Martin Mere

Whooper swans, Martin Mere

It was a bright sunny morning so I headed off for Martin Mere for a wander. By the time I arrived it was dull and overcast but it turned out to be a good day's birdwatching.

Tree sparrow playing peep-oh, New Lane

After an uneventful journey I got off at New Lane and immediately walked into a busy birdscape. The hedge next to the platform was full of house sparrows, tree sparrows, goldfinches and blackbirds and the ash tree just beside was full of linnets. I spent a while trying to disentangle the crowd before heading off towards Marsh Moss Road (given the time of year I wanted to take the more direct route to Martin Mere to give me time for a wander and then get back on the road to Burscough Bridge before it got dark).

Linnets, New Lane

Along Marsh Moss Road

A couple of skeins of pink-footed geese flew overhead and a hundred or so more were grazing on one of the far fields. I looked in vain for Winter thrushes in the big trees by the houses though there were plenty of blackbirds in the hawthorn bushes and a couple of mistle thrushes were lording it in one of the horse chestnut trees. A couple of fields away a huge tractor was turning the earth over accompanied by a flock of black-headed gulls and a little egret.

I was accompanied down Marsh Moss Road by a family of long-tailed tits which flitted between the hedges either side of the road until we parted company at the gate to the path to Martin Mere.

Mallards, Martin Mere

Pintail, Martin Mere

Whooper swans, Martin Mere

Arriving at Martin Mere I headed straight to the Discovery Hide for a look over the mere. The mere was covered in ducks, roughly equal numbers of hundreds of mallards and shelducks, a dozen pochard, a raft of about sixty tufties, a couple of dozen pintails, a few shovelers and over on the far bank perhaps a hundred wigeon and half as many teal. Most of the water that wasn't covered in ducks was full of greylags, coots and whooper swans.  There were about a hundred lapwings sitting on the islands, a few shared one of the rafts with cormorants and black-headed gulls.

Greylag, Martin Mere

Drake and duck pochard, Martin Mere

A cloud of lapwings and ruffs rose out of the field on the far side of the mere. They'd been spooked by a hovering kestrel then panicked by a marsh harrier. It took them a while to settle down then got spooked by the kestrel again.

I had a wander down. The Raines Observatory was busy so I just popped my head in and popped right back out again. 

Hale Hide was quiet. A couple of dozen greylags were gorging on waste potatoes accompanied by a couple of whoopers, some wigeon and a few teal. A dozen jackdaws chattered around in the grass on the edge of the pool, there was only a little egret and a moorhen on the pool. I'm not sure if it's because of the high water after last week's rain but there doesn't seem to be a lot of water's edge for any waders.

Little egret, Martin Mere

Greenfinches, goldfinches, tree sparrows and a couple of chaffinches were on the feeders at the Kingfisher Hide with a pheasant picking up fallen scraps. There wasn't anything on the pools from here today.

From the Kingfisher Hide

I was on my own in the Ron Barker Hide, which was unexpected. (An hour earlier there'd been a belted kingfisher reported from the Ribble at Brockholes near Preston so I suspect the local hardened birdwatchers had gone to try and see it.) The water was high on the marshes and there wasn't a lot on at first, just four whoopers browsing at the edge of the reeds on the far side and half a dozen teal. A feeding dabchick was the only action in the ditch in front of the hide.

A couple of dozen teal flew in and settled down, a similar number flew in quarter of an hour later. This time of year I always double-scan any flocks of teal in the hopes of finding a green-winged teal. No joy today but it's always worth the effort. It's a few years since my last one, I had a golden patch around the millennium where there was one every Winter for me to add to the year list. The differences in ID between a drake green-winged teal and a drake common teal are subtle (I don't imagine I'll ever confidently identify a duck green-winged teal) but when you see one it just looks very different. Then you have to spend a while trying to work out why it looks different.

Whooper swans, Martin Mere

A skein of pink-feet flew high over, the only pink-feet I saw at Martin Mere today. Small family parties of whoopers starting flying in from the coast, all flying in low and noisy. This disturbed some of the starlings and skylarks in the field by the marsh, which seemed to be the signal for a couple of marsh harriers to turn up. They floated across the reeds at the far side of the marsh in a cloud of very angry skylarks.

I wandered back, looking in vain for a tawny owl in the ivy-covered trees but bumping into a great spotted woodpecker by the toilets. I had five minutes in the Janet Kear Hide but it was busy and noisy and it was putting the birds off coming to the feeders. I should have asked myself why the hedge fifty yards down from the hide was full of chaffinches.

No geese on the fields from the United Utilities Hide but there was a big flock of lapwings that had been brought up by a male marsh harrier. A kingfisher called as it dashed down the sluice towards the Ron Barker Hide.

Marsh harrier, Martin Mere

It was getting greyer and darker and I was ready to call it a day so ended up having a wander along the reedbed walk, like you do. A couple of immature marsh harriers drifted over, possibly the birds I was seeing from the Ron Barker Hide. While they were upsetting the lapwings another marsh harrier flew over towards the railway line. So there were at least four marsh harriers kicking about. A possible fifth came flying in from a distance but as it steamed on overhead it turned out to be a particularly dark peregrine with half its secondary wing feathers missing. A sleeping mute swan over on one of the far pools caught my eye, it took me a while to realise it was very tall to be a mute swan and was actually a spoonbill with all identifying features tucked deep into its back feathers. Finally, as I neared the United Utilities Hide a Cetti's warbler sang from the reeds by the path.

Reedbed walk with the Harrier Hide in the distance

It was still technically an hour before sunset but it felt like twilight as I walked to Burscough Bridge. I looked out for owls in the fields and on the fenceposts but found only buzzards and carrion crows. A dozen starlings settled on one of the telegraph poles to have one last preen before roosting. As I was passing the junction to Curlew Lane another peregrine flew over, I knew it was a different bird as this one had all its wing feathers intact.

Marsh Moss Road from Tarlsclough Lane

On the way home I pressed my nose against the train window in the hopes of seeing a passing owl. In the field between Wigan Water Treatment Works and Parbold a something pounced on a smaller something else on the ground. The hunter definitely wasn't a barn owl. Was it a tawny? A short-eared owl? A carrion crow? In that gloom and with such a fleeting sighting I'll never know. Not every cake needs a cherry on top