Tuesday 18 December 2012

Good old murmurations save the day

The Safari enjoyed a beautiful sunrise over an almost mirror calm sea this morning, even the hazy clouds in the  far western sky took on the colours of a sunset. The cool but not cold conditions were just about perfect apart from the light swell that was large enough to hide Herring Gulls for a few seconds. The low post-dawn sunlight making them shine with a rosy hue. We find it amazing that the sea can calm down so quickly after being so tempestuous only a few hours earlier.
The excellent visibility didn't help us find anything over exciting. As we scanned we could only find a couple of small flocks of Common scoters, a single Great Crested Grebe and a couple of Cormorants flying out to sea. More Black Headed Gulls than we normally see were loafing on the water, even thoughthe tide was well out and there was an enormous swathe of beach to forage on. You'd have thought there would have been rich pickings on the strandline after yesterday's storm  but the beach was more or less empty. The pool at the side of the outfall pipe held the majority of birds, several gulls and Oystercatchers and three Redshanks…well it did hold the majority of the birds until a dog walker took his mutt towards them and they fluxhed welll down the. All that expanse of beach to walk in and he aims directly for the only flock of birds - plonker!
On the way back to Base Camp this evening we weren't stuck in traffic long enough to enjoy the Starlings, at least 5000 at Central Pier and perhaps 15-20000 at North Pier were putting on a show for several people enjoying/photographing/videoing them which was great to see.

Hot news from the Lancashire Moth Recorders was that two species of micro we trapped in the garden during the crappiest moth trapping season ever, Dichrorampha alpinana and Pammene fasciana, are both new for 10km square SD33. Would you credit it? 

 
Where to next? Working out of town tomorrow and maybe a small chance of getting out somewhere a bit more unusual before yet more Christmas shopping has to be done.
In the meantime let us know wwho's watching what swirl around in your outback. 

4 comments:

cliff said...

Well done getting the two new moths Dave. I've just done a quick google - & having now seen pics of them you did well separating those from the masses.

Warren Baker said...

Nice work on the Moths Davo, makes it worth the effort when you find something of more interest than usual

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

I wont have IDd them! More likely I sent the pics to the LMG experts for them to sort them out.
But yes, it is good to expand the world's knowledge, if only by a little bit, with some citizen science.

Cheers

D

Anonymous said...

Well done on the 2 moth sp`s. Great feeling to have your name next to significant records.