Martin Mere

Black-headed gulls and chicks

I'd decided on a visit to Martin Mere and unconvinced of the connections with the new train timetables I made an early start. As it was, the connections are very tight but they worked as planned and it was mid-morning when I got off at New Lane and started the long way round walk to Martin Mere.

Walking from New Lane Station, the railway line is on the right 

It was a warm, almost cloudless day and I was very glad of the breeze across the fields, not least because I soon got upwind of the sewage works. Small flocks of black-headed gulls followed the tractors on ploughing the winter brassica fields, joined by a few jackdaws and lapwings. The hedgerows were noisy with collared doves, robins and whitethroats, and woodpigeons and magpies commuted between fields and trees. It was a bit worrying that the only hirundine over the sewage works was a single house Martin, accompanied by a handful of swifts. I noticed that I wasn't walking through the usual clouds of midges along this path, which probably accounts for it. A couple of oystercatchers flew low over the field of fennel, their calls not managing to drown out the song of a lesser whitethroat in the drain at the side.

Wall brown

Whitethroat

I crossed the line and followed the path round the rough field where whitethroats, skylarks and linnets sang and the pair of stonechats by the collapsed shed told me to beggar off. 

Stonechat

The hedgerows and reedbeds along the path around the periphery of Martin Mere were busy with well nigh invisible birds and frantically active butterflies. The first of over a dozen Cetti's warblers I'd bump into today sang from the hawthorns by the entrance gate. I'd lost count of how many there were by the time the day was done. Chiffchaffs, reed buntings, chaffinches and song thrushes sang in the hedgerows by the sewage works. A few reed warblers and a lone willow warbler sang from the reedbed side. I have no idea where the pheasant was: logic dictates it must have been somewhere in the tiny strip of rough just behind the hedgerow, I can only think it had found a foxhole or some such to hide in. Swifts and black-headed gulls hawked over the reedbed pools.

Female common blue

There had been a steady stream of large whites, brimstones and wall browns as I'd walked down the path. When I reached the corner where the path to the sewage works branches off the grass was heaving with common blues, the males intent on establishing territories and chasing off rivals and the females intent on having their dinner. A few azure damselflies buzzed round the reeds by one of the pools and common blue damselflies hawked low over the hedgerow flowers.

The field at the corner of Fish Lane was quieter than usual, probably because it was a lot drier than usual — there was only the one puddle left on the path. A few moorhens and mallards scratched about in the company of woodpigeons and magpies.

Oystercatcher preening

As planned, I spent high noon in the shelter of the hides at Martin Mere. The black-headed gull colony on the mere was in full cry. There were a lot of chicks about on the rafts and islands. A few pairs of gulls were making a late start in nest-building including a pair of second calendar year birds settling on the raft nearest the Discovery Hide. That one had been busy on my last visit but seemed quite abandoned now.

Black-headed gulls

There wasn't a lot about that wasn't a black-headed gull or a shelduck. Handfuls of oystercatchers and avocets fed on the banks, a couple of lapwings loafed on an island, rather a lot more of them were flying about over the fields beyond. A lone whooper swan which had probably been too sick or injured to join the migration grazed on the far bank. There's nearly always one or two left behind every year.

The drake gadwalls on the pool at the Hale Hide looked to be already starting to go into their eclipse plumage with black and white scaly markings on their chests showing through the grey.

To the Kingfisher Hide 

I had no luck all day in seeing or hearing any tree sparrows. Goldfinches, chaffinches and reed buntings monopolised the feeders by the Kingfisher Hide, there were no birds on the feeders by the Raines Observatory. Woodpigeons were nest-building at the Kingfisher Hide. With all the tall trees to choose from they were building in a small hawthorn bush.

A garganey (front) keeping its distance

The marshes at the Ron Barker Hide looked quiet at first sight, just a few Canada geese and black-headed gulls. The geese were grazing with the cattle over on the far side of the marsh with a white farm goose which had raised my hopes of an egret. I was having one last scan of the herd before concentrating elsewhere when a cattle egret poked its head out of the long grass, had a quick look round then disappeared again. There were a few avocets and teal on Vinson's pool. I was just about to go when another small duck drifted out from behind an island and dabbled in the mud. For a long time I was only getting unhelpful tail-end views in between its disappearing behind the island for a few minutes so it was a while before I could be sure it was a drake garganey and not just wishful thinking. In the process I noticed a little ringed plover skittering in the mud beyond it.

I spent a while on the way back checking the ivy-covered trees for roosting tawny owls with no luck whatsoever and wandered back for a cup of tea. Swallows were visiting their nests at the visitor centre and a few new nests were being built. I had all afternoon left for a wander round the reedbed walks and a nosy at the two new hides that were opened last month (in the event I only found one).

Canada geese and goslings
It took me ten minutes to overtake this mob.

The pool by the Harrier Hide was busy with Canada geese, greylags, pochards and tufted ducks. A pair of great crested grebes were busy taking fish back to the reeds, I'm not sure why because they looked to be big fish to be feeding to tiny youngsters. The reeds along the paths were noisy with reed warblers and Cetti's warblers, the latter outnumbering the former two to one. I only heard the one sedge warbler and I'd missed out on the great reed warbler that made a cameo appearance yesterday. I've not seen many dragonflies so far this year, a lot of four-spotted chasers tried to make up for it.

Four-spotted chaser

A quick nosy at the Gordon Taylor Hide found me the only black-tailed godwits of the day, just a handful of them with the lapwings and black-headed gulls. There was a tiny sandpiper on the mud in the distance which I couldn't identify. I got a better view of it from the new Peel Hide. It was still distant but I could just manage to identify it as the Temminck's stint that's been around here the past couple of days. It was a lot more active than the stint I saw at Lunt Meadows and looked superficially like a tiny common sandpiper.

Female banded demoiselle

I think this is an immature female banded demoiselle

Male banded demoiselle

I didn't manage to find the Tomlinson Hide but did find a bewildering array of banded demoiselles and blue-tailed damselflies in the drain along this stretch of path. It's already feeling like it's going to be a Summer of the birds either being distant or undercover and my taking lots of photos of insects.

Fish Lane

As I walked down to Burscough Bridge Station starlings bustled about overhead, the adults tailed by noisy youngsters. A good sized mixed flock of swallows and house martins billowed around the farm buildings at the corner of Curlew Lane, the swallows breaking off to mob a pair of passing kestrels. At the curve just beyond a grey partridge narrowly missed becoming road kill and skittered off to hide in a field of barley.

Red Cat Lane 

My train home was cancelled so I had a half hour's delay which meant I had to get the bus home from Manchester. It's a sign of the times that this is the first time I'll be claiming a delay repay from Northern this year.