Still a bit bloody out there, could be all those spears

The Safari and Wifey had a pleasant walk along the northern Prom the other evening. The tide was out and all the birds, almost exclusively gulls and Oystercatchers were spread far and wide across the mud flats. The sun shone patchily but when it did it illuminated some of the plants very nicely, like this Horse Radish, which we tried a nibble of - it was very fiery!

Arty crop - luvin those leaf veins

On the seaside of the sea wall at the very top of the tide some vegetation is trying to re-establish itself. Mostly Marram Grass but here and there were  patches of Sea Rocket and one or two specimens of the lovely Sea Holly.

While looking for plants we decided to have a walk along the highest strand-line to see if there were any shells, or other marine life, of interest washed up. There was but it wasn't  a shell and it wasn't something we were wanting to find, a dead Kittiwake.

With the dead Harbour Porpoises last week, this week there seems to have been a little flurry of dead Gannets around the bay and now a deceased adult Kittiwake...hmmm we don't seem to have had too much atrocious weather, not much 'good' weather but nothing really stormy bad. Are there no fish out there this year or have the Bottlenose Dolphins eaten them all? There have been some trawlers operating in the bay but mostly well over the horizon on the far side of the shipping lanes, whether these would have an effect on local fish is unknown - how far do fish shoals move back and forth with the tides?

We took the sand dune path along the edge of the golf course on the way back to the car park. The uncut margin of the golf course was a fantastic sea of wildflowers, the yellow of Ladies Bedstraw dominating but interspersed with the pink of Rest Harrow and occasional blue of Harebells - it was a joy to behold and no doubt had it been a little warmer and a bit less windy it would have been buzzing with bees and other insects.

Our side of the fence had patches of Sea Bindweed, most of the flowers were closing up for the evening and we failed to find any open ones which still showed their delicate pink stripes.

Also here was a substantial patch of Spear Mint, the aroma from rubbing the leaves was powerful.

Being Scottish Wifey is drawn to thistles, not that she likes them as they are spiky but she often points them out and did so with this near perfect specimen of a Spear Thistle.

Getting too close to Spear Thistles can result in blood being drawn, they are very fiercely spined! Fortunately we were able to keep a safe distance but over the fence on the golf course there was blood of a different kind - Bloody Cranesbill, a nationally scarce plant and very local to sand dunes up here. Down in the midlands and inland parts of southern England it can be found but is almost definitely a garden escape there, these little (and some not so little) clumps are believed to be the genuine article.

And so ended a very pleasant hour or more wander and we still only managed to get no more than 300 yards from the car; it's amazing how slow you go when there's so much to look at/for.

Yesterday we were helping out at a family/children's event at the Nature Reserve's visitor centre. The weather was awful and that kept many folk indoors so we weren't quite as busy as perhaps the organisers would haved like but never the less it was steady with punters and they all enjoyed the activities on offer so we can't complain. 

At lunchtime one of the other volunteers went down to the nearby hide with her camera and came back beaming from ear to ear showing us a cracking full frame face of a Fox with a young Mallard in its mouth. Once the event was over we went down to the hid - just in case..it was never really going to put in another appearance was it...but you have to hope and try!

A family came in and we turned round to speak to them and in doing so noticed a faint movement in the darkness above and just beyond the door. Earlier in the year there'd been a Blackbird's nest up there. Well it's still there and this is likely to be her third clutch/brood, we don't know if she was incubating our brooding young chicks.

Out on the mere there wasn't much action apart from a few Mallards and gulls coming and going to bathe.

 The reeds resonated to the sounds of a couple of Reed Warblers which sang continuously all the time we were there but we saw neither of them. We did get several superb views of a Cetti's Warbler going back and forth to a hidden nest on the reed/scrub interface - as far as we could tell from where it was dropping in. Don't think we've ever seen a Cetti's Warbler so often but not heard it, not a peep from it! No chance of any pics it was never still and was totally unpredictable in where it was going to appear next. In the absence of warbler pic opportunities we focused (pun intended) on the gulls passing overhead after leaving the water to go and roost on the swimming pool roof behind us.

Herring Gull

Lesser Black Backed Gull

Lesser Black Backed Gull

And again

Where to next? Not sure what we'll find tomorrow but Patch 2 will be back in play
In the meantime let us know who's all bloody in your outback.

Another visit from the Biodiverse Society

The Safari was able to join the Biodiverse Society team again this morning. This time they were studying a series of ponds and interlinking grasslands close to last week's site. It's a great project and well worth getting involved with if you want to find out more about the wildlife in your area and learn from experts in identification.
Today's site isn't quite as floristically rich as last week's venue as there are large areas dominated by Tall Oat Grass and the smaller Common Bent. Along the margins old field boundary hedges were widened by banks of Greater Willowherb and Brambles. But it wasn't long before sharp eyed botanist DE picked out a slightly different form amongst a clump of Hard and Compact Rushes. A Club-Rush, which isn't a rush at all it's a sedge, but which species was it - one for further detective work.
Wandering through the grassland we recorded more common species of plants including the hemi-parasitic Red Barstia, a Ragwort plant had a number of very tiny Cinnabar moth caterpillars on it, all the others we've seen recently have been almost ready to pupate, and several Small Skipper and Meadow Brown butterflies flitting through the grass tops.
The main target of today's visits were the ponds along the trail. The first one we visited had a Song Thrush singing loudly from the old Hawthorn hedge behind it.

The pond was mostly dry despite a third of it being scraped out over the winter. There's a large patch of Greater Reedmace in the centre of it whose evapo-transpitation is probably not helping.
From there we walked down the side of an old ditch sandwiched between some recent tree and shrub planting and a former field hedge. The recent planting held some interesting species both native, like the Aspen (could we do with some Beavers here - might help raise the water levels in the ponds!), Sweet Chestnut, a variety of Ash with complete leaves and a scratty Rose shrub with flowers scented of Apples known as Sweet Briar.
On the bank of the ditch was a single Yellow Loosestrife which we couldn't make our mind up whether or not it was a garden escape or one of the  native species. If it is one of the natives we'd err towards Common Yellow Loosestrife rather than Dotted Yellow Loosestrife due to those lanceolate leaves, or has it jumped the fence, thoughts anyone?

A little further on to have a look at Lesser Trefoil's spiked tips to the leaflets and inspect some Hairy Tare we disturbed a couple of small Frogs hidden in the grass.

A moment of botanical embarrassment occurred a few minutes later when we mis-dentified a large grass as Tufted Hair Grass which in fact was a grass we've never heard of Tall Fescue. Always good to see something new.
We had to leave at lunchtime today but stayed with the group as they looked at the next pond. Lots of Water Violet here which was good to see but not a lot of water which wasn't as this is a known Great Crested Newt breeding pond - again there is perhaps too much Greater Reedmace. The pond is split into two by a narrow causeway. The larger half is now smothered and ruined by that nasty invasive n New Zealand Pygmy Weed. All was not lost though as DE wandered into the margins and came out with another unknown plant and another we've walked past 100 times, a species of rush but an unusual one as it had nodes. It could have one of a couple of species or a hybrid, a sample was collected for closer inspection later. We find it amazing that a pretty unassuming pond and a bit of damp grassland on the edge of a housing and industrial estate can still have a plant that even the experts can readily identify lurking among the super-abundant and commonplace species like Brambles, Tall Oat Grass, Greater Reedmace and Greater Willowherb.Just shows you what's out there to be found if you look closely enough...and have an expert to hand.

It was also good to see a nice fresh Large Skipper after our last somewhat tatty ones.

If you are in Safari-land please do get involved with the Biodiverse Society if you can, it's a fantastic learning experience and great fun.

Where to next? It's the weekend but we're working tomorrow so any safari-ing will have to wait until Sunday.

In the meantime let us know who's hiding undetected in your outback...well you wouldn't know would you if they're hiding undetected!

Come down come down where-ever you are

The Safari was pleased to see another Little Egret on Patch 2 yesterday, we saw another but we're pretty sure it's the same one as last weeks, it fished in exactly the same places. We first saw it sail gracefully past at eye-level only a few feet the other side of the seawall and watched it come to land in the pool at the southern end of the patch. Nipping back into the office for the camera once back out it had saved us a walk by coming much nearer. Off we went to get a closer look but even as stealthy as we were being we still managed to flush it again, it is so flighty! But it didn't disappear just relocated to the pool right below our normal watch point. We were able to cautiously peer over the wall and fire off a few shots before it spotted us and was off again, this time well away and well out of range.

If the Little Egret keeps up this rate of sightings it'll become a more regular visitor to Patch 2 than the Collared Dove we saw whip over the seawall up over the office and away inland, only the second sighting of this very common and widespread species here this year!

Mid-morning we were working on the wildlife garden with our volunteers when a bit of Cleavers pulling (we leave some just in case any Hummingbird Hawkmoths turn up) revealed a recently departed nest which we'd not noticed before but might have been built and used while we were down in Wales and Cornwall and off recuperating after our operation. We think it's from a pair of Goldfinches.

Minutes later a bearded bloke wearing a green hi-vis vest and very expensive looking builders wellies wandered past and said a cheery hello to which we replied summat like 'al-reet mate' and carried on working ('working' - we're not allowed to do that anymore cos of our hands so it's more like standing and pointing watching the others do all all the work) and that was that. He went to sit on the bench by the 'Solar System' in the garden and was joined in a short while by a film crew - it was TV presenter Nick Knowles and we hadn't recognised him. We didn't get a chance to go and have a chat to him about his Wildest Dreams programme a few years ago for which we were offered a part but unfortunately had to turn down. 

Nothing else of note was found during our morning work party although a bright fresh Small Tortoiseshell flew through as we were packing up the tools, it didn't linger.

Butterflies were order of the day later. CR txtd to offer a lift to Patch 1 after work, to look for the recently reported White Letter Hairstreaks, which we gratefully accepted.

It was warm and mostly sunny down in the 'Butterfly Zone' and the Cleggs were hungry, just as well we'd juiced up with Jungle Formula before heading out. The target butterfly's favourite tree was being blown around a bit too much by a stiffish breeze which we couldn't feel down at ground level.

Down in the shelter  it was insect heaven - apart from the Cleggs! - There were plenty of butterflies on the wing including several Meadow Browns.

Plenty of fresh Small Skippers

Male

Female - no scent brand on the wing

 And some now getting rather tatty Large Skippers

We looked up at regular intervals but saw no sign of any White Letter Hairstreaks. Below us on the Brambles there was a multitude of hoverflies of numerous species and bees galore. From the depths of the long grass we heard the chirping of grasshoppers. A Large White butterfly flitted through the now impenetrable due to excessive Bramble growth glade and a couple of Speckled Woods danced around but refused to settle.

Eventually all our neck straining paid off and we did see a single White Letter Hairstreak but it was only a brief view as it chased some other large insect round the tree top and never reappeared. Good but not good enough.

Just before it was time to leave another species of butterfly showed up and did settle just long enough for its pic to be taken, a nice bright Comma. 

Seven species of butterfly in an hour all within a few yards of each other is never to be sniffed at even if the holy one didn't show itself properly.

As CR was putting his kit back in the boot of the car he spotted a Field Grasshopper sat on the wall about a foot above the top of the grass along the verge. After hearing so many but nor seeing a single one it was nice to be able to point the camera at one out in the open.

Today we have ransacked the beach, pond and wildlife garden with a class of children from a local school. We've seen all the old favourites but been too busy to be able to take any pics for you. Best thing they found? Probably the ?Common Darter nymph in the pond, their favourite? The poisonous black and yellow stripey Cinnabar moth caterpillars...or maybe that Black Ant's nest that the little fellas will have to rebuild tonight!

As soon as the ysat down to lunch not one but three Small White butterflies appeared over the garden, one of which we were able to net and bring over to show them. We were also able to net a very busy White Tailed Bumble Bee with huge pollen sacs which was met with more squeals of terror than stares of curiosity. Parent's have a lot to answer to for giving their kids irrational biophobias. OK it's a bee and it might, just might sting, and that'll hurt a bit for an hour or so but is really worth screaming the house down and running round in a blind panic over? Once the terrors had subsided a little some of the 'braver' children noticed it was quite hairy and when calmly walking over the net rather than flying even asked if they could stoke it - good on em, but we did refuse just in case. We don't mind getting stung during a demo, although we have to say we'd rather not, but it's probably best if the children don't.

Where to next? We're back out for a couple of hours with the Biodiverse Society again tomorrow morning. At a different site to last weeks but close by, wonder what goodies they'll find this time. We've found Annual Wall Rocket at work too after being shown it for the first time by the team last week.

In the meantime let us know who's not leaving the treetops in your outback.

Secret squirrrels

The Safari and Wifey had a rare Sunday out together and we decided to have a trip out to the Southside to the pinewoods where there is a population of Red Squirrels. The dunes are packed full of exotic flora and fauna, endemic Dune Helleborines, rare Natterjack Toads, even rarer Sand Lizards and bedazzling Dark Green Fritillary butterflies along with a whole host of other more common and familiar species. Not that we saw any of the rarities but to be fair we didn't have long enough to do much of the enormous site. We concentrated on the seried rows of planted Scots Pine trees where the Red Squirrels are most frequently seen.

The trees are densely packed in places and their canopy casts enough shade to prevent any other species growing in the generally poor sand spoil.

The  bark has some superb shapes and textures on the larger trees

Walking up from the car park we saw a family peering into the woods with their binoculars, seeing our bins they beckoned us over but the Red Squirrel they were watching on the ground climbed up the back of a tree and into the canopy never to be seen again before we reached them and that was the nearest we got to one all afternoon.

We sat and waited, walked round and watched, had an ice cream and waited again all to no avail. We saw plenty of Magpies and Woodpigeons, a Jay which we would never have considered seeing when we worked here in the early 80s and heard a Nuthatch another species we wouldn't have dreamed of here all those years ago.

We walked round one last time without seeing any Red Squirrels but did see some arty tangled exposed roots where the sand had been blown from around them by the strong winds over the years.

From there we went on a family visit and while we were at our ancestral home watching through the sitting room window we saw a male Blackbird coming and going with beakfuls of small worms for a family of nestlings while a couple of Swifts scythed through the air at speed between the rooftops. Somethings haven't changed since the early 80s then.

This morning we had an early site visit near the nature reserve. We parked up and was immediately struck at how peaceful it was. There was barely any human noise just birdsong. Blackcaps, Sedge Warblers, Whitethroats, Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Robins, Wrens and a Song Thrush all singing away.

Whitethroat in full song - but look above it...reddening Hawthorn berries...Arrrggghhhh

The warming morning sun was bringing the insects out. Speckled Woods were the most common  butterflies but the best sighting was our first Small Skipper of the year.

Our first Brown Hawker dragonfly was on the wing too but wouldn't settle for a pic, LR also spotted a 'blue' dragonfly, probably an Emperor but we totally missed it. He then found us a 'blue' damselfly.

It's a Common Blue Damselfly but one with a bit of a difference. The usual 'blob on a stalk' mark on segment 2 isn't quite right, it's not a blob and there isn't a stalk!

While discussing what we came to see a Chiffchaff was spotted talking food down into a dense clump of grass to feed its young.

Also nearby on a rather blowy leaf was a cracking Scorpion Fly.

It didn't sit there long which was a shame as we would have liked a closer crisper pic, this is a pretty heavy crop.

Nowt on the sea during our very brief rain stopped play Patch 2 visit.

Where to next? Hopefully Patch 2 will be more interesting and less wet tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know who's ripening in your outback.

What happened there?

The Safari went to bed well pleased with the footy last night, we've got a Jones in our very near ancestry so we're deffo Welsh! Dod ar chi Cymru

The sunset wasn't bad either.

A bit of red(ish) sky at night had our hopes up for a better day than was forecast today. But in the wee small hours of the night we could hear the wind howling and rain lashing. This morning the promise of a better day wasn't borne out, it was dull and still very windy when we got up. It felt like we woken up in March or October than on the second of July.

After a while the early showers dissipated and out came some sunny spells. Enough to encourage us to hang the laundry out and seeing how that looked like it was going to dry that was enough to encourage us to get the camera out.

Unfortunately by now the sun had moved round and the shrubbery was shading the feeders. Worth a punt though and you never know, that ringed Greenfinch might put in an appearance and sit in a position with the ring showing the missing numbers  - wishful thinking!

We sat there a few minutes with only a brief visit from a Blue Tit before we had to run inside due to the cold! Crikey the temperature didn't half drop when a big black cloud obscured the sun for more than five minutes...brrrrr.

Once the sun reappeared and promised to stay out we went back out again. This time the sunny spells outlasted the cloudy ones and it was almost warm sheltered from the strong wind. The Blue Tit came back and on several occasions took a sunny seed and chose to eat it in the open. Usually they fly off into the dense cover of the Crab Apple tree to eat.

Blackbirds are regular visitors, taking advantage of whatever food is on offer, except the sunny seeds, and are often seen making a splash in the waterfall preferring it to the bird bath - is it the running water they prefer? This juvenile spent most of the day dangling off the suet block.

Any hint of a cloud made conditions at the bottom of the garden pretty gloomy - we're beginning to think our garden is the 'wrong way round'. We're the right hand side of the semi and the garden faces west...next move will be either the left hand side and make sure the neighbours don't have tall shrubs or trees or we get a north facing garden so the sun is behind us more of the day...Not that we'll be moving any time soon we hope.

The only Greenfinch we saw was one of the wrong ones, a juvenile...is the ringed male still around or has it moved on?

Chinks of light through the greenery made one of Stocks plants flowering at the bottom of the garden stand out nicely.

Sadly that was all the garden safari-ing we had time for, Wifey had a toothy disaster last night and an afternoon at the emergency dentist was required. 

Tonight we will be mostly supporting Italy in the footy as Wifey grew up in Taglio di Po south of Venice and one of our brothers is a resident of north east Italy...and we like pasta! Come on you Azzuri!

Where to next? Wifey is excused family duties so we're going to have a safari out somewhere we've not been to for a long long time...should be fun and hopefully there'll be some excellent wildlife to show you. 

In the meantime let us know who woke up in the wrong season in your outback.

Its a biodiverse society out there

The Safari met up with a team of experts and volunteers yesterday who were surveying one of our sites along the North Blackpool Pond Trail. They were from The Biodiverse Society, a fantastic project to engage and train volunteers in biological recording focusing on the sites listed as County Biological Heritage Sites (aka Local wildlife Sites in other areas of the country). It's well worth getting involved with if you're in our area as you will find out.

Going back a day we were able to get a member of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue via the UK Strandings Programme to come out and collect the Harbour Porpoise we'd discovered and get it taken to London, along with the baby that stranded earlier in the week, for a post-mortem at London Zoo. Emails to the programme went back and forth as did our pics and from this rather bloody one the suspicion came back that it was caused by a Grey Seal!

A quick browse of the interweb revealed a few instances of Harbour Porpoises being killed by Grey Seals but certainly not many and in many of the cases there was clear evidence of the victim being eaten or at least parts of it. That hasn't happened here, there's just one bite. We're not sure if the post-mortem will shed anymore light on this as a cause of death because by the time the carcass had been collected the local gulls had significantly enlarged the wound. When we get the results we'll let you know what they say.

Anyway back to the Biodiverse Society...When we arrived we had a chat with another visiting naturalist and as we chatted a Heron landed on the side of the lake at the other end of the path.

After our chat we joined the team to find them rummaging around at the water's edge just round the corner. Expert botanist DE pointed out a plant we must have passed 100 times or more over the years but had never even heard of, Brown Sedge...we're not brilliant at grasses and totally useless at sedges. But this plant is scarce in the county and being found in only 18 tetrads (out of a possible 150ish) in lowland north west Lancashire. It was good to be shown it and when it is in flower we ought to be able to recognise it again...we wonder if it lurking undiscovered at any other sites on our patches.

Wandering around the grassland disturbed a few insects, mostly Straw Dot moths, several with every foot-fall but there were also a couple or three each of Meadow Brown and Large Skipper butterflies and two Mother of Pearl moths. On the drier higher mounds away from the water there were a few bedazzling 6 Spot Burnet moths on the wing.

More locally scarce plants were found at the foot of the fence posts along the open bankside namely Northern Yellow-cress, Annual Wall Rocket with its lovely little lemon yellow flowers - another species we've never seen/noticed before...do we go round with our eyes half closed?

And another locally scarce one we must have seen there before surely to goodness...maybe we really do go round with our eyes half closed or maybe three quarters closed in this case - it's huge! Greater Spearwort...or has it been recently planted? There's a big patch of it mixed in with the Typha right next to the duck feeding area - we must have seen it here before!

Today we rummaged out the old management plan for the area wot we rote in the mid 90s and there's no mention of it, nor is there any mention of it on the original site description so maybe it is a newcomer by fair means or (water)fowl.

While we were in the general area we took the opportunity to have a quick visit to a couple of nearby sites while the others had their lunch. At the first pond we met a couple of college staff collecting aquatic invertebrate samples for their students to study that afternoon. One of them pointed out a female Emperor dragonfly cruising round then laying eggs.

It stayed in one place long enough to get pics from a variety of angles and as we did so we noticed its abdomen getting deeper and deeper into the water. Shame it was just a little bit too far out, a couple of yards nearer the bank would have given us much better pics, these are all very heavy crops.

Also on the pond were families of Coots and Moorhens.One of the juvenile Moorhens seem to spot the dragonfly in the water as made a bee-line towards it across the Water Lilies.

The other site we didn't stay long at as the Cleggs were in biting mood and the 10 or so low swooping House Martins weren't doing enough to dent the numbers of the evil suckers. Nice to see was a recently fledged Pied Wagtail catching small flies off the recent mown lawn area nearby, we wonder if that had come from a nest close by or was a dispersing bird. Either way it was camera shy flying off as soon as we aimed the lens in its direction.

We met back up with the surveyors who had just finished their work and were stood chatting by a lamp post at the side of the road. At the base of the lamp post at the edge of the grass verge was another quite scarce plant locally Lesser Swine-cress, these scarce plants are turning up everywhere! Just shows you what might be about if you have a little knowledge and take the time to look, there's all sorts of wondrous stuff out there waiting to be discovered and recorded. We'll spare you a pic of this one, it's tiny and not much to look at...well not without a hand lens!

They went off on their way back to base and we had another quick look at the lake seeing a pair of Great Crested Grebes, one of which was on its nest tucked under the overhanging branches but we couldn't see any young, and got a count of 55 Mallards in various stages of feather disarray and managed to get a pic of the pair of Coots before they savagely attacked one of the other pair that frequents this side of the lake.

Nothing much out to sea on Patch 2 today, just a Grey Seal - just bobbing quietly beyond the surf not ripping chunks out of innocent porpoises - and a couple of distant Gannets. And the noisy Oysttercatchers we hear from our desk are nesting on the flat roof of the flats across the road from the work's back garden, do the young jump or do they get a lift down?

Where to next? It's the weekend and we have a couple of wildlife challenges in mind - weather permitting it's supposed to be cold wet n windy so at least one or more of our quests may be out of the question. 

In the meantime let us know who's ripping into who in your outback.