Bogs, beaches and blisters

Evening all, its looking like this is going to be a once a week kind of blog. Its Sunday and so far its been a good weekend with a bit of nature and the great outdoors!

Yesterday was spent taking the dog to the vets for his annual boosters then a good run down at the beach again to get some of that energy out of him. The tide was going out by the time we got there about half three in the afternoon but it was great! Lots of razor clam shells again on the beach, those green egg sacks and quite a few bits of fucus serratus and the other fucus seaweek i cant ever remember the name of. Some welk egg sacks dotted about too and I think a dog fish case on the walk back to the car.

After the beach we hot footed it over to Halebank about 30 minutes away on the other side of the River Mersey to carry out a Hare Survey / transect for the North West Brown Hare Project. We got there just after 5pm and were done by 6.15 following a lovely sunset.

It was just a shame that a) some of the foot path we wanted to walk along for the survey was out of bounds thanks to the farmers no trespass sign

and b) the fact all we saw were 3 pheasants and no brown hares! A bit of a shame but thats what happens when you survey! To comiserate at our loack of hare views we went to Sainsburys and bought curly fries and burgers and had a fab dinner which nearly made up for it!

Today was even more active! I am a walk leader for the local 20s and 30s Ramblers Group and I lead my 3rd walk of the year with the group to Anglezarke Reservoir and White Coppice. It was a 8 3/4 mile walk and I managed to get 40 onto the walk!

All returned safe and sound I am glad to say but, like me, a few were rather shattered and muddy. We were pretty lucky with the weather. Not a huge amount of wildlife but did see some red grouse up on the moorland, we heard some skylarks and lapwings too on the approach up to Winter Hill and back down to the start. Just one more walk to lead for the group this year up in North Wales and then I get to go on others and be lead rather than lead!

At the end of next week I am off to North Perthshire to co lead one of the National Trust of Scotlands Thistle Camp Holidays at Killiekrankie and The Hermitage. I cant wait; I have co lead there once before and there is plenty to keep you busy. The last time I was there as a visitor in October 2011 I saw the Salmon leaping up the huge falls at The Hermitage it was awesome. I cant wait to get back up there and get stuck in!