Scuppered by the weather yet again!

The Safari had news that there were still two birds present Over Wyre that we could do with for our Challenge tally. It was a pretty miserable morning as we set off but thankfully dried up on route. We gave t'mutt a quick 'pit-stop' on the way at Lane Ends. On the meadow area the Cowslips were looking wonderful with their dripping wet foliage.

On the marshes there was a small flock of Pink Footed Geese right close to the car park.

They looked a bit flighty so we kept t'mutt well away and let them settle back down with the intention of coming back to them a bit later.

There's always one on watch but the others weren't bothered by us snapping away. Way further out on the marsh a huge flock of over a thousand Pink Footed Geese got up, the light was excellent but no matter how many times we scanned through them while they were in the air we couldn't find any odd-ones-out, like maybe a Brent Goose or a Barnacle Goose.

Anyways geese undisturbed and dog 'pit-stopped' off we went to our main destination. We pulled up at the screen at Conder Pool to see a group of birders looking across the road towards the river. They had one of our target species in their sights, the Spotted Redshank, #129 for our Challenge.

It was fairly distant and we hoped it would come nearer especially when it crossed the river to the far bank, but it had other ideas and wandered round the loop and out of view. Rude!
Never mind though there was a second target to look for and there could be other birds to enjoy, the group had seen a Barn Owl quartering the pool not long before we arrived but that was now nowhere to be found. They were particularly keen to see the Little Ringed Plovers that had been reported, as were we, but between us we could only find a single 'ordinary' Ringed Plover and there wasn't much else in the offing. They'd have liked to have seen one of the recently reported Mediterranean Gulls too but we couldn't find one among the flock of Black Headed Gulls roosting on the pool. After a while they left and guess what - yes the Little Ringed Plover appeared, only minutes after their car had gone round the corner so we couldn't flag them down. Excuse the really duff quality - for some reason we never seem to be able to get a good pic of this species, never mind good, a slight improvement on this rubbish would be more than welcome. Poor or not it is identifiable so comes in at #130.

We potter round the lanes back to the main road didn't give us anything to write home about so back to Base camp it was.

For our next safari we were hoping to get up to south Cumbria to enjoy some reptiles last but once again the weather had other ideas; cold wet n windy does not a productive reptilian safari make! An alternative venue had to be chosen, but where? Leighton Moss was a potential venue particularly as Green Woodpeckers had been showing very well and we've not seen one there since at least the early 90s and probably quite a bit longer! But with all the rain how much of the site was going to be inaccessible to CR who has no wellies? Pennington Flash was also touted but again there are some very wet and muddy paths to negotiate there so it was a very last minute decision to go back to the old stalwart Martin Mere where almost all the paths are paved and the others mostly well drained.

Fortunately the rain eased as CR pointed the car southwards over the river and although there was no sun it was quite bright when we arrived in the Discovery Hide. We sat in our usual place but the cold wind was howling throu the windows and the birds mostly to our left. We had a quick scan and found an adult Mediterranean Gull sat on the crest of one the mid-range islands but decided against a pic. We moved down to the left hand wing of the hide where some food must have been put out as there were lots of Black Tailed Godwits feeding on the bank. This part of the hide was at a slightly different angle to the wind making it far more comfortable here to the windows to get some pics.

The Black Tailed Godwits were looking resplendant moulting into their breeding plumage, some more advanced than others.

And we could still see that Mediterranean Gull although from our revised position in the hide it was now a few feet further away.

As much as we were enjoying the gorgeous Black Tailed Godwits there's a limit to how many portraits you can/should take of them so we ventured forth heading for the Feeding Station. The Nature Trail had some temporary info signs about some of the wildlfowers to be found along the way like these Primroses, no Bee Flies on them today, far too cold and windy.

It was almost devoid of birds so we didn't stay long, we learned later that a Sparrowhawk had been visiting so the dicky birds were not surprisingly been cautious and staying in cover. Onward to the Harrier Hide where Grey Lag Geese were more or less the only birds on offer so on we went again and onto the 'new' part of the reserve, passing a very loud Cetti's Warbler by the bridges but as usual for us it wouldn't show itself. The first pool was deserted as most of the birds were away in the distance so once more we were on the move and passed two more unseen but very loud Cetti's Warblers. From the next hide a pair of Stonechats briefly gave some closer interest but all the action looked like it was going to be best viewed from the furthest hide. And it was. The small group of Avocets were good to see close up rather than black and white dots in the distance.

Some of them were hanging around a small island

A pair of Black Headed Gulls had ideas of nesting on there and weren't happy about the stripey intruders

This pool has a very tall anti-predator fence around it to keep (especially) Foxes off the ground nesting birds' breeding area, it also has spikes placed on the top of the posts nearest the water areas to keep Carrion Crows and other predatory birds from using them as a look out for nests to raid. A Buzzard to our left hadn't taken the hint.

It perched rather precariously, or should that be well practicedly, on the spikes scanning both sides for a bite to eat.

It dived down on both sides of the fence, for now content with beetles or worms, we couldn't see what it was picking up from the long grass but as it was only down for a seconfd or so it probably wasn't taking Short Tailed Field Voles.

By now butties were beckoning and they were in the boot (trunk - for our American readers) of the car on the car park...It was going to be a quick and hungry sprint back. However we were side-swiped in our haste first by some Roe Deer footprints in the mud along the track.

and then by two recently predated eggs at the side of the track, hence the need for those spikes on the fence posts to protect the ground nesters.

Pockets now laden with pies, butties and a hot flask we went back to the Discovery Hide where birders just leaving put us onto a much closer pair of Mediterranean Gulls.

One of which was a second summer bird as told by the black in the wingtips.

It wasn't particularly happy with any of the Black Headed Gulls coming too close to its mate and spent much of the time chasing them away of preventing them from landing nearby.

There were still plenty of Black Tailed Godwits to enjoy

but once again we succumbed to taking regular portrait pics

It was time to try to get them in a more interesting, action-packed pose...that turned out not to be so easy. Although they were quite active getting one doing something a bit different while not being obscured by its compadres proved tricky. Probing pics were the easiest

But getting them with a morsel in their bill was much more difficult

One was spottedd by CR having a drink at the water's edge made for a much more dynamic shot at last

We even tried some flight shots but with the wind really in the wrong direction they appeared too far too our right we didn't get much time for the camera to lock on to them before they hit the ground. They were slightly easier when landing on the island a few yards off the water's edge.

Eventually we got one landing on the bank in front of us - you don't want to know how many failed shots we deleted...

Shots like this would have been a lot easier with the 18-300mm lens, which obviously we hadn't brought with us.

After having our fill of both godwits and butties we moved on to have a shuffy round the other part of the reserve. Outside one of the small hides CR's practiced eyes spotted a shieldbug (he's got a couple of Green Shieldbugs in his garden), once back home he identified it as a Birch Shieldbug, a new species for us. A great find especially as the weather was keeping invertebrates well and truly off the menu.

There had been reports of vast numbers of Cattle Egrets frequenting the reserve in recent days and some of the pics on social media had them showing very well, right in front of the hide in many cases.We soon found one but far far away...just our luck, but still great to see.

The closer field now had one of the bulls and a couple of bullocks in it but the egrets weren't for hanging around them, more;s the pity.

The big fella was acting like a modern day Auroch crashing his way through the thickest bits of the vegetation, he's a big fella, weighing in at almost a ton, but Aurochs could grow to about half as big again, they must have been a very impressive and fearsome beast, shame they were driven to extinction.

His two friends still have quite a bit of growing to do.

After a while more Cattle Egrets began to show themselves, our highest count was 15 of which six are in this shot.

There were four of the 15 well to the right of us on the far bank of the big ditch running in front of us. Two of whom were making their way slowly but surely towards us poking here and there in the poached ground and through the cow pats for whatever they could find. 15 Cattle Egrets is the most we've ever seen together in Britain, by 11!

We hoped they'd come all the way to ther bridge in front of us but sadly they turned back a couple of tens of yards short of there. Annoying but at least they were a little bit closer.

A flock of Jackdaws appeared

and one of their number jumped on the back of one of the bullocks to pull some hair for its nest but we missed the shot...dohhhh

Almost all the Cattle Egrets eventually disappeared into the long grass around the cattle leaving just a couple in view, thankfully one of those did the decent thing and hopped up, just like they're supposed too...happy days.

 

Time was running out now but still enough left for another look at the Black Tailed Godwits. The soundtrack of the day was the Black Headed Gulls, not quite as cacophonous as at Leighton Moss last week but getting there. Rather than doing what we should have done and got some courting display and aggressive interactions shots we went for 'boring we've got plenty already' flight shots - don't ask cos we don't know but a bit of practice is never a bad thing.

As for the godwits well we got yet more standard portrait shots, as if we don't have enough of those.

Then we started to notice quite a few of them were starting to bicker with one another and short fights were breaking out. Getting a shot wasn't easy; by the time you'd heard the squabblng calls and located the protagonists they'd settled their differences and moved on. The trick was to look for two walking in opposite directions head down looking for food and on a collision course. And it paid off...

At last something a bit different for a change.

And then we realised we hadn't photgraphed any ducks all day. What was around, plenty of Shelducks of course.

And a few Mallards including this sleepy female.

We'll leave you with another shot of the Black Tailed Godwits just in case you've not had your fill of them yet, and well they are lovely at this time of year.

So a grand day out at a last minute impromptu change of venue but no new species added to our Challenge tally - Darn those elusive Cetti's Warblers!

Where to next? We've got a couple of local safaris lined up for you but will we be able to add to our Challenge total...

In the meantime let us know who's looking gorgeous in your outback

The best laid plans scuppered by the weather again

The Safari was up at Leighton Moss with CR again after a weather induced decision took us away from our prefered venture into south Cumbria where we had hoped to fettle out some scaly things. The weather forecast had other ideas though and told us to expect wintery showers thick and fast throughout the day. So change of venue it was and not to worry as Leighton Moss had a pair of Garganey recently arrived and the prospect of smaller arrivals in the form of Willow Warblers and Blackcaps to look forward to as well as the possibility of an Osprey going over and the resident Bitterns, Cetti's Warblers and Bearded Tits and maybe even a Jay (no chance!) to add to our Challenge tally.

News on the street was that the Garganey were at the Grisedale hide so that's where we set off for first. Once at the hide we learnt we'd arrived about half an hour after an Osprey had passed through...would there be another one later?????. But there was no sign of the Garganey. In fact there wasn't much sign of anything although to be fair Cetti's Warblers taunted and teased us by signing from invisible locations and Bitterns boomed similarly invisibly. The light was atrocious too, those regular showers didn't materialise and we had bright sunshine all morning making viewing  in to the light awkward and uncomfortable at times with the glare off the water. Then something unseen flushed a small group of Teal from the left which flew across in front of the hide and landed away to the right, but following them, swimming rather than flying, was the pair of Garganey. Why the shout hadn't gone up from the left hand side of the hide we don't know but they were getting to the point of no return into the bad light when we picked them up and spread the word.

They sailed passed us and settled in a really bad patch of glare, impossible to get any more pics. #128.

A quick look from Tim Jackson Hide wasn't up to much so we opted to head for the causeway and break open the butty box there passing through Lillian's Hide on the way. Again there wasn't too much to be had at Lillian's and looking anywhere right of straight out was difficult due to the glare, we tried to look through the diving duck flock to see if the female Ring Necked Duck was still present but to be honest it was hard enough to tell Pochards from Tufted Ducks the light was that bad. 

As usual while we're on safari we keep a tally of Egrets v Herons. By now Egrets had a slight upper hand by now but for a change Herons weren't going to beaten easily today although they are hard to keep a track of as they move around a bit and accidental double counting can easily come into play. With not much to aim the camera at here and Heron's being big and slow we tried a bit of BiF photography, one day we hope to get the hang of it!

A bit nearer were a few Black Headed Gulls coming and going from the nesting platforms put out for the Common Terns.

Away in the distance and sitting alone, all Billy No Mates, was our friend the Cinnamon Teal x Shoveler hybrid. We thought we'd seen him earlier at the Tim Jackson hide but that must have just been a moulty normal Shoveler showing a large white facial crescent.

Bitterns boomed and Cetti's Warblers cettied but still unseen. Distant Marsh Harriers harried the ducks in the pools at the back side of the reedbed but nothing was really close to keep us entertained to we moved on, those butties now trying to break out of the box! The walk to the Causeway Hide past the wooded area didn't provide any Siskins as it had on recent visits and nor were there any fresh-in Blackcaps or Willow Warblers. We were hoping for a butterly or some solitary bees too but despite the sunshine neither were on the wing. From the Causeway Hide we could see the water level had dropped a bit since our last visit but was still a good bit higher than normal. Small numbers of Tufted Ducks and Pochard were the main event.

Again the walk through the woods down to Lower Hide was disappointingly quiet, no longer being allowed to chuck bird seed down willy-nilly has meant you're not being accosted by Robins and Great Tits for a free hand-out but has made the bird life in the woods much harder to find. And the 'Jay field' was devoid of Jays, no change there then! 

From Lower Hide we heard yet more booming Bitterns and even more singing Cetti's Warblers, one was right outside the back of the hide but whenever it struck up and we poked our head out of the window or door it was nowhere to be seen.It comes to something when you're reduced to taking pics of immature Mute Swans sailing by, there wasn't much else to see never mind point the camera at; no amount of willing got a Bittern to come to the edge of the reedbed.

It was that bad we were reduced to aiming at a small clump of Marsh Marigolds in front of the hide.

We were about to leave when the first of the day's showers struck. We stayed put and waited for the Sand Martins to drop out of the sky - none did! The rain didn't last long and now that our butty boxes were empty we set off back towards the Garganeys. The woods were still quiet, no Willow Warblers nor Blackcaps had arrived. But just as we got back to the Causeway a Blackcap briefly sang a few notes, good to get one on the day list but no chance of a pic of it in the dense Blackthorn thicket. The Causeway hide was full to busting so we went straight through even though there were point blank Tufted Ducks in nice light right outside the window. A quick look from the screen outside the far door gave us a consolation not too distant drake Pochard.

Along the causeway a male Marsh Harrier began to come into range but veered away rather than posing for pics, we did get our first (and only as it happens) Water Rail of day, sqealing from the reeds to our left. A brief stop at the feeders had a camera-shy pair of Bullfinches and a brief view of a Treecreeper but not much else. Continuing directly to the Grisedale Hide we passed a singing Chiffchaff along the path just past the visitor centre.

On reaching the Grisedale Hide the light wwas better than earlier, or at least not so much in your face, hard right was harsh light. But there was a bit more activity. A couple of Marsh Harriers cruised around

Grey Lag Geese noisily came and went

And in theafternoon sunshine the Teal looked particularly splendid.

The males are easy to appreciate with their colourful heads with the gold pencil lines and their filigree vermiculated flanks but the females are also striking in a more subtle way with spots and speckles in a multitude of hues of brown and cream.

The Osprey nesting tower has once again been taken over by one of the resident pairs of Great Black Backed Gulls - woe betide any Osprey that tries to displace them! It might be wise for the reserve to cover the the platform until the Ospreys start to arrive in numbers but even then there's no guarantee the gulls wouldn't get there first. Both, however, are Amber Listed in the UK although the Great Black backed Gull population is about 15,000 pairs compared to only 250 pairs of Ospreys, the latter are rapidly increasing while the gulls are just about stable with maybe a slight increase in recent years.

Meanwhile a female Marsh Harrier refused to do the decent thing and come close.

We always like to get a pic or two of the Gadwall but today although there were several about they weren't for showing particularly well. Still it's always good to admire their vermiculations

A splendiferous drake Teal came by and had a little preen and wash n brush up

Before hauling out in a patch of reeds and settling settling down for a nap

Grey Lag Geese continued to go back and forth while the crowd in the hide waited for the garganeys to reappear - word was they were far to the right in a little bay behind a small bush but also in very glary light so spotting them was really tricky.

Eventually, we think by fluke, we spotted the Garganey coming out from behind the tree and managed to get most folks on to them although views weren't that great. After a few minutes they did the decent thing and started swimming across the pool in our direction giving most people much better views though often obscured in the cut reeds.

They swam a little firther our way but stopped short of passing in front of the hide where they would have been in much much better light.

The pair began to pick flies that must have been hatching both off the water's surface and the vegetation.

Great to see them, somehow we didn't come across them at all last year.

We left them to the rest of the crowd, without about an hour of our time there remaining we thought we'd have a look at the saltmarsh pools. We successfully traversed the very pot-holed track without losing an exhaust pipe or wheel for a shuffy. At the Allen Pool there wasn't a lot to shuffy at but we did pick out a gorgeous adult Mediterranean Gull from the throng of Black Headed Gulls. If our soundtrack at the Moss was the booming of the Bitterns here it was the cacophony of the Black Headed Gulls, there'll be no break in their noise for the next three months - a constant 24/7 barrage of strident sound. The Med Gull was very rude and went and sat on the furthest island from us so no way we could get a pic and it must have snuck off while our attention was focused on whatever else was on the pool cos when a family of young birders came into the hide we couldn't re-find it for them.

From the hide we could see many more birds over the embankment and better viewed from the Eric Morecambe Hide so off we went. There we found lots of Redshank, including this one having a good old bathe.

One swimming

And several mooching around looking for a bite to eat

Birders with scopes found a Peregrine sat on a fence post miles away and we found a couple of Goosanders tucked under the bank of the furthest pool but it was the  that were the main reason for us to brave the track from hell. There were plenty about but none particularly close and they were scattered all across the marsh in small groups. These were about the nearest

And were joined by a couple of others from further away across the pool.

There were some on the nearest vegetated island that appeared to be feeding, on what exactly???

A large flcok of Black Tailed Godwits in the middle of the pool was disturbed by something unseen, or they had just managed to frighten themselves, but once in the air it broke up into smaller groups ansd a couple of them landed quite close. Great to see them attaining their brick red summer plumage.

We were told of a Green Winged Teal that had been seen earlier but hadn't been seen since a passing Marsh Harrier had spooked everything. We failed to find it, there's more than plenty of places it could have been hiding. There'd been a second Mediterranean Gull earlier too but we still couldn't find the one we'd originally seen from the Allen Hide.

Then all to soon it was time to brave the Bank Holiday traffic and head back to Base Camp. We needn't have worried the traffic going our way wasn't too bad but we certainly wouldn't have fancied being stuck in the miles of dead slow tail back heading up to the Lake District or Scotland.

Back at Base Camp we've been keeping an eye on the local birds, here's one half of one of the two local pairs of Dunnocks that came for easy pickings while we had taken a break from topping up the feeders and left them stood on the potting bench/moth trap table at the bottom of the garden.

We've got about three dozen House Sparrows eating us out of house n home. They must have been enjoying having a dust bath as the ground has been absolutely saturated for months - breaking news...it didn't last long, yet more persistant heavy rain has saturated the ground again.

Then our phone pinged a WhattsApp message about three Red Kites heading south a few miles away...with the wind direction they could well come our way so we went and stood in the garden waiting for the rooftop Herring Gulls to go ballistic and let us know they were on their way. In the meantime we took some gull shots to get the camera settings right and practice panning and focussing n stuff and fluked this Lesser Black Backed Gull going over the garden. They're outnumbered hundreds to one by the Herring Gulls here still.

Almost two hours we waited, camera poised for an instant strike but to no avail; the Red Kites didn't materialise.

We'll leave you with last week's pic of the Sandwich Tern we told you we wouldn't post cos it was so dire...you can judge for yourselves.

 

Where to next? Hopefully the weather will improve and we'll get out on safari and find something that isn't birds for a change.

In the meantime let us know what the soundtrack of your outback is.