Well if you're not using the seat I will

The Safari was driving up the hill we saw a blob on the tower so turned into the street and pulled up in the alleyway to see it was a nice male Kestrel not a Peregrine, they seem to have abandoned the tower now we’ve not seen one up there for many months. It was eating a bird as we could see feathers falling. Nearby on the grass there was a pile of feathers very close to the row of tall conifers but given the location they were perhaps more Sparrowhawk plucky than from the Kestrel’s kill. Not the Peregrine but still a good find for Patch 1 they’re not particularly regular over this way.

The sea didn’t look that promising for a Patch 2 look as we drove down the Prom, the tide was well out and the sea very lumpy in the strong cold wind. We gave it a go all the same and were rewarded with a handsome adult Yellow Legged Gull wandering around on the sand with a few Herring and Lesser Black Backed Gulls looking for whatever tasty morsels the tide had left behind. We got to wondering if it was the same individual that we saw a few years ago during the National Whale & Dolphin Watch in the town centre http://lalows.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/duck-broken-sort-of.html

A few Manx Shearwaters passed by in the middle distance, then half a dozen more really close in only a few yards behind the surf, it’s not often we see them that close. A Gannet cruised by and as we were scanning back to see if there were any more in the direction it had come from  we picked up and all dark long winged bird coming towards us again only a few yards behind the surf. Splendid views of an immature Arctic Skua were enjoyed as it came slowly northbound past us. Once again it’s not often we see that that close in.

Lunchtime was disappointingly poor by comparison with barely anything other than a few Herring Gulls seen. We went out again at tea-time before our Beaver group arrived and were rewarded with five Gannets fishing very actively close in shore and not far to the south. Fantastic it was watching them stoop and dive into very shallow water; sadly it was too choppy to see if they brought anything to the surface. We counted how long it took between entering the water and popping back up again. Not unsurprisingly most dives were over in a matter of seconds seeing as how shallow the water was but a few were around 10 seconds and the longest 15 seconds with the bird reappearing quite a way from where it entered the water so must have had quite a chase to catch its fish, maybe it didn’t. After a good 20 minutes of intense feeding their dives became more infrequent and irregular before they all drifted away into the distance over the silvery sea.

The Beavers came and ransacked the pond, finding another Darter dragonfly nymph a little smaller than yesterdays. There were a lot of snails but not a lot else, the cold spring really has slowed the pond life down this year there should be much more in there. The mini-beast hunts were poor compared to yesterday too. Yesterday we got sunburnt arms from being in the field with the children all day, today we could have done with a thicker jumper and a woolly hat – it was freezing! At least the rain had stopped before they arrived but finding bugs other than Woodlice and Pill Bugs was difficult. Another fairly large spider was potted and again several of the youngsters were brave enough to have her crawl on their hands while their leaders ran for cover!

The earlier rain had brought lots of Garden Snails out of hiding so a good old fashioned snail race was enjoyed.  

Here's a few pic from the work's garden

Fox & cubs

Ox-eye Daisies, Creeping Buttercups, Perennial Cornflower, Fox & cubs

Viper's Bugloss

White Campion

Merodon equestris - we've not seen this all dark form before

Chrysotoxum festivum - perhaps

Where to next? More Patch 2 dolphin hoping tomorrow, apparently there's about 50 out there,
In the meantime let us know who's sitting in whose seat in your outback

Non-stop safari-ing

The Safari has had a hectic start to the week with young Beavers coming to visit and a school group all day today. More Brownies tomorrow evening - can our ears survive the strain all those excited young children make a lorra lorra noise!

Late on Sunday afternoon realising we weren't going to be able to get out we had a last mooch round the garden at Base Camp looking for the Blue Tailed Damselflies to see if we could get any more super close-ups. They weren't playing ball as the sun had gone in and a cool wind had picked up so we had to be content with flowers. Last summer there was hardly any Herb Bennett in the garden, this year there are a few plants. That's one of the joys of having  a wild garden you just don't quite know what's going to come up where year by year.

If there were any hoverflies about they'd love it but we've seen very few so far this summer.

Herb Robert is much more forthcoming and maybe you can have too much of a good thing when it starts invading Wifey's special planting tubs.

We noticed some had little orange specks on them, some times just a few and others had several. They were randomly placed so we deduced they weren't something the plant had produced.

 Then we spotted this tiny fly which may or may not be the culprit of what we suppose are eggs.

Big eggs if that little insect did lay them. Maybe they only lay two as most seemed to be in pairs and several insects have laid their eggs on one flower - isn't nature great there's always something new to see and learn, one question leads to a whole bookful of others.

Last night we were with the youngsters on the beach looking in the rockpools, it was a lovely summer's evening warm with hardly a breath of wind - a perfect evening for exploring on the beach. The recent offshore winds might be great for keeping the sea calm and helping our Dolphin spotting but it does mean there's not a great deal of shells and the like washed up. That didn't stop us finding some good stuff though like this Thornback Ray egg case.

Lots of the Common Prawns were in berry - except this one!

Star find as far as the Beavers were concerned were a couple of medium sized Common Sand Stars.

After we'd got back to Base Camp and had tea we were chatting to our Extreme Photographer on the phone when we notciced the sky start to build up some odd looking clouds. He had similar ones too 200 miles to the south. Once we'd finished chatting we got a couple of snaps with the phone, apparently they are Cirrus fibratus and Twitter friend @MaryJasper2 had similar all the way down in SW Cornwall.

Impressively wispy but were better than this a few minutes earlier

All day today we played host to a local school doing pond dipping and mini-beast hunting. The pond is still a bit slow probably due to the iffy weather in May and early June but they caught a reasonable selection of snails and plenty of 3-spined Sticklebacks, none as bright and energetic as 'Spineless Simon' though. The biggest surprise came in the form of a small dragonfly nymph, we very very seldom see adult dragonflies in the work's garden but there must have been some last year

Of the terrestrial invertebrates this bright, long and skinny Centipede was our favourite but the kids' favourite was probably the huge spider they found and many were brave enough to gently hold it - well done them!

Talk of our Extreme Photographer he's sent a few pics from his garden out in the wilds in the last week or so

Drinker moth caterpillar

Hedgehog

Great Diving Beetle larva - you wouldn't want to mess with those fangs!

Where to next? More Patch 2 dolphin hoping - there was a Humpback Whale not so far away just out of sight over the horizon last week!!!!!!! and there be more netting shenanigans with the kids too.

In the meantime let us know who's sucking the juice out of who in your outback.

One good day deserves another

The Safari's good fortune the other day continued into the next. We'd put the moth trap out and fortunately the weather overnight remained calm and muggy resulting in easily our best catch of the year. There were a number of Heart & Darts as expected but some 'new for the year's' too like this spankingly fresh Brimstone.

Not quite so dapper but still a beaut, Pale Shouldered Brocade.

And a 'New for the Garden' in the form of a May Highflyer.

The larvae feed on Alder and to be honest we couldn't tell you where the nearest Alder tree is, it's not a tree planted in gardens parks or along the roadsides although it would be far more interesting and useful to a wide range of wildllife than the cultivars of Sycamores that have appeared along the roads in recent years.

Also in the trap were three micromoths, all the same species, which on looking in the field guide showed them to be Tachystola acroxantha. We did record it in the garden last year but our Mapmate spreadsheet told us a specimen was required for confirmation of the ID. Luckily we'd taken some super-macro shots

Apparently it is an Australian species spreading northwards (as an introduction not naturally we'd guess) and still scarce/almost unknown north of the Ribble hence the warning on the spreadsheet.

While we were out mothing a little bit of a cloudy front developed and we heard the first screaming of Swifts (Garden #31) from Base Camp this year. They took some finding as they were way up high and there were five of them that moved on as quickly as they'd appeared. We're really missing these aerial beauts screaming round the rooftops in the evenings. They have bred (or at least roosted regularly) in a local roof for the past several years but we've not seen them around there this season. Hope putting up our Swift nestbox hasn't frightened them off - that'd  just be our luck!

As we were packing up another unusual bird turned up in the form of two House Sparrows, a male and without bins a presumed juvenile. This week and next as the juveniles fledge and leave the nest is the only time we see them in the garden why they don't keep returning to the abundant food on offer for the rest of the year is a bit of a mystery. A couple of Blue Tailed Damselflies were flitting around over the pond too which was good to see, they've been few and far between so far this season here.

Later that afternoon we took a walk down to the North Blackpool Pond Trail. News that the Heron's Reach Bee Orchids were now in flower had reached us so it was time to check the local ones. The wildflower area was looking a picture and we soon disturbed a couple of Common Blue butterflies, one landing close by and giving us our best views of the year as it perched on a rather windblown flowerhead of Yorkshire Fog.

One of our favourite wildflowers grows in abundance here, Tufted Vetch, we've tried on many occasions to get it to establish in the several gardens we've had in the past but never been successful. It shouldn't be anymore difficult than growing Sweet Peas shouldn't it?

However, it was Bee Orchids we came specifically to see and it was only a matter of minutes before we found the first little cluster of them.

A thorough walk-over of the site gave us a final count of 35 of which three had already been trampled probably by dogs as the area is too popular with the mutt n ball brigade. Then a bloke and his daughter arrived with a fishing rod and he started to practice casting. The little girl ran along the length of the line to free it from the vegetation then he reeled it in - right over the meadow with her running behind - - a real hand to forehead slap moment - - will any orchids survive the onslaught? After a few casts his line snapped and the lead went speeding over the railway fence like a missile, a really good job there were no trains coming along. He thought it landed elsewhere and he and the little girl and teddybear promptly started stamping down the vegetation to look for it. Fortunately this was in a much ranker and far less botanically diverse area of the meadow. Minutes later they gave up their fruitless search and he looked at the sole of of boots - dogsh*t!

One of the Bee Orchids we found had a slightly unusual form in that the markings on the lip were very indistinct, fairly certain we've not seen one like that before.

We also had a look for the Common Broomrape  that occurs here but not every year - it would seem that this year is another of those 'not every years'. It is a parasite of the clover family several species of  which are very numerous in the meadow so why it should be so fickle in appearances is a bit of a mystery. Looking for it gave us a couple more Common Blue butterflies and our first Silver Y moth of the year. Despite the warm sun and only light breeze thee number of insects was very poor barely a bee or a hoverfly in sight.

This morning the sun was out early but we got to the moth trap late and found the moth trappers worst nightmare, no not Wasps, even worse than that there were feathers inside! Some small birdy had been in there no doubt scoffing a way. Consequently we only found four moths inside (+ one escapee micro), three Heart & Darts and a Garden Carpet. The latter was lively in the pot and escaped while we were trying to get a pic. It landed just out of arm's length on our neighbours chimneybreast.

The warm sun had brought out about half a dozen Blue Tailed Damselflies and they were keen to bask on the edge of thee pond to warm up for the day's proceedings.

 Their being fairly settled allowed us time to go indoors for the super-macro lens.

We'd love to know just what they see through those impressive eyes

We watched a new queen and a drone Tree Bee mating and the Goldfish in the pond spawning and then the sun went in and the rain started and all the interesting garden activity came to a grinding halt.

Where to next? Back to Patch 2 tomorrow and the beach beckons again.
In the meantime let us know who's keeping a beady eye on who in your outback

It's never a bad day when...

The Safari's  morning commute to work along the Prom had us practically drooling with anticipation. The sea was flat calm there was light hazy cloud but good light so no shadows – we were itching to get out on to the wall especially after a conversation last night with the folk from Liverpool Bay Marine Life Trust.

We were right to itch too. It only took us a matter of seconds to find a big bull Grey Seal close to the wall a little way to the south. Through the scope there was a bit of haze out on the horizon that we couldn’t see from the driving seat but it wasn’t that bad. While looking at the seal we say a large splash out on the horizon and then another with a dark shape. Focusing out there we soon got on a couple of Bottlenosed Dolphins half breaching in several feeding rolls – get in!  Can’t start the day better than that! Actually we did we found a third a little way away behind the others. Would have been better had they been a bit nearer but you can’t have everything.  After a few pretty good views they disappeared. There may have been more than three but that’s all we got at one time. Once they’d gone we went back to look at that nearby Grey Seal and found another four bobbing around behind him.  There weren’t many Common Terns from the dockland colony out fishing and we thought the dolphin feeding frenzy might have attracted the attention of the 10 or so Gannets that were cruising around.  Three Manx Shearwaters wheeled over the top of the dolphins, it’s not often we see them that far into the river mouth but they didn’t stick around.
A flock of nine Shelducks came past and made their way into the river, after they'd gone by it all went a bit quiet so we called it a day and headed back to the office for a celebratory cuppa.
Still it was only a few hours til lunchtime...which duly arrived but by now the tide was well out and the sea was somewhat disappointingly as dead as the proverbial Dodo so off we went round the work's garden in search of some #30DaysWild inspiration. There was an interloping school group on the back field - cheeky so-n-so's coming in to our garden from outside the borough without booking a session with Yours Truly, who do they think they are? Anyway they were having some fun and games in the sunshine before getting the bus back to school in the 'hinterlands'. A couple of the girls were making Daisy chains, something we don't see many kids do these days, in fact many kids don't know that Daisy is the name of the little white flowers with the yellow centres. They've all heard of them but wouldn't be able to point one out which is quite frightening and worrying! These two wee lasses did and made good use of the plethora of material available.

A little later an unexpected trip to the outside store had us walking past the wild garden where we spotted a Cinnabar moth flying around. We dashed back inside found a glass in which to catch it and went to get the camera aka phone.

It's wings are a bit wonky but it could fly alright.
#30DaysWild is all about interacting with nature so we gently put it on our finger and got a proper interacting with nature shot - aren't they stunners.

We wondered if it had not long emerged in the morning sun and perhaps had been disturbed before its wings had fully opening and stiffened.
A pretty good day but then any day with dolphins is a good day unless you're swimming with them in a captive environment like a hotel pool on your hols then it's very much not a good day - if you don't know why watch a film called The Cove to find out how they get to your hotel pool and never ever swim with them again.
Where to next? It's the weekend and we have a couple of local target species to aim for.
In the meantime let us know who's just too colourful for your outback

Bait balls at last

The Safari got a few minutes on Patch 2 this morning and it was pretty good too. A full scan gave us three Grey Seals and about a dozen Common Terns, the latter fishing successfully in shallow water bringing out small fish from only just under the surface. A large flock of presumed Sanderlings, they were a bit far out but we couldn't see any obvious black bellies, flew low over the water and out to sea going to Greenland or Canada perhaps.

In the shimmer out on the horizon we could just about make out the fluttering white dots of gulls and diving Gannets at a bait ball, well it was more spread out than a ball but there was a bit of a feeding frenzy going on and then a couple of miles further round another one! This second one had few Gannets in attendance, both were too far away to see if there were any mammals there.

Closer inshore a small trawler trawled with about 500 gulls following it. A look on Marine Traffic told us it was within the 'new' Marine Conservation Zone.

This track is from later in the day - been to port and come back out again

That's the boundary of the MCZ - they'd be far more effective if they were 'no-take' zones

Another smaller boat was much closer inshore but without a transponder so we couldn't see it on the map, probably shrimping so dragging up anything living in the sand on the seabed.

We didn't get much in the way of opportunities to get out with the camera on a gloriously warm and sunny day but we did go to thee shops! The local supermarket was knocking these beauties out for far less than you could make them for. We got there fairly early but the shelf had obviously been ransacked, lots of space and price markers below but only these two left - good on folk for buying them! 

And finally a couple from the yesterday and our trip to the beach with the little ones.

Sea Gooseberry by our colleague RK - not often you can see the detail of their internal structures.

 Where to next? Calm seas mean it's gotta be Patch 2 again in the morning.

 In the meantime let us know who's scooping up what in your outback