What a wild weekend

The Safari hasn't been able to go out far this weekend, in fact we've barely left the garden here  at Base Camp but as we saw during the National Garden Bioblitz a couple of weeks ago we didn't need to go out there's plenty only a few feet from your back kitchen door.

We wandered around our tiny empire camera in hand looking for anything of interest to point it at - the bees caught our attention as they climbed in and out of the tall Foxglove spikes.

Bees eye view of the ttarget

The sun had got tthe Blue Tailed Damselflies in the mood for love and several were flying around for fun.

 Some had only just emerged and were still in their teneral colours - orlack of them

It doesn't take them long to colour up

The pond provided us our regular Frog that peeks out fom time to time

and now it the time the dancing lily flies Poecilobothrus nobilitatus are at their most active giving it plenty on their floating leafy dance-floor. This one is a female, the males have darker longer wings with white tips.

Other invertebrates that caught our eye were this Eristalis hoverfly most likely to be Eristalis arbustorum

A chunky sawfly came to rest on the new ornamental Cockerel, a 'must have' after our chicken filled hols in Shropshire...those clever iSpotters tell us itt's not a sawfly but a wasp, Ectemnius sp a solitary wasp that stings other insects to paralyse them then lays its eggs on them. Having had a proper look at the pic we can now see the narrow waspy waist which we hadn't noticed earlier assuming it to be the same thickness all the way down the body hence our sawfly mis-ID.

We have a little bee-house, one of those things with bamboo tubes and blocks of wood with holes drilled in it, nothing nesting in there yet but this little mining bee totally ignored it and went in a hole in the neighbour's gate post, here it is coming out backwards.

A Garden Cross Spider was tying up what looks like a large parasitic wasp, something a bit like a Yellow Ophion type thingy, one of which was in our very disappointingly almost devoid of moths.

The full moon was the cause of the lack of moths, far too much competition for the paltry bulb. Heart & Darts made up more than half of the catch which numbered only six in total!

This one caused a bit of trouble but was eventually identified through Facebook - Middle Barred Minor.

Birds weren't upto much as we were mooching about in their territory. The Starlings hoovered up the mealworms we put out only 20 minutes earlier when there wasn't a Starling in sight - can they smell them from afar?

 A short walk with Frank had us photographing some lovely Selfheal in the grass verge alongside the main road - but how long will it last - 'Say no to the mow' folks and give the wildflowers (and all important pollinators a chance).

This morning the moth trap was much fuller, mostly with Heart & Darts again but there were other goodies lurking in the depths.

Here's a selection

The Magpie

Peppered Moth

Shuttle Shaped Dart

Turnip Moth

Clouded Border

Cochylis atricapitana

Marbled Minors - (agg)

Pammene regiana

Scoparia ambigualis

Scoparia ambigualis

The Clouded Border and tiny 'micros' are new for the garden.
So there you have it a back garden safari with all manner of new, bizarre and exciting wildlife found and enjoyed - it's all there right outside your door waiting to for you to start exploring.
Where to next? Back to Patch 2, what will be out there?
In the meantime let us know who's facing you off in your outback.

Greens, grass n sand

The Safari has been otherwise engaged of late and hasn't had a lot of time to put fingers to keyboard for you. Last night we had another gaggle of brownies on the beach and they had a good session rummaging in the pools and scouring the beach for shells. 

As with the previous evening's group they couldn't catch any of the extremely quick Sand Gobies but we managed to catch them a baby Dab, more by luck than skill and between us we caught what we think might have a been a Sand Smelt, not sure how variable they are but the general consensus is that that they are pale olive green on the back and ours was decidedly darker than that. No photo as the Brownie who found t was ever so possessive of it and wouldn't let us anywhere near it with the camera, wouldn't even allow us to transfer it from here castle shaped blue bucket into one of our larger white ones for a better look at it.

A crab they picked up caught our eye too having great big flat paddles on its rearmost legs, obviously a swimming crab of some sort but with a broad carapace not the 'usual' Pennant's Swimming Crab we find occasionally.

Not the best pics and we're not sure if the blue is true or an artifact of the camera or reflection from the net handle. A species in the genus Liocarcinus seems favourite at the moment.

Now identified as Liocarcinus holsatus

Whatever it is it's the first of its kind we've seen here! Well done the Brownies!

Today we were able to have a little much round the gardens seeing as Patch 2 was pretty quiet. just a Grey Seal and some very hazy Gannets and gulls at a distant bait ball.

The sun wasn't strong but with hazy cloud the light was good so we concentrated on the front lawn where the scent from the White Clover is heady.

We wandered round the back to the patch of Meadow Cranesbill were the bees were busy, busy, busy.

Bombus terrestris

Male Early Bee - note the yellowy facial hairs

Tree Bee

In our wild garden we spotted a hoverfly doing a good job at  mimicing the Tree Bees

Mooching back round to the front there was what seemed to be a fairly freshly emerged female Common Blue butterfly.

After work we went back onto the beach to watch the tide drop and see if we could find the swimming crab and the dark backed fish again. Neither were findable but there were several whole Sea Potatoes, the smaller ones remarkably still had their hairs, yes for Sea Urchins they are a bit unusual in that they are hairy and not spiky, and our first jelly fish of the summer, a Moon Jelly. 

A walk along the runnel gave us several sightings of the goboes but not of the (?)smelt. We did manage to catch one of the smaller Sand Gobies, took some doing and again was more by luck than judgement.

Lots of Brown Shrimps were netted but numbers were paltry compared to the hordes lifted by the Brownies yesterday.

Not a bad day in the 'field' at all, really enjoyable!
Where to next? The weekend is upon us and the moth trap is out!
In the meantime let us know what was captured at the eleventh hour in your outback.

Flash bang wallop

The Safari enjoyed a warm evening of Brownies, Garden Snails, Ladybirds including a 14-Spot Ladybird and Pill-bugs. As they were being dropped off by their parents we saw the light was shining on the pond lighting up one of the Water Lily flowers just nicely. Maybe a bit too nicely for the phone cam to capture - really must work out how to use the white balance on it properly.

All manner of Black Ants, Red Tailed Bumble Bees, Tree Bees, Damselfly nymphs, Greater Pond snails, Ramshorn Snails and 3-spined Sticklebacks were either potted or netted and thoroughly inspected.

Best find of the night was as we were finishing off. The Brownies had dispersed to the playground and we'd put away most of the gear when a Brimstone moth flew past - crikey they can't half go no chance of running after it and catching it up, had us well beat. A very common moth but a real rarity at work - actually it might not be as we're not there at that time of night all that often.

This morning we put an app on our phone for recording bumble bees - so easy to use don't even have to ID the trickier ones down to species level but it's still a great addition to citizen science and getting anyone with a smartphone involved.

We gave it a try round the work's garden and came up with a good tally of most of the main groups apart from Common Carder Bees, loads at Base Camp but not so many at work this year.

Several clusters of plants were festooned with bees, notably the Hebe bushes, our wild garden with its Borage and Perennial Cornflowers and the Meadow Cranesbills at the end of the raised beds.

Here's an Early Bumble Bee on the Meadow Cranesbills.

The warm morning gave way to heavy showers and at lunchtime we got out to Patch 2 to see precious little. A few Gannets were circling around in the distance doing not very much. The showers got heavier and more prolonged and the skies grew darker.

This black menace chased us all the way down the prom before it unleashed a couple of bolts of lightning but sadly not as many as we had hoped for.

Where to next? Last week's Brownies are back again tomorrow evening this time they're on the beach investigating the rockpools.

In the meantime let us know where Thor's hammer is being flung about with gay abandon in your outback.

Where better to be on World Oceans Day

The Safari didn't get out til late this morning, we rarely do on a Sunday. So the choice was here, there or where. Eventually we plumbed for the cliffs as the lure of the chance of Bottle Nosed Dolphins was too strong to resist.

We decided on a two hour timed watch and in that time didn't see much. A few Gannets mooched about but very little active fishing was going on. A few Sandwich Terns passed by and we saw a small flock of Common Scoters and that was about it, nothing blubbery at all unfortunately.

Not much seen but the 'sea'nery was quite spectacular - it's not often we get the full turquoise treatment here.

Our original's not that saturated; not sure what Blogger has done to it

After a cuppa back at Base Camp we went back out onto the North Blackpool Pond Trail to see if we could find anymore Bee Orchids.

We did, we upped our count of about 16 to nearly 25. Sadly many of those we found yesterday were now broken probably trodden on by dogs running after balls, seems the only people who use this part of the trail are dog walkers and the odd (some might say very odd) plant photographers.

Little stunners aren't they, we never get tired of them. Sady it doesn't look like we'll be able to get further north in Safari-land to see the Ladies Slipper and Fly Orchids amongst other botanical marvels - oh to be retired and independently wealthy!

The warm afternoon sunshine brought out a few invertebrates. Half a dozen Common Blue butterflies were on the wind and we also had singles of Large White and Small Tortoiseshell, we had hoped for a Meadow Brown or Large Skipper - have to wait until later in the week for those two perhaps, they can't be far away now.

This big Sawfly was tucking into a smaller insect but if we'd moved round to get it's face in shot our shadow would have fallen on it and off it would have gone.

Finished it

We had a look at the Cowslips but the seeds aren't ripe yet, as we were walking out of the longer stuff a jump caught our eye - the first Grasshopper of the year, things are starting to come along rather nicely.
Where to next? will Patch 2 produce or not and if not what will the Brownies find tomorrow evening?

In the meantime let us know what's looking all turquoise in your outback.

Back to wet n windy

The Safari was stuck indoors almost the whole day long today - it barely stopped raining all day and then only for a few minutes at a time. Really we wasted the day doing begger-all. A look at the Springwatch web-cams from time to time, a bit o scoping down the garden at the feeders but nothing really constructive or instructive but at least we won't have to water the garden and the water butts will have been topped up.

With reports of thunderstorms around, can't beat a good bit of lightning, we found this website which shows where all the strikes are - clever stuff - and followed the progression and eventual petering out of the storms across the fens of west Norfolk.

Here's some clips of our bees having a feast of golden syrup, a little too much middle leg waving argy-bargy don't you think!

We don't seem to have many young birds yet. In the morning while out with Frank we see Blackbirds collecting beakfuls of worms but we've seen no youngsters yet. Only the Greenfinches seem to have fledged any young so far cos we've seen a juvenile on the feeders, the Goldfinches visit regularly but only adults. There must be a pair of Robins close by as one is in and out of the garden very frequently often taking sunny seeds but again no speckly young seen yet and it's about this time of year when we see our only House Sparrows at Base Camp when a local family appears briefly at the feeders.

male Goldfinch - phonescoped through double glazed window in the rain

Scruffy Blue Tit - swingin in the rain

It's World Oceans Day tomorrow - even if you're not near the sea you can help keep it clean pee poo and paper only down the loo and watch those fats going down the sink, they harden into fatbergs in the drains and can contribute towards flooding and cross contamination. 

Eat fish? Make sure you choose sustainably caught species. Go fishing? Take your litter home too many don't on Patch 2.
Enjoy your beach, have a paddle or a swim just be careful and watch those tides! Join us for one of our rockpooling or cetacean watching events to learn what's in the 'ocean' here. Follow us on Twitter @DaveyManMcG for news of events.
Where to next? Hmm could be weather related but a sea watch for more Bottle Nosed Dolphins could well be on the cards if it dries up by lunchtime.
In the meantime let us know who's looking a bit rough round the gills in your outback.