Martin Mere

Black-tailed godwit

It was forecast to be the last reliably fine day for a while so I thought I'd best get that walk to and around Martin Mere done as that usually involves four or five hours walking out in the open with little cover. It was a bright, mostly sunny day and would have been warm had it not been for a cold wind that got stronger as they say went on. On the plus side it was that wind keeping the rain clouds at bay.

New Lane Station 

I got off the train at New Lane and joined the trackside path. The robins took a breather and in the sudden quiet I could hear two sets of jangling key songs: a dunnock in the hedgerow on the other side of the track and a corn bunting over on the other side of the field. My first corn bunting of the year. I only heard my first yellowhammer of the year this week and it's four days short of being two years since I last saw a tree sparrow at Martin Mere. Corn buntings, yellowhammers, tree sparrows, there's something desperately wrong happening in the farmed landscape though I can't see that anything has much changed round here that might explain it. It's probably incremental small stresses with a collapse at a tipping point.

Oystercatchers in their natural environment 

Lapwings were stationed across fields, a pair of oystercatchers held court in the water treatment works. I had a blast of nostalgia when a Cetti's warbler burst into song from the reedy scrub between the filtration pans and the railway lines. High over the railway line a pair of buzzards saw off a third that had drifted into their territory. A pair of stock doves flew by in very close formation, wingtips almost touching. The hint that Spring might be in the air was confirmed by a couple of peacock butterflies dashing through the path verges.

Buzzard

I crossed the railway and was disappointed not to bump into the pair of stonechats by the now-collapsed derelict shed. They may have been keeping a low profile as the buzzards were circling over. A marsh harrier kept floating this way as well and it finally flew straight across at treetop height and over the water treatment works.

Martin Mere 

The hedgerows by the path around the outside of the Martin Mere reedbeds were busy with small birds mostly silently going about their business. Chaffinches, reed buntings, great tits and blue tits rummaged around, wrens, robins and chiffchaffs sang. I expected more chiffchaffs, to be frank, especially after the masses I've been bumping into this past week.

Brimstone 

The peacock butterflies had woken up, I didn't walk far without having one fly past. A brimstone butterfly was busy feeding on dandelions as I passed it, another was resting by the path. I took a look by the water treatment works, there was just a singing robin there, the insects buzzing round the gorse and blackthorn flowers are probably easier pickings than the midges on the pans.

Greylag 

On the other side of the hedge Canada geese and greylags grazed in the fields, shelducks, mallards and black-headed gulls drifted about on the pools and lapwings flew to and fro. I looked in vain for any sign of the longhorn cattle and the inevitable cattle egrets accompanying them.

Peacock

I tiptoed round peacock butterflies, spent a while trying to find either of the Cetti's warblers duelling in the reeds less than three yards away from me and had as little luck finding the pair of dabchicks hinneying in the reedbed not so very much further away.

Walking by the reedbeds
There's a Cetti's warbler by that gate.

Walking from the reedbeds to the road I passed pairs of gadwall and mallards in the drain and shelducks on the field. Goldfinches and robins sang in the hedgerows by the path to the car park and there was the constant noise of the white storks clapping their bills in the enclosure just beyond.

At the Discovery Hide 

I went straight to the Discovery Hide for a sit down and a look round, probably in that order. Most of the black-tailed godwits in front of the hide were moulting out of their Winter greys, a couple were resplendently copper brown. The whoopers had gone, bar a couple asleep on the far bank, and there were only half a dozen wigeons. It took a long time to find any ducks that weren't mallards or shelducks, beside the wigeon there were handfuls of shovelers, tufted ducks and gadwalls. 

Black-tailed godwit 

Black-tailed godwits 

Black-tailed godwits 

There were a lot of black-headed gulls and a lot of nest-building and robbing of nest-building materials going on, adding to their already raucous soundscape.

Way over by the far bank where oystercatchers loafed in the company of cormorants and greylags half a dozen avocets swam in the shallows catching midges off the water's surface or skimming their beaks underwater for shrimps.

Snowdrops by the Raines Observatory 

The Hale Hide and the Kingfisher Hide as was were both quiet. The Ron Barker Hide was quiet by its lights, a couple of dozen each of teal and shovelers and a dozen avocets. A little egret lurked down the far end of the drain, Canada geese grazed on the bank. A male marsh harrier made an appearance carrying some unidentifiable something and dropped down into the reeds. A couple of moments later a female marsh harrier rose from someplace nearby and circled the pool. Oddly the Canada geese took more of a fright than the ducks or avocets.

Teal

A very distant marsh harrier 

The walk back to the visitor centre was quiet. I headed over to the Janet Kear Hide where the chaffinches, goldfinches and great tits were busy on the feeders and the mallards frisky on the pool.

Chaffinch 

Marsh marigold 

United Utilities Hide 

I didn't have the time or energy for a circuit of the reedbed walk but I felt I should at least have a quick look. I walked past the team building the new path to the United Utilities Hide, which looked good, and wandered over to the Rees Hide. Along the way I found the longhorn cattle, by accident as I was watching a great white egret flying between pools. They were a couple of fields distant and mostly obscured by reeds, I only saw any cattle egrets because a couple flew up and over the back one of the cattle and disappeared out of sight. The pool at the Rees Hide was heavily littered with shovelers, teal and avocets.

Pink-footed geese 

I walked back quickly with an eye on the closing time on the gates. A skein of pink-footed geese, a scant couple of dozen, flew into the fields behind the reedbeds. I had enough time to take a minute at the Harrier Hide where a raft of a couple of dozen gadwall cruised about amongst the coots and Canada geese.

Shelducks 

The wind was raw on the walk over to Burscough Bridge. The first common gull I've seen for a few days joined the crowd of black-headed gulls following the plough in the field behind Brandeth Barn. Half a dozen shelducks were fussing round each other in the field by the road here. A dozen starlings congregated on the telegraph pole on the bend, it's their favourite spot though I can't really see why. A couple of fields away the lapwings were putting the beach towels down on their favoured spots in the barley fields. Ridiculously I was disappointed not to see cattle egrets in the paddocks near Crabtree Lane.

Starlings

Winter Hill

I got the train back to Manchester, missed the very tenuous connection with the train home (the Southport train has to wait for the Warrington train to leave Oxford Road and arrive at Deansgate before it's allowed to go and take its place on platform 5 so if you're lucky you can sprint between platforms at Deansgate and get it, I didn't have a sprint in me) but I got to the bus stop with eight minutes to spare for the next bus which arrived three-quarters of an hour later.