At last a sunny day

The Safari has eventually got round to downloading and processing a few more pics of the recent Snow Buntings for you to enjoy. Not sure if anyone has been to look for them since but it seems we might have been the last person to see them,; no we didn't flush them when we left they were still happily feeding away on the lower strandline when we walked off.

Yesterday we were blessed with blistering sunshine as CR drove in to the car park at the marsh hides at Leighton Moss. Stuffing a variety of snacks in to our pocket we set off eagerly down the track wondering what the sunshine would bring through the day.

At the Snow Buntings we hadn't had any lens issues but today the darned thing wouldn't auto-focus for love nor money so we had to flip the switch to scary ie manual! A Redshank was feeding close in blow the hide and we tried to get a shot of swimming, a good 'different' 'pose' for the challenge but failed miserably. C pointed out a Greenshank along way left and this time we had a little more success.

But that was about it of note, there were few birds on the pools and almost all of those were to our left looking right in to the low sun so little more than silhouettes and we ran the risk of burning out our retinas in the glare of the sun. Without further ado we decided to abandon going down to the Eric Morecambe hide and head for the main reserve tout suite.

A mid-week day and still quite early but the car park was already bursting at the seams - there's just too many of those retired folk with time on their hands...oh hang on a mo!!!

Our second big decision of the day was to forego the delights of Lillian's hide and go directly on the long march to Lower Hide and beyond to try to find the very elusive Great Grey Shrike. On the way we called in very briefly at a 'standing room only' Causeway hide, there's got to be a case to be made for a second similarly large (or even larger) hide to be built along the causeway.

Through the gate there was the usual Robins waiting to mug passers-by of their bird seed. We had half a bag of sunny seeds in our pocket but we managed to sneak by without incident. We did get a couple of birders on to Marsh Tit that was hanging around some seed placed on the arm of a bench.

Further on we came across a Jay feeding like a thrush right out in the open in the field adjacent to the reserve, not often you see them so far from cover. Fortunately it wasn't too bothered by us stopping on the path and lifting the camera, still on manual focus...result - one we didn't get for our challenge last year.

By now those snacks in our pockets were making their presence felt and a good scan of the field along with a chat with one of the volunteer wardens who'd been looking for an hour showed there was no sign of the Great Grey Shrike so off to the hide we went. Pretty full in there - not too many years ago you could have that hide almost to yourself all day long, not as many people on the reserve full stop and most of those didn't make the long trek round there.

Most obvious were a small group of Teal haled out on the wet margin of the pool, then one of our already ensconced compatriots pointed out three sleeping Snipe fairly well concealed a little nearer.

After a few minutes a fourth, previously unseen, Snipe was spotted waking up and beginning to move around by someone down the line to our left. A Jack Snipe had been there all the time mostly obscured by its larger cousins. For the next half hour or more we enjoyed our best views of this secretive species we've ever had here - only really bettered by the views we've had at the fabulous Canal Scrape hide at Spurn.

Now you'd better have some ordinary Snipe pics for comparison, for those not familiar with the two species Jack Snipe are smaller, shorter legged, shorter billed and have a different head pattern.

And this is where our idea of a YouTube channel for The Safari fell flat on its face. Rule One - know your equipment!!! We thought we'd have a little go at filming it bob bob bobbing along only to find we didn't have a clue how to set the video rolling on our camera - what a numpty - - any one know a decent film crew?

Worse was to happen there was an Otter fishing half way across the pool while the Jack Snipe was still in view and then a Great White Egret flew across the back of the pool and landed in a dead tree.

Would have made a great bit of footage even if the Otter was a bit distant as it did catch two small Eels while we were watching it. We didn't take a pic of it as it was too distant and spending a lot of time under water so second guessing where it would come up with the camera on manual focus was a no-no. No pic but brilliant to watch for ages.

In the hide we were recognised by one of our readers, thank you very much for saying hello.

Time was now moving on so so did we, back to thee track to look for the Great Grey Shrike again passing on the way the pile of sunny seeds we'd put out earlier. They'd done the trick, a couple of Marsh Tits were taking advantage of the freebies.

The new rules for the challenge mean no ringed birds (or at least no birds' legs with rings in the pic) and certainly no posts so we cleverly hid a stash of seeds at the bottom of the tree but in the intervening time the sun had moved round and our stash was now in the shade.

Job done - no ring and no post

As we walked along the track birders coming back were regaling us with tales of negative news of the shrike and as we neared the end of the trail another birder did the same so we cut our losses and turned tail aiming for the Grisedale Hide running the gauntlet of a myriad of Winter Gnats on the way, the 'warm' sunshine must have brought them out for the afternoon, time to breath through your teeth!

 Can't remember a visit when we've not looked in at Lillian's Hide before - ever!

The afternoon light at Grisedale Hide was lovely with reflection from the reeds casting a golden hue over the proceedings.

A Little Egret fishing caught our attention and we waited for it to come into some open water to see if we could get some reflection pics.

Missed!

Photobombed!

The egret's favoured way of fishing by shaking a leg to stir out prey doesn't make for the best reflections unlike the Heron above which stood motionless but had grassy bits in the way of its reflection.

Of the supporting cast of  ducks the Wigeon were the nearest and most photogenic, even if they spent most of their time with  their head under water.

And when they emerged they gave the weed they'd just dragged up a real good shake to get rid of any bits of mud and debris.

After only seeing one Marsh Harrier all day, a very brief fly-over view along the causeway we really hoped one would appear in the last half hour we had on site so the pressure was on! Would one come out or not? We had expected the lovely sunshine would have had them on the wing all day but it was proving to be a rather raptor free zone so far.

While we waited a couple of Carrion Crows flew past, good to get that 'different' shot for the challenge and good to know that for some inexplicable but very welcome reason the auto-focus had decided to work again.

We hoped a couple of distant Ravens would come closer and do some of their impressive barrel-rolling display but after a few minutes they went their separate ways never really coming any nearer. A couple of Buzzards got up out of the distant woods and started soaring around and calling, as this activity the cue for the Marsh Harriers to wake up?

Yes it was, distant at first.

And then nearer

And nearer again.

And nearer still.

And finally...not quite overhead

And all that fun and games meant time was now up so we hit the trail back to the car and thence on to Base Camp passing a Barn Owl on the way, a good end to a great day in the sunshine.

Once again many thanks to CR for doing the driving.

Where to next? Not sure yet and it'll no doubt depend on the weather.

In the meantime let us know who's left to the last minute to put in an appearance in your outback

One week in

The Safari has been out n about in the gloom this week hitting off the new year's wildlife lists. our mammal list at the end of the week stands at a massive two, the ubiquitous Grey Squirrel being first on to the page in the notebook, seen at just about every site we've been to with more than one tree but the other species was more of a surprise so early in the year a Harbour Porpoise quite close in on the morning of the 3rd just breaking the surface of a flat calm grey sea a couple of times before disappearing. As soon as we reached the top of the cliff on Monty's dog walk we felt the sea looked 'porpoisy' and it only took us a couple of minutes scanning to find it, at first we were looking too far out!

The mammal tally will surely grow but we're back in the bird photo challenge with Monika and her friends from Washington state and other places so we've been concentrating on getting a few birds submitted to the SD card - the dingy grey January days haven't produced the best of pics but some of the more dodgy ones can be replaced at a later date hopefully. So far we've managed 34 species out of 78 recorded. It should be 35 but for some reason we didn't lift the camera when a Barn Owl flew within a few yards of us at Hesketh Out Marsh RSPB reserve the other afternoon - in broad daylight (such as it was) as well. Think we were just so engrossed and mesmerised watching it in the bins that there was no thought of the camera. That sounds like good old fashioned bird watching! The memories are etched into our mind and we'll fondly recall the trip out with our Southside friends for many years to come - who needs an SD  card?

The general rule for the Challenge is to photograph as many species as possible and hopefully more than everyone else...that's not going to happen in our case as others in the group live in more ornithologically diverse areas than we do and others have trips abroad or at least to different biomes within their continent lined up. But then the challenge is also to beat your previous year's tally so we have a target of 180 species, and/or achieve a higher strike rate, % species photographed out of your total year list. The aim is also to get better or different photos from your previous attempts. And then this year Monika has come up with a new rule - No 'hand of man' so no birds on feeders, wires, fence posts in the backgound, buildings, birds sporting rings etc etc etc - - just to make it a tad more trickier.

Here's a selection of what we've managed so far

Female Blackbird at Marton Mere - in the sunshine!!!

Water Rail at Marton Mere - sunny but in the shade - - this one nearly caught us out lucky to have captured one so early in the year

Mute Swan over Lawson's Wetland - different to our previous year's efforts as it's in the air not on the water

Moorhen at Marton Mere

Teal at Marton Mere

Wood Pigeon at Lawson's Wetland - and that was the last we saw of the sunshine for the rest of the week

Herring Gull paddling for worms close to Base Camp

Starlings approaching North Pier to roost - a tiny portion of an enormous flock joining the guestimated 20000 already present - but sadly no murmurations again

A chilly morning in Stanley Park gave us five Ring Necked Parakeets - the other one is out of frame by several yards

There's been a nasty bloom of the invasive alien Azolla in the park lake which is showing no sign of abating but this pair of Shovelers don't seem to be bothered by it

Great Tits in Stanley Park

Mugged by a Robin in Stanley Park

Canada Goose in Stanley Park

Black Headed Gull in Stanley Park

Tufted Duck in Stanley Park

As mentioned early we'd met up with our Southside friends, the original plan was to join them at a flock of Waxwings in Liverpool but news on the way was that they'd had no joy despite extensive searching and attracting the attention of the local Boys in Blue so they'd decide to make tracks to Southport where we diverted to en-route and met them at Marshide RSPB reserve. 

They arrived only minutes before we did and had lined up a nice Merlin for us.

A little too distant in the grotty light but it's on a post so can't count for our new rules challenge

Fortunately AB spotted another raptor, which turned out to be another Merlin, sat on a lump of driftwood - which does count - on the marsh across the road - - unfortunately it was about ten times further away.

Rubbish pic but at least it counts - one to replaced ASAP!

Pintail at Marshside RSPB

After a goody shuffy round Marshside we decamped to the other RSPB reserve Hesketh Out Marsh a few miles away after the gang had scoffed in to a very tasty portions of chips n gravy/curry from the Chinese chippy opposite Booths in Hesketh Bank - mucho recommended by all - - we'd brought pies and cheese n ham butties with us so didn't partake of chips - - they did look and smell temptingly good though.

At HOM the light was horrendous and the pools mostly devoid of birds, apparently earlier in the morning, when the tide was in, there'd been a good selection of waders and waterfowl to perise and enjoy. We could only manage a few Redshank, Lapwings and distant Black Tailed Godwits. And the flock of Wigeon which holds the American Wigeon somehow didn't give up its interloper despite others having seen it that day, we've even seen pics of it taken from where we ere stood...dohhhhh...and then the aforementioned Barn Owl happened. But hey-ho who needs pics when there's good fun going on and good birds to be seen, even if there were no Bewick's Swans in the two flocks of Whooper Swans we scanned - we;d seen one earlier at Marshide but it was a long way off and spent all the time we were there fast asleep so not much more than a slightly smaller white blob than the sleeping Mute Swan sitting next to it.

Earlier in the week we dipped the Snow Buntings at Starr Gate and nearly did again today. We were on our last walk up along the beach to the Christmas Tree some one has 'planted' on the edge of the dunes - we'd done the walk three times already - when one of the other two birders looking for them called us over. Success - he'd found them in a deep blow-out in the high dunes when they flew past him on to the strandline on the beach. Quite close to the Chtristmas tree we were going to turn back at - phewwwwww!

The three of us enjoyed close views as they picked out seeds from among the Mason Worm casts and bits of dried seaweed. The other two birders left and after a few more minuted the birds flew well out on to the beach where they continued to find seeds on another but much reduced strandline.

Snow Bunting at Starr Gate today bringing our PYLC 2019 tally to 34 - Really pleased they've come back for another winter - are they the same birds as last year???

 While walking upu and down the beach as usual we kept our eyes peeled for anything of note in the strandlines. Lots and lots and lots of Mason Worm casts and not a lot else but it did strike us that there were more Mermaid's Purses than we normally see and that all those were Thornback Ray egg-cases, no Lesser Spotted Catshark cases at all, or at leaset none that we spotted. And then we came across this cluster where a little depression in the sand had made a shallow pool that they'd got trapped in, never seen anything like this concentration of them before, there's two dozen in the pic and others out of shot top and bottom.

Apologies for the blurry bit - rain on the phone-cam lens we guess

That's the wonder of wildlife, you never know what you're going to find. Yes we struck lucky with the Snow Buntings, our target for the day but we nearly missed out on them and yet we had no idea when we left Base Camp we'd see that cluster of mermaid's purses, the like of which we've never seen before - isn't nature great!

Where to next? A safari up north with CR tomorrow, not sure exactly where yet but hopefully the natiral world will provide some goodies and some surprises. 

In the meantime let us know who's all clustered up in your outback

We're still in the planning stage of the YouTube Vlog, trying to work out logistics of bins, scopes, cameras, phones etc etc and the format it's going to take so please 'bear with' as they say in the telly.

Plenty going on but not this - - - yet

The Safari has been busy out on safari but haven't had time for an up date for you in the last couple of weeks - holidays n family stuff n all that.

We saw a couple of these tufty beauts in Chorley on the last day of last year.

Really gloomy so rediculously high ISO but what the heck they're so entertaining who cares about the light (or lack of it).

A supporting cast of thrushes were feasting on the berries too.

Wouldn't face the front!

We ended the year with a bird species list of 195 (with several bad dips) of which we managed to photograph 179 of them for our Photo Year List Challenge, a 'strike rate' of 91.8% - we're very happy with that.

Meanwhile while Waxwings are nice and exotic they're not 'proper birds' like this one

Which we are eagerly awaiting...will it turn up again this winter -- we really hope so andd SOOOOONNNNN!!!!!

Where to next? Well the Photo Year List Challenge has entered its third year so we can let you know how we're got on in the first few very gloomy days of 2018

In the meantime let us know who's got the tuftiest hair-do in your outback.

PS we're thinking of doing some YouTube safaris, hope you'll join us on them.

Well that was unexpected

The Safari had a wander out east with GB the other morning. Before we met him off the tram we took Monty for a quick stretch up the prom where, while he was having a merry old sniff, we spied these two interesting clouds which we guess were hailstone cells but we're no meteorological wizard not by a long chalk.

GB's tram arrived on time and Monty gave him his usual over-exuberant welcome. Once in the car we started chatting and one of the first thing he mentioned were the weird clouds he'd seen from the tram.

Half an hour later we turned in to the car park at the River Brock and very atmospheric it was too. Just before we reached the last turn before the car park gate a Jay flew over the car and a second was already perched in the roadside tree it flew too...still not got them on our Photo Challenge but that seemed like a good omen. A Buzzard also cruised the field possibly what flushed the Jay...not the best place to be a Buzzard hope it stays safe and well away from any gamekeepers.

While we were putting our boots on we could hear a Nuthatch calling from somewhere around the feeders and then a second in the trees behind us.

By the time we were shod a bit of a mist had settled over the river looking all picturesque where the sun was shining through the trees.

Further round in the sunlight we found one shaft picking out an epiphytic fern quite high up on a tree bole.

The woods were livelier with birds than they often are, GB picking put a Goldcrest with a second one a couple of spindly trees further back. A Treecreeper was spotted too. But more was to come; down by the old mill we heard a sort of familiar but very seldom heard monotone rattle, and then a few seconds later there it went again...this time it really did sound like a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker calling from the tall trees on the other side of the river. WOW!!!! But could we see it up there, sadly not. We've never heard (or seen) one there before but 20 odd years ago there were a few sightings by Bird Club members in the woods a mile or so further up stream. It's a while since we've visited those woods and decided to have a peek today. Blimey the road/track has deteriorated since we were last there and was impassible to the 'normal' car we have now, the old Discovery wouldn't have had any problems - it looks like this...or did several years ago when we filmed it but you don't really get the full impression of how steep the drop to the river and climb out are

It was an interesting reverse out today as we couldn't get down the lane as far as the turning round space. The woods look much as they always did but what they look like to our eyes and what they are really like to the various species that inhabit it now, is it better, worse, same???

Round the corner is Beacon Fell where GB treated us to a coffee while we sat out close to the feeder they have there. It was busy with Blue, Great and Coal Tits with a Robin hanging around and a couple of Chaffinches coming in and out. 

The sun was still out and creating harsh lighting conditions at the feeder where the benches aren't in the best place for photographers but are great for all other folk just sat out on the benches having tea and a bun.

Blue Tit

Coal Tit

Great Tit

A great way to sit and watch and shoot for as long as it takes to drink a cuppa...Time to go and get some pies in! one the way to the pies we were on another single track road when two vans appeared coming the other direction as we reached a tight corner...good job we'd had that bit of reversing practice coming out of the woods earlier.

Pies successfully scoffed we headed back to Fleetwood to take GB home passing the Marine Lake on the way to see if there were any Red Breasted Mergansers on there, GB, Fleetwood born n bred, has never seen them on there and doesn't believe they actually exist! Once again he was right there weren't any; but there were three Goldeneyes close to the roadside, a male, a first winter male and a female. While we were searching for the mythical mergansers a Black Headed Gull with a yellow Darvik ring unfortunately we weren't able to get a read of it as the letters were round the rong side of the leg and then a passer-by came along and it flew off and although we waited a while it dodn't return...shoulda saved some pie crusts!

In other news the big lens is back but we don't know if the workshop has been able to resolve the intermittent problem it was having, they cleaned up all the contacts and tightened up all the screws but it didn't misbehave for them...will it for us tomorrow - hope not and we hope that's the last of the problem too.

Where to next? The Marton Mere Otter has been seen daily so we'll try a wander round there early doors tomorrow...with the big lens.

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