Martin Mere

Sedge warbler, Martin Mere

I decided to have another go at tackling Martin Mere today. The Barrow train was cancelled again but I just had enough time to run between platforms at Deansgate to catch the Blackpool train and make a connection with the slow train to Southport at Salford Crescent. 

I got off at New Lane and took the long way round, taking the pedestrian crossing over the railway near Langley's Brook then following the path round the reedbed walk and on to Martin Mere.

There was some work being done at the water treatment works (I didn't envy the workmen on a warm, muggy day like today) so there wasnt a crowd of birds about, just a few black-headed gulls and lesser black-backs and a couple of pied wagtails. The house martins and swifts were feeding quite high up. There weren't many birds in the hedges, just a couple of blackbirds, but they were more than made up for by the crowds of butterflies, mostly gatekeepers and meadow browns. 

Fennel 

Just before the crossing one of the fields has been entirely planted with fennel, presumably for the seeds because it was all in full flower. It smelt wonderful and provided cover for chiffchaffs, whitethroats and a pheasant.

Kestrel, Langley's Brook

Meadow brown, Langley's Brook

Peacock, Langley's Brook

The field on the other side of the line was awash with meadow browns. The sheer number of them distracted me from a buzzard and a kestrel that were both hunting over the field. At the bottom of the field in the thistles and nettles a mass emergence of peacocks outnumbered the meadow browns. A mixed flock of linnets and goldfinches fed on the thistle seeds.

Heading towards the reedbed walk 

I turned onto the path that goes round the reedbed walk. It was notable for being very quiet, any other time of year it's heaving with bird song and bodies. A couple of chiffchaffs called, a willow warbler took exception to me and a few blackbirds could be heard rustling and muttering in the undergrowth. 

There were yet more butterflies all along the path. Dragonflies, too: brown hawkers and common hawkers patrolled the reed borders, a couple of emperor dragonflies hunted in the trees. One emperor flew close to me, caught a fly and ate it as it flew off. 

I came to one of the gates and had a scan round the small pools I could see through the reeds and spotted a couple of ducks dabbling round the edges, a young mallard and a female shoveler. I could hear, but not see, a lot of greylags. Towards the end of the path I could hear a reed warbler practising its subsong and a sedge warbler poked its head out of the undergrowth to make sure I wasn't trouble.

Juvenile shelducks, Martin Mere

Lapwings and juvenile common tern, Martin Mere

The mere was relatively quiet: there weren't the huge crowds of black-headed gulls or ducks of earlier in the year. Lapwings were the most numerous birds, perhaps a couple of hundred of them. There were perhaps fifty black-headed gulls about, equal numbers adults and youngsters, with a few common terns and their young mingling in with them. Most of the ducks are skulking in cover elsewhere while they moult their wing feathers, there were just half a dozen mallards hiding in the vegetation on the islands. The juvenile shelducks have been left to their own devices, some have taken to the bird gardens, a couple of dozen of them kept each other company on the mere. The adults have nearly all gone off to their moulting quarters, there was just the one to be seen today. Other than lapwings the waders were conspicuously lacking. It's unusual not to see even one ruff or black-tailed godwit. I was just lamenting this when a flash of black and white like a big house martin shot across the far bank, my first green sandpiper of the year.

The Hale Hide was even quieter, just half a dozen young mallards hiding in the reeds.

A walk down to the Ron Barker Hide was accompanied by twitching leaves and branches, some of which turned out to be long-tailed tits, robins or blue tits. Tree sparrows chirruped from the depths of hawthorn bushes. At least the moorhens showed themselves, a couple of them were busy feeding on the first of the season's windfall apples.

Lapwings and whooper swans, Martin Mere

Green sandpiper, Martin Mere

The first thing that struck me at the Ron Barker Hide was how dry the marsh was. It was evident that the remaining pools weren't very deep, barely ankle-high on a lapwing. There were more juvenile shelducks with the lapwings and a couple of teal lurking by the reed margins. A couple of families of greylags grazed the banks. I was surprised to see a couple of pairs of whoopers, it's not unusual for one or two individuals to stay behind for the Summer but these were obviously paired birds. Just when I'd got to thinking about moving on I noticed a green sandpiper shuffling out into the open on one of the islands.

On my way back I had an unsuccessful look in the ivies for any tawny owls.

Red Cat Lane 

I headed off for Burscough Bridge and the train home. Swallows hawked low over the barley fields while house martins swooped and chipped high overhead. There must have been fifty of them feeding over the farmyard at the corner of Curlew Lane. The collared doves at Brandeth Barn have had a good year: fifteen of them were lined up on the gutter of the potato store. I looked and listened in vain for any corn buntings.

A covey of grey partridges, Red Cat Lane

Just before I got into town I noticed a lot of activity in one of the paddocks. A covey of about twenty grey partridges rushed away from the roadside and into the next field.

I timed it right for getting the train back, which is just as well as the next train was cancelled. It had been another of those quiet July days where the birdwatching was hard work but still quite productive, I'd somehow managed to see fifty-four species while all the time thinking I wasn't seeing much.