, without daring to venture outside.

If we were any good at Photoshop or hat least had the patience we could probably get rid of the overhead cables and improve the pics a bit.

Moving along nicely

The Safari went to the nature reserve again with the intention to get the Iceland Gull. On the drive in we did nail Goldfinch on site for the year...not one we were likely to struggle for for long though. Once at the hide we learned we'd just missed the Iceland gull by a few minutes AGAIN. So we hung around and waited whiling the time away with our birding chums. With nothing new to add to the list we decided to try the moss for the Tundra Bean Geese. Before we set off for the moss we went to view the Whooper Swans (55) a little way in the opposite direction and hoped to pick up the Green Sandpiper that has been there as an 'insurance' tick. No Green Sandpiper...but two Lapwings (56) went into the notebook for the first time this year and off to the geese we went.

No geese at the spot they have regularly been at so we tried another of their 'regular' locations, no joy there either - becoming a wild goose chase but we did get several Rooks (57) on the way and the no-geese field had a small flock of Skylarks (58). As we turned round to try location № 3 we got a text from CR saying he was in Ice Station Zebra and had just got some pics of the Iceland Gull - stuff the geese...we high tailed it back to the nature reserve at breakneck speed. Still there!!! Iceland Gull (59:MMLNR52) made it into the notebook...phew. We filled our boots - or at least the SD card - with gull pics in the reasonable light, helped by some good tips from resident expert PT.

This is one of the rarest gulls this year, today it only outnumbered the Iceland Gull 2:1!!! 1st winter Common Gull - where are they all?

1st winter Herring Gull taking off.

 Not sure we'd be too happy if a Great Black Back was about to land on us.

 More species of gull in this pic than the whole of Australia - 4 v 3

For 'proper' pics of the Iceland Gull etc see here. We spent much of the afternoon at the nature reserve enjoying the Iceland Gull and others including a superb display of hovering in the ever stiffening breeze by one of the local Kestrels. Our regular Snipe flushing Sparrowhawk sped by several times giving the other photographers ample BiF opportunities with the Teal, Wigeon and Shoveler.

Then it was time to stretch our legs, our back has 'gone', give Frank a bit of game of ball then head off somewhere else. 'Somewhere else' ended up back at the Whooper Swans, of which there were 80) but still no Green Sandpiper. Somewhere else mkII was a little further south at Fairhaven Lake, passing an Oystercatcher (60) on the posh school's playing field just before we pulled up to park, where we spotted the female Scaup (61) in dreadful light after about 20 seconds. With our back now really painful it was time to call it a day - dunno what we've done...kidney failure from the holiday excesses or a chilled muscle from to much sitting in cold draughty hides or a twinge from some unknown cause - whatever the cause it flippin hurts, will have to rest it well at work tomorrow.

So two days into the New Year and were almost 2/3rds the way to half way to our target of 200...not a bad start.

Where to next? Back to the grind tomorrow but that means Patch 2 will be in play and a few new species are anticipated.

In the meantime let us know how you are progressing in your outback.

Look what we got

The Safari would like to thank MMcG for sending through the following pics of the three Otters the other day - OK they aren't brilliant but they are far better than our short video. 400m away through 800mm lens very dull day and a very heavy crop...enjoy anyway.

 In the meantime Rabbit beat Otter to first mammal on our year list, hardly surprisingly.

...at first the hurdle...

The Safari got just about a full afternoon's birding at the nature reserve where we scored an almost half way 50 species!

Unfortunately we dipped the Iceland Gull by about an hour - is that still a dip? - and yesterday's Red Crested Pochard wasn't seen by anyone all day and the number of Wigeon was a little down so it seems it must have gone over night with the small flock it came with.

We met up with a visiting birder who was the same chap who put us on to the Tundra Bean Goose we couldn't find on the Southside last week - how weird was that? This time he put us onto a fine adult Mediterranean Gull - thanks again bud; from the description of yesterday's bird this one was a different individual. We returned the favour by showing him the Long Eared Owl. Then we had a quick look for Jack Snipe but weren't really hopeful as the water level is still too high, 15 Common Snipe shot out of the reedbed on our approach though.

Later we were stood on the viewing platform and had our best views of the Cetti's Warbler for some time, it showed well in the (almost) open and sang for about a minute! We were joined by regular birder TS who counted a season's best of five female and two male Goldeneyes - where are they all? 

Most of the regular stuff was found there except Goldfinch and Redwing...no fly over Pink Footed Geese either today so plenty more winter stuff to go at in our quest for 110 species there this year.

We ended the day with the following totals

Total year - 54

Marton Mere LNR - 50 (only five short of half way!)

Patch 1 - 8

Garden - 4

Where to next? More of the same with maybe a couple of additional trips and we're going to try to get there a little earlier to coincide with the Iceland Gull's morning visit.

In the meantime let us know how successfully you've negotiated the first hurdle of 2012 in your outback.

They're under starter's orders...and they're off

The Safari crawled home at a few minutes before 03.00 last night and before retiring took Frank for a last  visit to the grassy verge - the Leopard Slug we saw was easily the earliest record of this species in our entire life! What;s one of those doing out a few minutes after midnight on January 1st? - they should be fast asleep under a rock until at least early March...but the car's thermometer did read a 'scorching' 10C on the short drive home, it should be 2C at that time of the morning in an 'average' January.

By the time we were up in the morning it was seriously lashing it down so we decided not to venture out listing. Trying to peer through the rain soaked windows into the garden at Base Camp wasn't easy either, we could just about make out the blurry forms of Chaffinches, Blue Tits and Great Tits visiting the feeder.

11 on the list by 11.00 at that rate we should have 8784 on the list by 31/12/2012...or maybe not!

Where to next? back later if the weather improves...watch this space.

Targets for 2012 include...

• 200 birds for year in UK/BI again
• 110 birds at Marton Mere LNR and it's immediate environs - upped by 10% from 100 as we thought that might be a little too easy.
• Another new-to-us bird on Patch 1
• Storm Petrel and two other UK/BI lifers
• An English Adder 
• Grass Snake in the Fylde

In the meantime let us know the expected hit rate in your outback.

PS - Have you read you gas and electricity meters yet today? Yes? - good; no? - do it now while you think on...keep a record of your usage and use the info to get the best deal from the suppliers - if you're reading this you're obviously online so choose an online tariff as they are invariably cheaper.