Lockdown week 4 brings a bad dip

The Safari has been enjoying the sunshine but not the strong, cold wind but at least it's an easterly which means the sea is mostly calm and there's a good chance for finding a decent migrant bird or two, either on one of our exercise/dog walk patches or flying over the garden. and then at this time of year there's always new common migrant birds to look out for too.

The week started cold and windy with absolutely nothing to report from the garden!

Tuesday saw us out on the beach - loads of room to be socially distanced out there, only three or four other people in at least three square miles of sand as far as the eye could see. Of initial interest at the bottom of the steps was the Loch Ness Monster, not sure how that managed to swim here given the restrictions on movements.

Not great lot else out there but the nice light meant we could have a go at snapping some of the regular gulls that hang out on the beach.

Herring gull with a chicken bone

Great Black-Backed Gull

Lesser Black-Backed Gull

A flock of Sanderlings was a nice bonus for our Lockdown 1 mile photo challenge, shame we didn't nail the focus!

Back at Base Camp there was a little bit of a raptor fest when Buzzard then a little later a Sparrowhawk went over.

There was little by way of invertebrate activity at Base Camp either , easily best of the day was this (assumed) Tenthredo sp Sawfly, sort of similar to the Figwort Sawfly (Tenthredo scrophulariae). Not the best pic as it was obscured deep in the vegetation in our tubs and wouldn't keep still for more than a millisecond.

We were back on the deserted beach again on Wednesday morning and again took the opportunity to fire of some shots at the gulls.

Great Black-Backed Gull with a Dab

Herring Gull

A bonus was a drake Eider sitting quietly on the flat calm sea. It was quite a way out but was looking resplendent in the morning sunshine even at that range. Another one for our Lockdown 1 mile challenge.

Sandwich Terns were out there too, we were alerted to them by thir rasping calls and looking round had just enough time to swing the camera upo and get a pic of this one leaving the water with a small fish.

A few came a bit closer further up the beach

 A flock of Shelducks also went past us within camera range.

Sadly back at Base Camp there was nothing to report from the garden all day.

Thursday started well, the moth trap was out again and scored a hit in the form o f a single solitary, lone Hebrew Character - it might not have been a record breaking catch but it was very welcome none-the-less.

After breakfast we were back on the beach and once again we were enjoying glorious sunshine. Fewer gulls today but this crisp adult Lesser Black-Back took our fancy.

Up on the top of the cliffs a little later there was a bit of Meadow Pipit movement going on with a few other species thrown in for good measure bit this Pied Wagtail could be one of the local breeders.

A minute or two later a quick movement caught our eye. A small bird, obviously a warbler of some sort was making flycatching sorties off the top of the fence. Cautiously we approached and we thought that's nice a Willow Warbler, which was a first record for us along Chat Alley so we got some shots off.

Looks very Willow Warblery

 But when it flew in to the shadows down the cliff it then looked rather Chiffchaffy.

We couldn't decide which it might be so we put the pics out on the old social mediums. Interestingly the majority of respondents on Twitter went for Chiffchaff while the majority of those on Faceache plumbed for Willow Warbler - so that worked out well then! Hmm - we're still erring on the side of Willow Warbler - Thoughts anyone?

Easier to identify at the end of our walk was this stunning male Wheatear.

It was much better in the garden too as we had a few more invertebrates to enjoy. Along with the regular Drone Flies this chunky bright hoverfly was lurking in the shrubs behind the garage. 

A brief visit by this Small White was the first of the year in the garden.

If it's warm enough we do get fairly frequent visits from queen Tree Bees. This one was rescued from the sitting room floor and put outside on the Aubretia flowers where it took a few minutes to come round and start drinking some nectar.

Less welcome was a huge queen Wasp which fortunately took itself off in to the distance over the garage roof.

Bird-wise we had a fly-over Meadow Pipit - Big Wow!!! But there haven't been many over Base Camp so far this spring. Then we got an excited call from CR telling us another Osprey was coming our way and he'd just got some pics of it over his garden. As he was speaking he called out a Sparrowhawk also heading our way whcich did come over us unlike the Osprey which didn't unfortunately. 

With very cold temperatures forecast the moth trap wasn't set up on Thursday night. So it was off to the prom for walkies again after breakfast. A joyous sight met us as soon as we arrived in the form of the pair of Swallows that nested in the garden of one of the houses along the prom were back.

It was very calm for a change, so calm the sea was struggling to reach the shore.

At this time of year the last few flocks of Pink Footed Geese should be flying north west out to sea in the general direction of Iceland, these three were gong in the opposite direction, south east!

The garden held a bonus, our first record of Red Mason Bee. It was checking out our bee hotel too, so fingers crossed.

The moth trap was empty again on Saturday morning, so far this year mothing has been a dead loss and we really hope it picks up soon.  

Down at the coast we had our first Gannets of the year. A long way off shore but great to see. Hopefully there'll be some nearer ones before too long.

Over the past few days we've been putting out some of Monty's moulted dog hair and today was the day it was discovered, first by a Blue Tit

And then the local Great Tit pair come in for the left overs.

Nothing insecty in the garden in the cold wind despite the pleasant sunshine. 

Yet again there were no moths in the trap, it's quite worrying even though we know the strong wind and cold temperatures are very much to blame.

Back at the prom we did get a closer Gannet but muffed up the shot and what's that grey thing below it? Have we missed some blubber, a Grey Seal maybe?

A Little Egret going south at eye level was a nice surprise and a bonus bird for our 1 mile challenge. Our tally now stands at 40.

unlike the last Pink Footed Geese this skein was heading out in the right direction - Iceland here we come.

A while back we saw some Starlings on the cliff top but had no camera so had to make do with a grotty phone pic for our 1 mile bird blitz. Today we were able to better it at last.

Another Wheatear was sat where they often sit on the rocks at the bottom of the cliffs.

Nowt in't garden again so we amused ourselves with trying to get some pics of the Cowslips in the tub by the back door.

And what about that dip? Well remember at the top of the post we said that the easterly winds give us a good chance of finding a decent bird - it happened! Probably the best bird found along Chat Alley ever! But and here's the rub - we didn't find it... Gutted!!!
Good friend SD who was having a sneaky incursion into our Patch came across a stunning drake Redstart. He did put the news out straight away but guess which numpty didn't have their phone with them and didn't get the news until they got home a good hour later. S doesn't carry his camera on his exercise walks so here's his phone pic he's let us use. Cracking bird, had we had our phone and got the news we would have been right at the top end of our walk so it would have been a quick trek back - well as quick a trek as a dog that follows its nose every which way would allow - so would we have seen it or not???

So somewhat mixed results during Lockdown Week 4. Looking forward to what we'll find in Week 5 already.

There's some more pics from the week on our Flickr page too.

Where to next? More of the same few sites...hopefully there'll be plenty of interest to recant to you next time.

In the meantime let us know who's hanging around or passing through your restricted outback. 

Keep your distance - Stay Safe - Enjoy what nature has to offer

The third week of lockdown local wildlife safaris

The Safari has had a rather productive week despite being on Lockdown. Last week ended on a high too with our first ever spring record of a Rook flying over Base Camp, they are very infrequent in the autumn, usually tagging along with flocks of Jackdaws on passage.

An early morning visit to the prom last Monday gave us a distant flock of Eiders heading south and the day got better still when a Chiffchaff dropped into the Base Camp garden staying a while to have a  little bathe in our ornamental waterfall. That gave us just enough time to grab the camera and fire off a few shots through the increasingly dirty kitchen window - time for the mop, bucket and Windowlene. Number 32 on our 1 mile from home challenge which was a two week challenge but has now been extended to six weeks - we get the impression it might be expanded even further yet too.

It wasn't the only bird having a spruce up that day, a Blackbird was in there too.

The following day we were back in the park this time we'd taken the camera to see if we could get a pic of the local House Sparrows that hang around the perimeter of the field where it backs on to the neighbouring gardens. Crikey it took some doing they were either very flighty not allowing any sort of close approach or keeping hidden in the dense Ivy or thick twiggery of the bushes. It took several circuits to finalyy get one submitted to the SD card for #33.

On a further lap of  the fields we heard a commotion of Sparrowhawk yikkering coming from the Butterfly Zone. We headed over that way to see what all the racket was about only to find the pair mating in one of the Sycamores at the edge of the scrub but requiring a very tricky shot through plenty of intervening branches and twigs.

Flamin out of focus twigs!

Job done and off...

The female

Never seen that before and very lucky to witness we guess. 

Nearby Green Alkanet was flowering in a sunny glade

Bright sunshine, warm too, brought a Peacock to nectar on the Aubretias in the garden tubs. Our first and so far only butterfly pic this year.

The fine weather got us to thinking about doing a bit of gardening so out came the stout gloves and secateurs and we ventured into the Bramble-infested no-man's land behind the garage. Now Brambles aren't that bad and provide habitat and food for a humungous number of invertebrate species but in a very small garden it's easy to have too much of a good thing. While doing a bit of snipping we heard the gulls go up in alarm and looking up we saw about a dozen of them chasing an Osprey almost directly over our head, tantalisingly close to being a Garden Tick but at least we'd joined the Osprey-from-the-garden-during-Lockdown club. We dropped the secateurs and tried to remove our gloves as we sprinted back down to the kitchen where the camera lay waiting. Too late - by the time we'd grabbed it the Osprey as nowhere to be seen, obscured by all the neighbouring houses. We called CR but sadly he missed ti too. There's a moral here - if you go up to the furthest reaches of the garden take the flippin camera with you!!! A Blackcap was singing very close to Base Camp much of the day too but never ventured in to the garden.

That takes us to Thursday. Leaving Base Camp for the early morning quick dog walk we had a skein of about 90 Pink Footed Geese fly over us. Later, on the proper exercise/dog walk we heard or first  Coal Tit for a long time, singing away in the line of tall conifers by the water tower and further on in the park the Chiffchaff and Blackcap now seemed to be settled in the Butterfly Zone which incidentally is so far devoid of butterflies.

Base Camp's moth trap has been dire, a combination of the Super Moon, neighbouring high intensity security lights and severe local habitat destruction aka garden tidying has butchered the local moth populations. A tatty Hebrew Character was a welcome find but we're getting to the stage of How many kilowatt hours per moth!

The Super Moon - we were out too late to find it in all its pinky glowing glory

Good Friday was a good day on the prom early morning, out on the beach we came across a Green Leaf worm in a little puddle, not something you see ervyday and it soon buried itself in the soft sand. A few yards further on a recently deceased Lesser Spotted Catshark lay on the beach. Probably a victim of the anglers that are still out angling abeit in much smaller numbers than usual.

When we got up to the top of the cliffs at the furtheest point of our walk there was a bit of passage going on. We counted at least 35 Meadow Pipits and 21 Linnets going northwards, five Pink Footed Geese heading NW out to sea, got our first Swallow of the year, quite late we've ususally come across one in the earliest days of April rather than into the second week and a Blackbird was singing from a promenade rooftop - most unusual, the first we've heard along here in several years of 'treading the beat'.

Back at Base Camp several Nomad Bees were flying around and a Sparrowhawk soaring away to the north got the gulls going and our pulse racing again.

Easter Saturday started well with 50 Pink Footed Geese going north and a few minutes later we heard our first Willow Warbler of the year, which, like the Swallow, was quite late for us. We heard the conifer Coal Tit singing again and followed it up with a second this time in the big conifers in the park.

Most unexpected, although at migration time birders should always expect the unexpected, a pair of Shelducks flew towards the sea just east of the park - a Patch Tick!

In the garden a female Light Brown Apple Moth graced the trap and up to four Greenfinches graced the feeders.

Best sighting of the day was a female Orange Tip butterfly, really scarce here, flying through the gardens just round the corner on our very quick lunchtime dog-pee walk. In the afternoon another good sighting was had, a Red Mason Bee, a new species for the garden, was discovered when we ventured behind the garage to bash some Bramble again.

A Common Quaker and a large Crane Fly were in the moth trap on Easter Sunday.

And a review of the stealth-cam revealed the Hedgehog is still about if only an occasional visitor this week. we've repositioned the camera to see if we can get a better view of him for next time.

In other news the sunny week has given us lots of invertebrate photo opportunities at Base Camp - here's a selection of what we've seen.

Buffish Mining Bees - from the 'colony' at the corner of our street

Several Eristalis Drone Flies take up positions around the garden. We've not had a proper look at them but guess they'll be E. pertinax.

Some of our plant pots have more moss than plant!

In the latter half of the week Gooden's Nomad Bees became regular visitors but they're a nightmare to photograph as they just won't settle for more than the briefest moment - here's a few of the hundreds of pics we've tried to take of them.

Another good find in the 'Bee-line' was this Tawny Mining Bee sunning itself on the fence, a rare find in the garden.

While watching our first Zebra Spider of the year clamber about on the the trellis 

we spotted this tiny Hoverfly flitting around the flowers by our knee - no idea which species, one of the Sphaerophorias perhaps.

Where to next? More of the same - here's hoping the weather stays fine for daily Base Camp safaris and there's still the opportunity to take the dog for his walks round the park and occasional visits to the beach which he loves.

In the meantime let us know what's in your very much restricted outback. Stay Safe - Keep your distance!!!

The second week of safaris under Lockdown

The Safari like everyone else has been stuck at home. We have been able to walk the mutt around the local fields early morning but haven't taken the camera as yet. 

The days have been cold and windy but there has been some sunshine and in those sunny spells saw some Buzzard passage, we saw several but all too far away until the last one which came right over the garden not too high up.

Overhead Buzzards we like but overhead Ospreys are better. So far everyone and his uncle around here seem to have had one or more, some people or soooo greedy, over their gardens except for CR and ourselves. We've got a hotline between us in case one ofr the other hears the gulls making a racket but so far no joy but there's still time...

The sunshine also brought out some invertebrates including our first 7-Spot Ladybird of the year.

A check of the stealth-cam left out in the garden for 10 days gave us the hoped for Hedgehog. It appeared on several consecutive nights always around the same time - until the batteries died. Hopefully it'll have been recorded since we replaced the batteries but we won't know until we bring it in at the end of next week. In the meantime we'll try sneaking out to see if we can spot it for real.

Our morning walk to the park to give the mutt a run passes a garden with a little wild patch tucked in the corner obscured from the other side by some shrubbery. A couple of Violets have appeared, not sure which species as we can't reach them to have a look at the rear of the flower and pick out the leaves from the other plants growing there. Nice to see all the same.

But mostly we have been confined to the garden and towards the end of the week the weather warmed up enough to bring out some more invertebrates and on Sunday there was an explosion in the number of Eristalis Drone Fly hoverflies, one, I presume a male, held a territory perched on the laundry drying on the washing line. From there it would make sorties after other Drone Flies chasing them relentlessly if another male or mating in flight if a female - An action packed half hour and fascinating to watch until the sun went in and they all disappeared.

They weren't the only insects soaking up the rays. There were a few solitary bees about from the 'colony' in a neighbour's dry stone bank and a couple of these big black Flesh Flies.

The feeders have been fairly busy but we've not had many photo opportunities. These Goldfinches had to be snapped while sitting at our desk at the far end of the living room from the window.

We've had the usual feeder suspects, Great and Blue Tits, the latter investigating our recently erected bird box but only from the outside so far as we know, not sure they're entirely convinced it's the 'Des Res' they're after just yet. A pair of Greenfinches are regular visitors several times a day and a Robin has a quick in an out a couple of times a day and we still have occasional visitors from the female Blackbird that thinks it's a Blue Tit but we've not been able to get a better pic than last week's.

Less welcome is this chap.

A trip to the shop was combined with a dog walk on the beach at low tide and after a bit of breezy weather we had a couple of interesting finds; our first Sea Gooseberry of the year,

and a Wentle Trap Shell, these are pretty scarce along this section of beach, this is only the second we've found here in hundreds of hours wandering along the strandlines searching for anything a little out of the ordinary.

We'll leave you with Lord Snooty looking down his beak at us from his lofty perch atop next door's chimney pot.

Woodpigeon

Where to next? More of the locked down same from from the park, the occasional visit to the beach as shopping trips allow and loads from the garden we hope.

In the meantime let us know who's up and about in your locked down outback. Don't forget it's migration time and anything could appear anywhere so eyes to the skies folks - and wherever you are Stay Safe!