More first week shenanigans

The Safari was subjected to a pretty dire foggy day today which mostly involved chores. We did have to go out early afternoon on an errand which took us past FB's house where he's been watching nearly a dozen Waxwings on the street tree opposite from his sitting room window - when we drove past it was that foggy we could hardly see the trees from the driver's seat never mind any birds sat in them.

The grotty weather gave us the opportunity to see nothing was happening in the garden and after that we got to grips with a couple of recent SD cards to show you some more of what we've been up to this week.

Black Headed Gull taken at work

Starling also taken at work

Both of the Snow Buntings

They find the tiniest of seeds well out on a lower strandline well out on the beach

 And then there's the sunsets...

Good to see people videoing the Starling mumuration with their tablet - all technology is acceptable!

The Sparrowhawk banking away after an unsuccessful dart at the flock

Where to next? Back to the Southside for some family duties but we may well get a chance to bob in to some wildlife sites soomewhere sometime during the day.
In the meantime let us know who's been gleaning all the seeds in your outback.

 

Little time for blogging but there's still some wildlife being seen

The Safari is back to work after the holiday and with puppy classes and other stuff to attend to in the evenings we've not had a chance to put pen to keyboard to let you know what we've been up to and what we've seen.

Our trip to the Southside was a fun day out with our birding mates but we spent more time chatting than watching. The site we visited is renowned for its Stonechats

and wintering Short Eared Owls, there were four of these but by they time they got up to fly round mid afternoon we'd walked well past their favoured area so mostly only got distant views.

When we birded this area on our bike on the early 70s Little Egrets wouldn't have been on our radar, they weren't in the basic field guides we had at that time.

As is always the case with nature reserves these days there was a numpty with a dog who let it run all over the place without any control what-so-ever. Once over the river it ran miles across the farmland from where it disturbed a flock of Lapwings and Golden Plovers.

Had there been livestock in some of the fields instead of newly planted crops and stubble the dog would have ended up getting itself shot by the farmer - it's almost a shame nature reserve managers don't have the same rights as farmers to protect their 'livestock' and were allowed to shoot unleashed dogs running amock on reserves.

At lunchtime the other day we got out to have a look for the local Snow Buntings, news from the birding website was they'd flown high and away the previous day but we went out feeling hopeful in good sunshine. After a good while and almost at the point when we had to think about going back to work empty handed they flew in from behind us and landed not 20 yards away. Edging round to get them in better light they were now only 20 feet away.

After work we met up with CR at the pier to watch the Starling murmuration over the high tide. There was a bit of a sunset too. A Sparrowhawk came in and bunched the Starlings up and just happened to become the only Sparrowhawk we've taken a pic of over the sea.

Not a bad end to a week with only 'limited' opportunities for watching wildlife.
Our various lists stand as follows:-
Garden - 8
Patch 1 - 14
Patch 2 - 12
Year List Photo Challenge - 17 - some of the other challengers are well over 50 already and over a third of their way to their target - - we're 'pacing ourselves'!

Grand Total - Long Tailed Tits going to roost in the dark gloomy drizzly fog on Patch 1 while out with Monty in the very last of the light yesterday were #50 for the year.

Where to next? A weekend busy with family stuff may mean little time for wildlife again but we're sure we'll see something somewhere.

In the meantime let us know who was only feet away in your outback.

And so off we go again

The Safari had yet another rough night, will this darned cold ever go? Monty laid in bed late but still had us up well before dawn. As soon as we were out of the front door we heard a Robin (1) singing somewhere in the darkness. On the grass verge of the main road we could see the dark shape of a Blackbird (2) hopping around listening for early rising worms. Unfortunately the light from the street lamps revealed the Peregrine had gone from its roosting ledge, probably frightened off by the ridiculous barrage of fireworks - when did all that nonsense start and more to the point why???

Once daybreak came round it wasn't long before Herring Gull (3), Great Tit (4), Woodpigeon (5) and Collared Dove (6). 

Late morning we set off with Wifey and Monty for the beach, stopping just around the corner to have a close look at the Peregrine (7), which had thankfully reappeared.

At the beach the tide was in as were a fair number of New Year's Day swimmers,  

the skinny dippers were particularly brave as there was a stiff icy breeze blowing and a temperature of no more than 5C. With the swimmers and literally hundreds of dog walkers we didn't hold out much hope of finding the local Snow Buntings....and we didn't!

A flock of Ringed Plovers (8) were trying to roost at the top of the beach but were continually being disturbed.

They'd be flushed, fly round a bit and then try to settle back down but before many minutes had passed yet another dog walker would come along and walk straight towards them putting them up again. We made sure Monty was kept well away from them by at least 100 yards.

Eventually the traffic died down a bit and they were able settle properly, so we used the little available cover to get big-lens close, we fired off a few shots and went backwards to leave them in peace.

Shame about the Snow Buntings but we'll try again at lunchtime later in the week. If there were no dog walkers the beach would have been empty, which says something about the rest of society.

The drive back to Base Camp gave us several Feral Pigeons (9) and once home we heard a Dunnock (10)  calling in the garden.

Ten down, two hundred to go, our year list gas started...and the grand total for the Photo Challenge is two.

Where to next? Off on a birding mission to the Southside tomorrow which is good.

In the meantime let us know who's out on a ledge in your outback.

Some bad misses but if you don't get out you won't see nowt!

The Safari was severely trounced in our Year List Challenge with Monika this year, our 185 nowhere near her 208 species but that's the way it goes some times - you can't win them all and as always in birding you see what you see when you see it and if you don't get out you don't see nowt...which isn't quite strictly true as there is the great #WildlifefrommyWindow for those who for whatever reason are unable to get outside; as we were for a short while after hospitalisation earlier in the year. All you need to do is ignore the dross on your phone and fake news on the TV screens for a few minutes each day and get to grips with the real world outside even if it is #WildlifeThroughGlass. A few minutes watching squabbling Starlings, buzzing bees or even pitter-pattering ants going about their business connects you firmly to our planet, they more you look the more you'll learn and the the more you learn the more you'll see everything is inter-connected including, perhaps even especially, us humans.

So how come we got beaten so convincingly, well we tried and dipped on Bewick's Swan, Caspian Gull, Serin, Nightingale, Turtle Dove, Mandarin and Little Ringed Plover. But totally failed on some really-ought-to-have-gots like Black Redstart, Yellow Wagtail, Little Owl and both Spotted and Pied Flycatchers. But you can't see everything, that would spoil the fun!

Where to next? Bring on our photo-challenge!

In the meantime let us know what's outside the window in your outback.

Happy New Year everyone - we hope to see you in the field some time somewhere...

Peregrine was still there but...

The Safari and Wifey have been laid low with post-Christmas colds, Wifey's has developed in to a full blown chest infection requiring a trip to the quacks and a packet of horse pills this lunchime. You know you're deffo ill when your tea tastes more like coffee and your coffee tastes well err... and we've barely touched the festive booze. Consequently we haven't been out much apart from a quick sprint around Patch 1 with Monty. He still hasn't managed to spot any of the local Grey Squirrels and he knows where the Fox trails are.

The last time we were out with the bins and without Monty was the day after Boxing Day. The day started bright and sunny and as promised in our last post the local Peregrine was game on for having her pic taken.

That single brown feather in her wing suggests she's not yet fully adult.

After a quick nip back to Base Camp for some breakfast we headed off to the Nature Reserve sadly the promised all-day sunshine disappeared behind the heavy gloomy clouds. Once there it was even gloomier with little to be seen apart from flippin mutts roaming all over the place, from the relative sanctuary of the reedbeds we heard three or four Cetti's Warblers. We didn't have much of a look over the water but did note an awful lot of Coots and a decent number of Wigeon with probably more tucked up in areas we didn't look at. Continuing on dodging yet more mutts and their arrogant owners we came away not a little disheartened. but almost back at the car we found a small flock of Fieldfares feeding in an Apple tree s owe hung around sneaking foot by foot, minute by minute closer until they were in range of the lens - it never happened a dog walker walked right past us putting all the birds to flight. This was the best of the few shots we got as they flew away to the top of a much taller tree across the main roadway.

A dull day made more dismal and followed by illness - marvelous!
Where to next? If we're feeling better tomorrow we might try to get out somewhere for a couple of hours.
In the meantime let us know who's cutting through the gloom in your outback.

A new year and a different challenge beckon

The Safari has been informed that this coming year's challenge with Monika is going to be a little different this time round.

Her Pops has come up with the idea of the challenge to photograph as many species as possible. Identifiable of course not a couple of blurry pixels. That's going to make for an interesting year, and some interesting photo from us, each species can only be added to the list once, that'll be OK for common species no need to submit until the 'perfect' pic comes round but those scarcer or harder to get species may mean a fair few 'record' shots - gotta be identifiable though! I feel some hard work coming on but it's bound to be fun and we'll find lots of other fascinating wildlife too.

But there's still a few days of this year left yet and after a week of family duties and puppy duties

The boy's getting bigger!

we hope to back out on the trail of some wildlife tomorrow and we've our eye on the local Peregrine. It's been visible from our bathroom window most of the holiday, hopefully it'll be still there in the morning and the sun will be shining on it for a change too - bring on the big lens!

Where to next? After the Peregrine we may well have a couple of hours at the nature reserve.

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

There's snow't about

The Safari hasn't been able to get out much in recent days and when we have we haven't seen much. We've been out so little we've not had a look at Patch 2 all week and have probably come to grinding halt on our Patchwork Challenge for there. No Velvet Scoter or Scaup to add to our list then.

The last week has seen moon-set happening around mid day so we took the opportunity to try a few arty shots from the garden last weekend.

Poking around the garden at work we came across the Borage we saw flowering last week with a new flower recently opened - it;s mid/late December what's going on!

Since the weekend a couple of Snow Buntings have been frequenting the beach just to the south of Patch 2, although news is often released of them being 'dogged-off'. At lunchtime today we thought sod it let's have a long lunch break and drive the mile down the road and have a look for them. Once we were on the beach it took about two minutes to locate them well out on the sands rather than where we expected them, high on the beach on the strand-lines.

We walked well out beyond them to get the light on the right side and then got in front of them to let them come to us; which they very obligingly did. Standing still they came within about 30 feet (10m) of us. If we'd have lain down on the sand they may well have come closer. It was a bit cold and damp for that though! But Snow Bunting (185) is now on the list - wonder how Monika is getting on? She's had a bit of a busy year.

They were finding seeds washed up with the shell fragments on the lowest strandline.

We watched them flit about a few times too when there well deserved colloquial name of Snowflakes was all too obvious - lovely little things and a treat to see on a lunch break that only went five minutes over our normal allocation.

Where to next? Holidays - whoopee-doo; but they start with another funeral tomorrow morning which isn't so good.

In the meantime let us know who's doing snow't in your outback