Which would win in a fight

The Safari didn't get to the coast this morning, too wet again and the wind had perhaps a smidgin too much north to make it worth while.

The garden was lively after we'd put some mealworms down. The Collared Doves still preferred the sunny seeds though and looked a bit bemused to find mostly mealies..

A Magpie showed much more interest in the worms and carried off beakfuls to its nest in the tall Poplar trees at the end of the street, inside the nest must be like being on a small galleon in a rough sea this week as the trees are really being shaken around in the wind.

Now when the two met at the feed tray what do you think was going to happen? We assumed  that the Magpie would take the lead and flush off the dove but no the Collared Dove drove off the Magpie, gave it really short shrift and forced it to linger around the fringes with its crown feathers raised like a Jay - one not very happy Magpie! Never realised Collared Doves were so fierce around food.

Taken through the double glazing

After all the garden shenanigans we got out and decided to go to look for some Dippers on a local river a little way inland. The usual riverside picnic spot was full to busting by the time we got there, nearly an hour to do 15 miles or so! We drove straight past and went to a much quieter section where we had the place more or less to ourselves apart from another birder who was watching the Pied and Grey Wagtails catching flies under the bridge.

He left and we wandered further down the stream, lovely it was just the sound of the water, which was very high after all the heavy rain we've had and going to make Dippering hard work, birdsong and the flippin motorway traffic only a mile away.

The laneside wildflowers were nice though, not many Blluebells down here but plenty of Ramsons aka Wild Garlic and some Red Campion starting to show now.

A cacophony of alarm calls caught our attention and we immediately thought eh-up Tawny Owl, excellent. We found a Blackbird chattering away and sure enough hidden in the Ivy not far away was the cause of all the attention - a female Sparrowhawk - dohhh...but worth a pic so we raised the camera and it flew off - dohhh.

A tree on the far side of the river had a large hole in to which a Jackdaw was peering in but it flew off. We hung around for ages waiting for it to come back but it didn't.

While waiting for the Jackdaw to return a Dipper flew swiftly along the river and round a bit of a bend out of sight which was our cue to go. It took a bit of persuasion to get Frank to his feet cos he'd walk a fair way, further than he's been for ages and had a bit of a paddle and swim in the river so he was pooped but he did get to his feet and toddled on. Rounding the bend there was the Dipper (150) stood on the only rock exposed above the waters in the middle of the stream.

We walked on and it walked into the water but fortunately came out again and remained on the rock for a few minutes as we got closer.

Still not quite close enough though but there was good bankside cover and we used it to good effect to get very close, it was now only a matter of a few metres away, cautiously we raised the camera when a couple of walkers dressed in the brightest garb you can imagine came by from the other direction and flushed it - dohhh...we didn't see it again.

We waited by the bridge in case it came back again but a horrendous rain shower came on and we gave up and dashed back to the Land Rover.

Where to go next? We had thought to go to a site where Garden Warblers are regularly found but with Frank pretty much bushed already that was now out. We made for a nearby former gravel quarry where we hoped to see Little Ringed Plover(s). we found plenty of Swifts and heard our first screamers of the season, plenty of Swallows and Sand Martins swooping low over the water too, but not many House Martins. The only waders present were a couple of pairs of Lapwings and a pair of Oystercatchers. Bird of the site was a Common Tern sat on a stone at the end of one of the muddy spits until a second came in from the canal calling and it rose to meet it but after a quick fly round the second bird flew back to the canal and the first went back to sitting on the pebble.

Time to move on again, this time to the flood near the nature reserve which despite all the recent rain was more or less dry and only a Shelduck and a Lapwing were there. An even quicker stop at the other flood produced even less but we could have missed stuff which SD found as he pulled in behind us as we left to go to the nature reserve.

At the reserve met met up with MJ in the hide who told us there wasn't a lot doing so after a few minutes chat we both called it a day and went off to our respective homes.

So a bit of a disappointing day but not really when you look more closely, we'd actually seen loads of good stuff.

Where to next? A bit of an eastwards adventure tomorrow morning...depending on the weather of course - don;t fancy yet another soaking.

In the meantime let us know who;s winning all the fights in your outback.

Dodging downpours

The Safari hasn't done any wildlifing today the wind and rain early on were horrendous so any thoughts of heading to the cliffs went straight out the window, instead we've been helping Wifey with a bit of gardening. She's been given some plants and tubs to plant them in so a trip to the garden centre was required to get some compost for them.

The drive there gave us some nice roadside plants, only Meadow Buttercup and Ox-eye Daisies for the most part but nice and bright all the same - no doubt some jobs-worth will have them mown down next week leaving soggy mounds of rotting cuttings on the grass...we really have to work harder to get the powers that be in our area to mow a lot lot less frequently to make sure the flowers set seed and the bees and other pollinators get a fair whack at them.

At the garden centre a Swift flew over and a flock of Rooks poked for grubs in the lawn, not often we get a good look at this rather commonplace species.

The rest of the day was spent watching the garden through rain soaked windows. The feeders have been very lively with stonking male Greenfinches visiting, not seen any females, a pair of Goldfinches and regular visits by our nesting Great Tits and the neighbour's Blue Tits. Not on the feeders was a bit of a skulking Dunnock which may have a nest in or near our Spirea bush.

There's a lot of noise coming from our Great Tits nesting in the House Sparrow terrace, also noisy are the House Sparrows under the eaves of the corner house, good to hear them but will they come our way when they fledge?

We've been eye-ing things up for this year's Garden Bioblitz at the end of the month, hope you'll join in too.

Where to next? really must get the camera out tomorrow but will the weather let us and where will we end up?

In the meantime let us know if it was any more profitable in your outback.

Slowest swifts in the world?

The Safari has at last seen a Swift (149). It was scything through the cold grey sky being buffeted by the blustery wind when we were out with Frank first thing this morning. we stood and watched as it carved its way through the air northwards without lingering; we just stood there with a smile on our face and a dog lead in hand mesmerised for a few moments, a tiny tear of uncontrollable joy welled up in the corner of our eye, soppy devil that we are - what is it about these things, Blackcaps sound beautiful, Swallows are super, Whimbrels are wonderful but Swifts are just simply special!

This one was a full 20 days later than our first last year although they have been 'in' locally for about a week.

As we left for work a lone House Martin flew along the street at speed heading due north, how we miss the chitterings of these around the eaves, one of THE sounds of our farming youth. Neither species was close enough to Base Camp airspace to go on the garden list. We will get Swift on the list but that could have been the nearest a House Martin will get this year, they've only been recorded in Base Camp airspace one year in the last four, 2011. House Martins are an enigma - apart from at their nests we don't know that much about them and especially at their wintering grounds wherever in sub- Saharan Africa they might be!

A pair of Grey Lag Geese flew over as we left too and these did make our airspace (Garden #27)

Patch 2 on the dropping tide and in very windy conditions gave us very little, just a few distant terns and a couple of very distant Gannets.

At lunchtime the wind didn't seem quite so bad and it felt more like March than February now the sun had come out. A steady procession of Gannets came by, probably approaching 100 altogether while a single drake  Common Scoter bobbed around on the heavy sea just behind the surf. Some of the Gannets weren't far beyond him either, close enough to see their yellow heads which is rarely the case here.

 Smatterings of Manx Shearwaters passed by sometimes northwards and sometimes southbound so we couldn't tell you if we were double counting or not, one was really close in and offered find views as it effortlessly cruised by with barely a flicker of the wings - a masterclass in technical gliding! Like Swifts there is something magical almost mythical about Manxies.

Another Swift appeared on our teatime walk with Frank and this one might well have sped into a roof space they were using last year cos we certainly didn't see it reappear over the roof tops nor did it double back. The local House Sparrows in the roof on the opposite corner of the street have chick too, the noise of begging when dad perched up before diving under the tiles was quite something!

So not a bad day after all but still no skuas or Little Terns - one of the later turned up AGAIN at the nature reserve, none for 21 years (as far as we know) and then two on consecutive days! And an Arctic Tern there too...what will be there when we head over that way on Sunday...not a lot probably but you never know!

Where to next? Got a few days off but can't decide if where to go early doors tomorrow morning, coast or inland or just stay in bed...we'll see what the weather is up to and then decide. But do we twitch the local Turkey Vulture 'just in case'?

In the meantime let us know what's brought a little tear to your eye in your outback - and don't say hay-fever!

Back on the golden sands again

The Safari was out on Patch 2 this morning but there wasn't really much happening apart from about a dozen Arctic Terns and a small number of Sandwich Terns blogging about to the north.

Once the preliminaries were over it was on to the main event - the other half of Yr 2.

The wind had died to npothing and although it was cooler than yesterday it was far more pleasant on the beach.

It wasn't long before sharp eyes were gleaning the sands for wildlife treasure.

OK so they couldn't refind the Scale Worm but large Green Shore Crabs were disentangled gently the from the nets. A few Common Prawns of extraordinary size were netted as were some super sized Brown Shrimps. The Edible Whelk's eggs picked off the top of the sandbank gave us several Speckled Sea Lice once placed in the water.

All exciting stuff!

It's a juvenile Green Shore Crab she's showing her friend

One of the teachers knows the best places to find Common Sand Stars and didn't disappoint this class with several small ones found.

 Literally handfuls of different shells were collected.

At the end of the session all the live creatures had to be returned to their hiding places, this Green Shore Crab was intent on wreaking some serious revenge on the kiddies before scuttling off to wait for the tide to come in.

Never noticed the dimorphic (is that the right word?) pincers before...how'd that happen. Checking a few google pics it's not unusual, normal even; we'll be looking more closely from now on and pointing it out to our pupils.

We're already looking forward to this school's visit next year.

It seems we drove UNDERNEATH a flock of Swifts on the way back to Base Camp - arrrggghhh - and didn't see any swooping low of the park lake as we drove past there in the rain either!
Where to next? Got a beach clean to do tomorrow so there may well be sometjing to find on the beach again. and then there's the small matter of something Mr PW has found that we really hope sticks around until the weekend - we can feel a twitch coming on!
In the meantime let us know what's been sneakily dimorphic in your outback

Malmgreniella lunulata

The Safari was able to get out on to Patch 2 this morning and the wind was pretty strong so we were hopeful that something interesting might have been blown in.

Sadly there wasn't a lot. A clutch of Common Terns were being blown about and weren't fishing  and a few Gannets came past quite close in with more especially immature birds further out. Three Manx Shearwaters swooped through the heavy chop, always good to see these ocean wanderers. We were hoping for Little Terns and Pomarine Skuas but there was no sign of either unfortunately and we still couldn't find a Swift!

Mid-morning our school group turned up and we soon had them in their wellies and over on the beach exploring, this school is from the Midlands and some of the children had never seen the sea before. To say they were excited is a big understatement!

It wasn't long before all manner of Cockles, Mussels and Periwinkles were placed in their pots. A huge recently moulted Green Shore Crab along with its shed carapace.

Pod Razors, Banded Wedge Shells ans large Common Otter Shells were found along with chunky fragments of Iceland Cyprine until one small hand pulled out a complete one (well at least a complete half of one).

More Green Shore Crabs were winkled out of their hidey-holes but we couldn't find any Common Prawns or Brown Shrimps.

One of the teachers clambered rather naughtily clambered up the wall to investigate the higher pools and came back down to earth with several Common Sand Stars, always popular with the kids. We managed to find them an open Beadlet Anemone wafting its tentacles in the water being blown around in the stiff breeze.

A tiny Sea Urchin shell was found the smallest we've ever seen, rather flat and only about seven or eight mil across, never seen one like that before. Also never seen before was a small worm found by teach on the underside of a rock lifted while searching for Blennies. We think it's one of these but we could easily be wrong. The look of it and habitat seem about right though. No we'd never heard of it until we looked it up either!

Still no Swifts!

Once back at Base Camp we learned that there'd been a Little Tern at the nature reserve which we think will be only the sixth record there since the 1950s unless we've missed any in the last few years. A cracking find for someone.

Where to next? Back on the beach with the second part of the same school, what will they find???

In the meantime let us know what's almost unidentifiable in your outback.

Bioblitzed

The Safari was invited to help out are the Zoo's first ever Bioblitz under the banner 'find the natives that live among the exotics'. 

The event was organised by the Zoo's education officer LS in two parts an evening of invited guests to tour the zoo at night flollowed by an early morning then opening the events up to the public when the zoo was open for business. 

We arrived at 21.00 and put up the moth trap before heading off armed with nets buckets and bat detectors. Bats, amphibians and nocturnal invertebrates were searched out. Amphibians were hard to come by apart from a small Smooth Newt, bats were a bit better with several hits on the detector from Noctules, not a species we find often in town. Pipistrelles were all over the place and Daubenton's Bats hawked insects over the moat around Gorilla Island.

A wander over to the Dinosaur safari gave us no amphibians in a likely looking pool but the ornamental rock arches gave us several species of spiders including this one no-one in the group had seen before

Apologies for the camera shake, it was dark in there!

Back at the moth trap it was pretty dire with no activity around the light at all. Weird cos it was quite mild and there wasn't a breath of wind. The others set off to place some small mammal traps down while we stayed at the motthy just in case it livened up - it didn't. A Tawny Owl (148) called from the woodland garden the wrong side of the fence so couldn't be counted.

We got back to Base Camp and dropped in to our pit at 00.15 and was rudely woken by Frank not long enough after at 05.45 = not enough sleep!

Back at the zoo the moth trap took no time at all to empty, just a dead Light Brown Apple Moth, a Hebrew Character, a Double Striped Pug and several of these unknown Caddis Flies.

The mammal traps had been unsuccessful except for sadly killing a Common Shrew, not good but at least we had the little body to show the families. A mix of real experts had joined the team for the daytime session including an entomologist, a lichenologist (is there such a word) and a botanist. with these guys on board the Bioblitz list started to shoot up as we wandered around having a look in the public and some out of bounds areas including along the narrow gauge railway track. Scarce and even rare local species were added to the list. Just shows what there is to find when you take the time to look.

In the children's wildlife area when a pair of crazy ducks ruled the roost one of tthe raised beds of herbs and bee friendly plants had a Bird's Eye Primrose...how  had that got there? A garden variety that had reverted to a more natural type, in the seed mix - unlikely??? or in the seedbank - oh yeah??? Go one what do you reckon?

Looks like there's a Buttercup Leaf Miner in the pic there too

The wildlife education area gave the children the opportunity to make bird feeders out of huge Pine cones, bee houses and all manner of other goodies, the Pine feeders were hung on the fence under a nest box housing a family of Blue Tits. An as yet unused Tawny Owl box was in a nearby tree.

The pond dipping session in the Dinosaur Safari again was good with loads of Frog tadpoles and Summer Mayfly larvae. We discovered why there might have been no newts last night, the waterfall pump was now running and a deluge fell in to the pond from on high.

AB found a huge Drinker moth caterpillar floating in the Dinosaur lake and fortunately it was close enough to be rescued and proved very popular with lots of people having a little hold of it before it was released safely well away from the water.

We had to leave for an appointment at half time but even then the species list was around the 250 - 300 mark, what a shame we didn't get a lot more moths. Through the afternoon we got a few updates from AB including news of the first (as far as we know) Larch Ladybird for the Fylde.

Not sure what the final species tally will be but probably approaching 450 maybe even 500 species!
Many thanks to LS for organising everything and helping add a considerable amount of knowledge to the local and County databases.

Can't tell you what the appointment was about but it was a great laugh and we'll be able to give you more news in due course.

Today we didn't get a chance to look at the sea which was a bit annoying as Little Terns and Pomarine Skuas are on the move locally.
Then news came in that Wheatears and yet another Whinchat were at the nature reserve but we hadd a meeting all morning. That meeting was at an office near Base Camp  meaning we had to go past the nature reserve to get there which was lucky...after the meeting it was nearly lunchtime and we had a quick sprint round the wetland and soon found the Whinchat (MMLNR #83) but not the Wheatears. On the drive there we saw our first Holly Blue of the year high over the road near the hospital.

No chance of a look at the sea during a very much time reduced lunchtime.

At Base Camp it was lovely and warm when we got back and we found a moribund Tree Bee, on closer inspection it was deceased but had no wings...fallen off or a mutant that was 'removed' from the nest by the other workers.

Still no Swifts for us!!!

Where to next? Back on the beach with our reguar gang of kids from the Midlands tomorrow - what we'll their little eyes find for us?

In the meantime let us know how much is deceased in your outback.

Not a lot today, got a busy night coming up

The Safari emptied a rather wet and soggy moth trap this morning to find yet more Hebrew Characters lurking inside.

They might be common and widespread but that doesn't stop them being a rather bonny moff.

This was first Light Brown Apple Moth trapped this year, we've disturbed one from long grass on Patch 1 a week or so ago.

A proper first for the year was found in the form of just  one Shuttle Shaped Dart, there's bound to be more!

A carpet type thingy escaped, possibly a Common or Garden Carpet - haha see what we did there?

Later a walk to Magpie Wood gave us a Chiffchaff singing from the park we used to be able to wander round with him and a blob on one of the ledges on the tower. It appeared to be hunkered down quite low and our first impression was of a sitting Peregrine, rather hopeful perhaps as we didn't have any optics with us and it is rather high up.

We tried to get turn Frank round quickly to get him back to Base Camp so we could grab the scope and nip back in the Land Rover - didn't work he wasn't for going anywhere quickly. He led us down the hedge lined ginnel alongside the Golden Triangle which rang with bird song, Chaffinch, Robin, Dunnock, Greenfinch, Wren, Blackbird all piped up and then we heard a Garden Warbler (147) - Bingo a real local rarity! Well done to Frank for dawdling!!!

We txtd CR to see if he could see the 'Peregrine' from home, he could but couldn't make anything out, a bit too far away. We got back to Base Camp eventually put the scope and Frank in the Land Rover and whizzed back round - the ledge was empty flippin thing had gone! Obviously not sitting on eggs then!

Not much happening in the drizzly garden in which we've done a bit of prep work for something special tomorrow. But before then we've the small matter of the very first Blackpool Zoo Bioblitz to attend and set up our moth trap and torch for amphibians in the moats around the enclosures...NO Elephants, Lions and Giraffes won't we going on the list!!!

We'll be back in the morning too looking for bugs, birds and wildflowers.

Where to next? Lets go bioblitzing!
In the meantime let us know what's lurking on a ledge in your outback