Martin Mere

Red-breasted goose (centre,) and greylags

It looked like being another day of eternal twilight but at least it wasn't raining so I got the train to Burscough Bridge and headed for Martin Mere. As I arrived at Burscough Bridge the sun came out and it became a very nice, mild December day. I took the skeins of pink-footed geese flying over the station as a good omen.

Fieldfares, Red Cat Lane

Walking down Red Cat Lane it looked like there wasn't much about in the fields. Then I looked in the hedgerows. About a hundred woodpigeons and a kestrel were lined up on the top of the hawthorn hedge running parallel to the road. Presumably some ground-based predator had recently passed by. Or they didn't want to get their feet wet. Two trees were busy with birds, one with starlings, the other with fieldfares and both very noisy.

Red Cat Lane 

Tarlscough Lane 

It's been a thin Autumn and early Winter for buntings so it came as a relief to see a corn bunting perched in the hedge opposite the junction with Curlew Lane, though a disappointment to only see the one.

Whooper swans

I went straight to the Discovery Hide on arrival at Martin Mere. The red-breasted goose I saw at Banks relocated to Martin Mere last week and has been showing well on the mere so I hoped to get a better view than I managed last time.

Mallards, pintails and lapwing

There were plenty of geese about, mostly greylags. A few pink-feet flew in but didn't stop and were soon over in the fields grazing with the big flocks out there. There weren't all that many whooper swans about though they accounted for most of the noise. The mere was heaving with ducks. There were hundreds of wigeon and a hundred or so mallard with a supporting cast of dozens of pintails, pochards, tufted ducks and shelducks. A raft of black-headed gulls bathed midwater and cormorants loafed on the rafts. But no red-breasted goose.

Mallard and pochards

It being entirely possible that the goose was standing in mid field of view and holding a sign saying; "Look at me dammit! I'm a red-breasted goose," and me not noticing I spent a long while scanning and rescanning the birds on the banks. Periodically there would be confusion and panic as hundreds of lapwings rose from the mere and billowed round, bringing up gulls and starlings in their wake. Try as I might I couldn't see the culprit.

A large bird, foxy red in the December sunlight, flew along the far bank. At first I thought it was one of the marsh harriers then I realised it was a much paler bird. And it didn't put the lapwings up to flight. I started a portfolio of "There was a bittern there a moment ago" photographs.

Greylags, shelducks, coots, wigeon and whooper swans

Pintail

I went to the Raines Observatory to try a different angle at the mere, and also to get a bit of warmth back in my hands, it was a keening wind blowing at the Discovery Hide. I was rewarded almost immediately by finding out what was sending the lapwings into a panic as a peregrine steamed across the mere at head height. There's no way it would catch anything that way but bringing the birds to flight gives it targets for a stooping dive without the risk of a crash landing. It was unsuccessful this time.

Red-breasted goose and greylags

It took ten minutes to find the red-breasted goose. I forgave myself for not finding it before, the change of angle was crucial. It was grazing on the far bank with half a dozen greylags in a shady corner. The white stripe I thought I could see in the murk on Banks Marsh stood out like a beacon here. This bird looked small among pink-feet, it was positively tiny compared to the greylags. The windows at the Raines Observatory aren't the best medium to shoot through but I took a lot of photographs in the hopes of getting a record shot of the bird.

Red-breasted goose and greylags

A mixed tit flock — long-tailed tits, blue tits and goldcrests were feeding in the conifers on the way to the Kingfisher Hide.

The path to the Kingfisher Hide 

More long-tailed tits and blue tits vied with great tits for room on the bird table. Chaffinches and reed buntings fed on the ground and my first brambling of the year, a spruce looking male, hopped up onto a stick, said: "Hey look at me!" and disappeared into a hawthorn bush.

Chaffinch

It was surprisingly quiet at the Ron Barker Hide. A heron and a dabchick fished in the sluice. A couple of whoopers grazed with the Canada geese in the long grass. Four marsh harriers floated about but only one of them came in close. And a couple of great white egrets flitted about the fields beyond the reedbeds.

Tarlscough Lane 

It was a quiet walk back. I tried to find tawny owls in the ivies and tree sparrows in the hedges and had no luck, which shows what you get for being greedy. The walk back to Burscough Bridge was even quieter, just the calls of pink-footed geese and the distant clatter of fieldfares. Which is no bad way to end a damned good day's birdwatching with the trains running on time for once.