Still nothing beginning with 'S'

The Safari was able to get out on Patch 2 early this morning. The tide was in but everything else was out! It was pretty dire out there.  We had hoped for a Sandwich Tern or two, a Swallow passing by or even a distant skua but no, nowt like that.

It took a while to find a Red Throated Diver and then  a male Eider and a Cormorant came past making an unlikely pair, a few minutes later a couple of 1st year Eiders flew by. Not long after a pair of Eiders and two 1st winter males came past the other way...same two?

Another distant Red Throated Diver was found and that was about the sum of it.

We were still hopeful at lunchtime but it was even worse! The tide had dropped and there was little on the beach due to dog walkers. A couple of Lesser Black Backed Gulls had a bit of a tiff, one had grabbed the other by the wing tip, mangling the outer feathers, while the second bird did three pirouettes round it grunting all the while in a bizarre sadistic sort of dance - not seen that behaviour before.

Nothing was out at sea at all! It's got to happen soon - surely???

A work party did us a nice favour today by planting some tubs of wildflowers we'd brought from Base Camp. They were last year's tomato tubs which spectacularly failed to produce any fruit for us but have given us a fair selection of what some mis-guided people might call weeds. There's Ox-eye Daisies, Evening Primroses, Herb Robert, Common Forget-Me-Nots and some non-native but bee attracting Campanulas - that lot should be good for inverts in a few weeks time...can't wait!

Sorry no pics today

Where to next? Got a beach clean tomorrow so might be able to have a good shuffy around further down the beach than we normally get.

In the meantime let us know who's mis-guided in your outback.

A rare day out

The Safari didn't get out again yesterday morning but there was a bit of interest on the work's back field in the form of several Herring Gulls of varying ages and an adult Lesser Black Backed Gull poking around picking up worms after last night's torrential downpours.

But at lunchtime we were out and the first birds we saw were two Gannet (P2 #46) going south. Unfortunately we couldn't add anything more other than gulls.
Later we had a meeting at the zoo about an event they are going to be doing in a month or so. We had a walk round with LS looking at likely spots to investigate on the day...we really liked the look of the Iberian  Wolves apparently they don't howl - has anyone heard them do this in the wild in the Spanish mountains?...and they have now been recorded not far from Madrid, just how long will it be before they are found in the woods around the M25??? don't hold your breath!
This was more interesting then the nearby Wolves, a Silver Birch tree with a load of hibernating Garden Snails band a couple of Birch Polypore fungi bursting out of it.

We continued round having a look at likely bits of habitat and found our first Toad of the year and basking singles of Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock.
Going to be a good day provided the Bank Holiday weather jinx holds off.
In the somewhat surreal Dinosaur zone there is a large lake with large Koi Carp in it which the visitors seemed to prefer to the plastic dinos.
There was Heron fishing on the bank but then it strode deep in to the water, it wasn't going to go for the massive fish was it - eyes bigger than its belly? no...it swam into deep water near to where the punters were throwing bread put its head into the murky water and a minute later came up with a small Rudd right under the bread-throwers noses.

It came back for a second go and this time noticed the eyes on the small boy's frog wellies and was rather too interested for a few seconds, shame it didn't go for the wellies, that would have been worth seeing!

This is bizarre behaviour from the Heron as it's one from the colony in the park a few hundred yards away as in the park they are extremely wary and won't let bread throwing public anywhere near them.
Today we were out early on Patch 2 for a change and again a Gannet was the first bird seen. A pair of Eiders flew past and we also had a grand total of five individual  Common Scoters.
This arvo we had a couple of families out on our beach event. It didn't take long for the youngsters to get the first shells into the tubs and trays. Loads of good stuff was found.

Nice Thornback Ray mermaid's purse in there alongside the bits from three species of crabs, including male and female Masked Crabs and assorted shell fragments.
Razor Shells are always popular but we reckon ours was the longest - honest!!!

Lots of Moon Shells and their egg ribbons were also found but we couldn't find them any Starfish for them, we'd seen some being taken by the gulls as the tide dropped.

One thing we didn't get a chance to photograph was the Red Whelk the young girl in the group found, we don't see those too often -  a really good find! And we did find one of the mums the Beadlet Anemones she wanted to see, being high and dry they were all closed up blobs of purple jelly.
Really great to get down on the beach for a good old rummage around and have some fun again.
Where to next? There's gotta be a Sandwich Tern and or a Swallow with our name on it tomorrow...hasn't there???
In the meantime let us know who's got the biggest shell in your outback.

Naughty weather

The Safari was thwarted again this morning. We were on opening up duty so no chance of an early Patch 2 shuffy. The weather was atrocious with rain rattling off the windows as frequent long showers were driven in on a stiffening north westerly.

It wasn't until lunchtime that we got out but it was duff. We could hardly see across the beach to the sea through the murk. 

There was nothing on the beach apart from a few less than a hundred gulls, mostly Herring Gulls, and a similar number of Oystercatchers but nowt else and then the rain came on heavy again.

Back at Base Camp it was time to take Frank out and he took us all the way to Magpie Wood where were saw one of our favourite grasses, Sweet Vernal Grass, had come out into flower.

We don't know why it's a favourite; it's one of the few grasses we know the name of or maybe it's the fact that it tastes like American Cream Soda and if you do get to taste that when chewing it the taste will stay with you all day or it could just be that after all the wet n windy winter it's good to see grasses greening up and flowering. Whatever it is it's always good to see.

Little more to report other than a Chiffchaff singing in the distance somewhere in the park Frank can rarely get too now.

We had some sad news on the way back, Frank's old fighting 'friend' Blue has come to the end of  his road and passed on to where-ever it is ferocious terriers go, he was nearly 20 a really good age for a mutt.

Where to next? Surely there'll be a chance of a Swallow or Sandwich Tern...won't there?

In the meantime let us know who was visible through the gloom in your outback.

Anticlimactic

The Safari made a bit of a boo-boo this morning. We had intended to do our final Winter Thrushes survey this morning but the plan fell apart. Frank was up a little bit later than usual (although had the hour not changed he'd have been early!) so we took him out to find it had been raining but wasn't now which was good. Once back indoors we gave him his breakfast and began to put our coat back on when we saw it was pouring down and had gone dark again...rats! Coat off, cuppa time. We started faffing around while Frank went back to sleep downstairs; by now we'd realised he wasn't moving too well this morning so didn't want to get him to go back upstairs. Anyway he did stagger back up there but by then it was a bit too late to go thrushing even though the sun was now out, might have a last blast at it next weekend.

Making (yet) another brew we saw that the sunflower feeders were empty, a look in the cupboard revealed a minor disaster - no bags left down there. Only one thing for it - try an experiment with the nyger seed that has been in the other feeder all winter. We ran the risk that it would all fall through the big hokes in the sunny seed feeder - it didn't. But would the birds eat it seeing as how they hadn't touched it for months.

Yes they did! It wasn't long before a Goldfinch was on there and then a Greenfinch fed for about 10 minutes, we can only assume they couldn't find the small holes in the other feeder, although we rarely saw a bird on it unless we'd tipped some sunny seeds on the tray in an attempt to entice them to try the nyger too. Funny fickle things these birds!

Late morning we took Frank to the nature reserve in deteriorating weather conditions. The wind was picking up, temperature cooling down and the showers becoming heavier and more frequent.

Several birders were already in the hide but other than a Water Rail and a couple of dozen Sand Martins hadn't really seen anything of note.

We met up with BD and had a good look at the gulls without finding anything really exciting. A couple of Herring Gulls had more than average white on their wing-tips but didn't show any other characteristics of 'argentatus'. A second winter thing caught our eye, it had a very long snouty bill but we couldn't turn it into anything eastern.

Best of the rest was this young Black Headed Gull that was the only one that ventured within range of the lens.

There were flocks of Sand Martins (MMLNR #69) dropping in and shipping out between showers and the gulsl kept getting up but the only times we saw the culprits they were either Great Black Backed Gulls or Herons and one Sparrowhawk. A Shelduck (MMLNR #70) on the water was a nice sight, we dodn't see them here too often. Over in the scrape a pair of Oystercatchers (MMLNR #71)  kleeped to each other and a hidden  Little Grebe (MMLNR # 72) was trilling incessantly.

To the side of the hide there is a bird table and a couple of feeders which attracted a pair of Goldfinches, a pair of Chaffinches, Great, Blue and Long Tailed Tits and this rather dapper male Reed Bunting.

A wet wander along the embankment gave us a close loud Cetti's Warbler, a species BD is wanting to get a good pic of but it wouldn't show itself. The fields to the east didn't contain the wanted Wheatears or anything else for that matter apart from another pair of Oystercatchers. A passing pair of Carrion Crows brought a pair of unseen Lapwings in to the air to defend their territory, if they do attempt to nest we don't hold out much hope for just one pair having any success but you never know...with  bit of luck a few more pairs might join them and make defending the airspace a bit easier.

With nothing doing to peek our interest we mossied back to the hide as Frank had given up cream crackered.

Noting much more was doing there either but this pair of Canada Geese gave us a chance to point the camera at something.

Time for something a bit different, we dragged Frank the opposite way to have a butchers at the Snakeshead Fritillaries and Cowslips, no photos today, the wind was blowing them around in the gloom too much .  

So it wasn't the best day to be out but still it's better to be out than in - if you don't look you sure won't see.

A quick stop at a local flood where there's been a report of a Green Sandpiper and White Wagtails  - neither were there; the wind was now cruel so we didn't stop long. 

Once back at Base Camp we had a look at the feeders, the 'new' nyger feeder was down a whole inch or more and a Goldfinch was ensconced on it...how much was eaten and how much was spilled we'll never know but they're certainly eating some/most of it...now will they go back to it when we refill thee dedicated nyger feeder...that could be the six million dollar question.

Where to next? Back to Patch 2 - Sandwich Terns please.
In the meantime let us know who popped in for a photoshoot in your outback.

Fish hawk high

The Safari was relieved to find no water in the moth trap this morning. Better than that there WERE moths!

Not many and after three negative turns of the egg-boxes at the bottom  we were beginning to feel we were going to be out of luck again...but no a Hebrew Character was lurking in box number four.

A couple more came out and then we found a Common Quaker lurking in the deepest recesses of the box.

So with five Hebrews and a Quaker, bit of a religious theme don't you think?, our season's mothing is off the mark at last - let's hope it continues and is a darn sight better than last year.

The morning was productive with a successful MOT for Wifey's car being the highlight - always a phewwwww.

After we got back from the garage you know who wanted to go out so we took him to Chat Alley. There's been a few Ring Ouzels about and with the odd shower in the air you never quite know what might get dropped at this time of year.

Our main quarry was Wheatears and it wasn't long before a stonking male was found on the first set of steps leading down to the Lower Walk, always a good place to check out. It flitted down on to the seawall between the fishermen waiting for the tide to come in and their match to start.

It then flew up the cliff and started poking about in the grass.

Another flash-of-white flit was noticed a little further dawn the way and was eventually seen on the 'ornamental' rocks - a female Wheatear. Nice. 

Above, at the top of the cliffs three Meadow Pipits dropped out of thee sky and landed on the path-side fence when a bit of drizzle was felt in the air.

Out at sea there was nothing happening but with only binoculars our range was limited. All of a oneness the gulls which had been noticeably quite started making a ruckus behind us. Spinning round and scanning there was an Osprey (129) circling around drifting northwards a few hundred yards inland about 500 feet up = thank you gulls :-) 

OK so there may be about 700 in Scotland now (breeding pairs + returning unpaired second years) and others passing through on their way to Scandinavia but it's always good to get a self-found one on a local patch for the year list and not have to go to one of the always popular 'commercial' viewpoints to see them.

Quite a good Saturday, moths off the mark and a bit of patch gold we weren't expecting - sorted!
Still 22 behind our arch-rival Monika for the year, but then we haven't had the trip of a lifetime to the Mexican Baja California...maybe next year????? If you haven't yet had a shuffy at her adventures we suggest you nick over there sharpish and have a rummage round.

Where to next? A bit of wet weather forecast to arrive sometime overnight so we're thinking nature reserve tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know who the gulls found in your outback.

Another couple bagged

The Safari hasn't been able to get out much and when we have thick all enveloping mist has been a bane!

A recent Patch 2 visit was thwarted by mist so we had a mooch down to a nearby demolition site whee we were fortunate that a helicopter came in  to land at the airport and flushed two previously unseen birds, a Ringed Plover and, right over in the furthest corner, a Wheatear (127) at last.

Little more birding opportunities presented themselves as news of several Ospreys and other migrants kept us well gripped especially as we dashed from our desk at the slightest hint of noise from the gulls.

On the drive back to Base Camp this evening a Swallow (128) swished northwards in front of the Land Rover, and to think we've not had a Sand Martin yet.

A 'lively' Frank took us further than he's been for a while up the hill and past the water tower where we saw that the male Peregrine was on his normal ledge. We've been keeping a regular watch on it but not seen him, or her, for well over a week.

Grotty pic from too far zoomed in phone-cam

The hill near the tower is an excellent vantage point with views to across the plains to the fells to the east and northwards to the Lake District mountains. Despite the clear air we saw no passage of raptors for during the quarter hour we let Frank sniff round, the gulls on the office roofs didn't spot any either.

Where to next? The mothy is out so we're hopeful of a moff or two, maybe even three in the morning.

In the meantime let us know what's turning up in the wrong order 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.