Martin Mere

Kingfisher

A wander over to Martin Mere before the weather changes.

The walk down from Burscough Bridge Station was fruitful and despite a glowering cloud overhead there was not a drop of rain. A couple of stubble fields were still flooded — it was easy to spot from a distance which ones they were by the hordes of loafing gulls, mostly black-headed with a few common gulls and a couple of herring gulls. I was watching a small flock of tree sparrows busy in a field of mangolds when some more small brown birds flew in, it took me a while to realise it was a dozen corn buntings. There was a definite passage of skylarks going on: at least fifty were flying over at one point.

Greylag

Geese dominated the scene at Martin Mere. If it wasn't the greylags lining the mere it was the hundreds of pink-footed geese either flying over or calling from the fields beyond the reedbed walk. Plenty of ducks but not yet Winter numbers, rather more from the Ron Barker Hide than from on the mere. A couple of marsh harriers spooked the teal on Vinsons Marsh. One made a couple of return visits, it looked as if it had an injured foot.

Black-tailed godwit

Aside from lapwings waders were thinner on the ground: a handful of black-tailed godwits on the mere and a green sandpiper on Vinson's. A pair of kingfishers showed well as they hunted in the ditch in front of the Ron Barker Hide. The male divided his time between the fence and the "usual" dead branch, the female was a way away to the right of the hide.

Kingfisher

The Janet Kear Hide seemed to be being popular with young families on their half term hols. There were enough finches and tits on the feeders to keep them entertained though everything went very quiet when a young male sparrowhawk swooped by. Luckily he didn't stop and the show resumed where it left off.

I only had a quick sken at the geese from the United Utilities Hide as I'd just noticed the time (I was planning on going home via New Lane and didn't want to miss the train and have to wait three hours for the next one). A few hundred pink-footed geese together with fifty-odd lapwings. The next few months will be spent going bog-eyed working my way through huge flocks of pink-footed geese and teal hoping to spot something special hiding in plain sight amongst them.

Walking through the little wooded path to Marsh Moss Lane I was surprised to be buzzed by a migrant hawker. Yesterday's wasn't my last dragonfly of the year after all!

My walk to New Lane Station was accompanied by the sound of skeins of geese commuting between Martin Mere and the fields around Burscough. It's one of my favourite sounds, even though it does make me want to button my overcoat up against the cold.

Pink-footed geese, New Lane