Martin Mere

Pintail

It was set to be a grey, cool day, just right for a visit to Martin Mere. I could get a decent walk in and perhaps fill in a couple of gaps in my records: I've seen no owls this year and too few corn buntings for my liking.

The train from Wigan was late, though it had made up a lot of time on the way to New Lane. There was the usual assortment of corvids and pigeons along the way and a large flock of black-headed gulls in the fields just outside Parbold. Halfway between Hoscar and Burscough Bridge I was struck again by the simple beauty of a field of alternating blocks of curly kale and cavalo nero.

Walking down Marsh Moss Road from New Lane Station

The hedgerows by New Lane Station were a lot quieter than usual, just a couple of blackbirds and a robin. I walked down Marsh Moss Road, stopping to make sure that the black-headed gulls and woodpigeons a few fields over were just black-headed gulls and woodpigeons. A chap walked by as I stood on the verge pointing my binoculars at the large trees on the bend. "Anything interesting?" he asked. "I'm looking for Winter thrushes but there aren't any." "No," he replied, "There's hardly been any. And we've been very low on starlings this year, too." A skein of pink-feet overhead were a seasonal touch.

I joined the path that leads through the bit of light woodland to Martin Mere, scattering a few dozen woodpigeons in the process. A mixed tit flock bounced by me: a family of long-tailed tits, a few great tits and coal tits but — strangely — no blue tits. The field by the border of Martin Mere was thick with jackdaws and woodpigeons, which was odd because the only obvious attraction was a big pile of waste carrots which they were studiously ignoring.

Lapwings, ruff, black-tailed godwit and moorhen

Once into Martin Mere I headed straight for the Discovery Hide. The mere was very busy. Wigeons, pintails and mallards dabbled by the sides or loafed in rafts at the old Swan Link end. Lapwings, ruffs and black-tailed godwits loafed on the islands, a couple of godwits fed in front of the hide. 

Wigeon

Rafts of dozens of shelduck drifted across the open water, with more incoming. There weren't many geese, and all of them greylags. There were a few whooper swans about, mostly on the far side of the mere. The rest of the cast list included a couple of hundred black-headed gulls, a few pochard and tufties, a lesser black-back and a brute of a great black-back that dwarfed the couple of cormorants it swam past. A twittering of wigeon alerted me to a marsh harrier drifting over the far side but it stayed over the reedbed walk so the wigeon settled back to grazing on the bank.

Black-tailed godwit

Pintails

Greylags

The pool in front of the Hale Hide was jam-packed with greylags, mallards and teal. More greylags were feeding on a pile of waste potatoes in the company of a few dozen whoopers and wigeons.

Walking down to the Kingfisher Hide I bumped into a tit flock that did include blue tits this time. The hide was very quiet, just a few chaffinches and blue tits on the feeders and some teal and moorhens on the pool.

Ron Barker Hide

Walking down to the Ron Barker Hide I could hear, but not see, a great spotted woodpecker. I finally caught sight of it as I got to the pond. "It" was a pair of courting birds, the female closely following the male as he progressed up the trunk of one of the small trees in the hedge. When he got to the top he called then flew over to one of the taller trees, the female following a moment later. I lost sight of them when they landed though I heard the call a couple more times.

Marsh harrier

There was a couple of hundred teal in the open water of the pool immediately in front of the Ron Barker Hide and a similar number of wigeon on the pool to the right. The reason why became obvious: a marsh harrier floated over towards Windmill Farm, another hunted over the reeds over the far side, while a third was sat in a tree watching the teal.

A couple of pairs of teal dabbled in the drain with a pair of mallards and a moorhen while a stonechat fossicked about in the dead thistles on the bank.

Teal

Small parties of shelducks and whooper swans flew in and headed for the mere while pink-footed geese flew higher overhead, aiming for the fields beyond.

Whooper swans

I wandered back and headed for the Janet Kear Hide, conscious that I hadn't yet seen any tree sparrows or goldfinches. Along the way I checked all the ivy-covered trees in the forlorn hope of seeing a bit of a tawny owl. A charm of goldfinches was feeding with greenfinches in alders on the path. Another mixed tit flock bounced through the hedgerow. "The bramblings are showing well at Janet Kear," said a passer-by.

Chaffinch

A flock of chaffinches were on the feeders when I arrived at the hide. They promptly disappeared with the exit of a noisy party and not many of them came back. Any bramblings must have gone with the pack. There were plenty enough of goldfinches, greenfinches, great tits and blue tits and a couple of robins demonstrated how to hover and pluck sunflower seeds from a feeder.

It was getting on now so I left Martin Mere and had a twilit walk down to Burscough Bridge. The redwings I didn't see at New Lane were feeding in the field at the corner of Marsh Moss Road and Tarlsclough Lane and the hedges held the tree sparrows that weren't at Martin Mere. A couple of skeins of pink-feet flew over and a scan of the paddocks by Crabtree Lane for little owls just found a pair of carrion crows. It was too late for corn buntings, they're early to bed, early to rise.

So I didn't get any of my targets but I'd had a good walk and had some very good birdwatching.