Martin Mere-ish

Corn bunting, Red Cat Lane, Burscough

It was a cloudier, cooler sort of a day, good walking weather, cool enough for me to be glad I'd put on a waistcoat but not so cool that I wished I had my jacket.

Behind New Lane Station

The walk seemed well-starred from the off. The hedgerow beside the path from New Lane Station was busy with house sparrows, blue tits and chiffchaffs. On the other side of the line there were three whitethroats singing on the telephone line, apparently using the telegraph poles as boundary markers. 

Swallows, swifts and sand martins wheeled low overhead together with the first big flock of house martins this year. The water treatment works were the main attraction for them, the local starlings and magpies and a steady stream of black-headed gulls. The oystercatchers feeding on the filtration beds were phenomenally noisy, the ones feeding on the fields with the woodpigeons and stock doves quietly got on with their business.

Oystercatcher, New Lane

As I approached the foot crossing over the line a buzzard flew low over the greenhouses by the farm, much to the consternation of a flock of swallows and a couple of passing black-headed gulls.

The path through the fields from the railway line

I'd been congratulating myself on the choice of walk and weather. I crossed the line and found I'd be closely following a chap on a motor mower who was keeping the path in cricket pitch condition (and width). You can't fight Fate. Luckily, I'd taken precautions before I came out and stuffed Vaseline up my nose. I lingered so as to be well behind the mower and he'd gone back into Martin Mere by the time I reached the path that goes round the boundary.

The field by the line was surprisingly busy with birds though it was hard work to spot them. The singing skylarks and reed buntings were easy enough, and explained a lot of the contact calls in the long grass. The sedge warbler singing in the ditch was a beggar to find.

Marsh harrier, Martin Mere

I got to the boundary path at Martin Mere and was rewarded by the sight of a female marsh harrier floating low over the reedbed pools. I kept seeing her on and off throughout the walk (I could identify her by a couple of missing primary feathers). As I was watching her there was an explosion of song from the first of three Cetti's warblers I'd be hearing on this walk.

It was a relatively quiet walk along here. At the start, by the fields, there had been song thrushes, chaffinches and chiffchaffs singing in the hedgerow. At the end there was a family of jays. In between there was a few chiffchaffs and whitethroats, the occasional willow warbler and the Cetti's warblers. The swifts and hirundines swooping overhead reminded me that the water treatment works is just the other side of the trees.

Corn bunting, Red Cat Lane

I hadn't booked a visit to Martin Mere so when I reached Tarlscough Road I turned and walked down to Burscough. There were lots of house sparrows in the hedges and goldfinches and greenfinches in the trees. As I passed Brandeth Barn a couple of tree sparrows disappeared into the hedge by the barns. Corn buntings could be seen but not heard in the field at the corner of Curlew Lane, a most unsatisfactory addition to the year list. I hadn't gone far when I was cheered up immensely by a corn bunting singing from the top of a telegraph pole. It was reluctant to let me take a photo of it singing (I have pictures of it turning its back on me) but was happy enough to pose for the camera when it flew down into the field. He jumped back onto the pole to resume singing and I left him to it. Walking down Red Cat Lane into Burscough there were another three or four buntings singing from the fields, which was encouraging.

Red Cat Lane