Martin Mere

Kestrel

It was a cool, gloomy day and I set sail for Martin Mere with a few misgivings. I like to imagine I'm not a fair-weather birdwatcher but I wasn't convinced I shouldn't have made a pot of tea and gone back to bed. (I never do but it's a recurrent fantasy when I'm hanging about in the dreich waiting for buses or trains.)

The trains behaved impeccably and we passed by fields busy with corvids and woodpigeons to the published schedule. Just outside Lostock the lead greys of the sky were echoed on the backs of a couple of roe deer in their Winter topcoats. Past Westhoughton I looked in vain for the eagle owls in their aviary. The damp fields beyond Parbold were littered with gulls. And the rooks were starting nest-building at Burscough Bridge Station. Not a concerted effort by any means, just one or two drifting over with twigs while a couple of others grunted as they inspected the premises.

Red Cat Lane 

It was a quietish walk down Red Cat Lane. There were rooks, jackdaws and woodpigeons about but the crowds were over by the railway line. A few carrion crows rummaged about in the fields planted with Winter barley. In the hedgerows and gardens robins sang, chaffinches pinked, goldfinches twittered and titmice quietly bounced about at the ends of twigs. Handfuls of pink-footed geese flew over, calling evocatively. It was the right weather for wild geese calls. Looking over the fields as I passed Curlew Lane I could see more geese, wave after wave, a couple of hundred of them heading towards the fields on the other side of the railway. Closer to hand a flock of black-headed gulls closely shadowed a tractor ploughing a field behind Brandeth Barn.

Black-headed gulls following the plough

Martin Mere 

At Martin Mere I headed straight for the Discovery Hide out of the wind. The mere was carpeted with mallards, the drakes whistling seductively to the ladies. There were more pintails than wigeons and the pochards and tufted ducks took some finding. A couple of dozen shovelers cruised and dabbled by the far bank. There were a couple of dozen whooper swans, most of them full-grown cygnets. Unusually, there were a few mute swans on the mere, too. Shelducks and coots made their way best can through the crowds, the swans sailed through regardless. The greylags crowded the far bank or jostled with mallards and cormorants on the islands. Something put up a crowd of lapwings, ruffs and starlings but I couldn't find the culprit.

Whooper swan and mallards

Whooper swans and mallards, coots and shelducks

Mallards

Greylags, shelduck and mallards

Mallards, shelducks, black-headed gulls and whooper swan

Whooper swans

Mute swan, mallards, coot and whooper swan 

Whooper swan and mallards 

Shelduck

The air felt damp as I walked to the Ron Barker Hide. The sparrows at the feeders by the Raines Observatory were all house sparrows. It was quiet at the Hale Hide and quieter yet at the Kingfisher Hide, save a row on woodpigeons on the fence.

Parasol mushroom 

From the Kingfisher Hide 

From the Ron Barker Hide 
The reeds have taken advantage of the dry Summer to invade the pool.

The Ron Barker Hide was busy with people. I sat downstairs and scanned around. A couple of marsh harriers floated over the distant reeds. A solitary adult cattle egret accompanied the Canada geese grazing over by the fields. Carrion crows bounced about on the banks and a Cetti's warbler sang in the reeds just across the drain. A juvenile kestrel shifted over and started hunting in front of the hide, dropping down a couple of times and flying back up empty-handed. It took a breather in the brambles before flying up to try again a bit further down. It hadn't gone long before a stonechat bobbed up out of the brambles and had a look round 

Kestrel

A possible movement in the grass?

No, shift over a bit to the right then…

…and try again

Kestrel 

A water rail sat out in the open by the drain. It looked a young bird though the dullness of the red on its beak could just have been mud and murky light. One of the marsh harriers, a female-type bird, floated across the back of the reeds and disturbed a couple of teal which flew off at a gallop.

Water rail

Candle snuff fungus 

Walking back I kept an eye out in the trees looking for owl-shaped objects. I still hadn't seen a tawny owl this year. A tawny owl saw me but I was jiggered if I saw it and it wasn't for giving me a second go at seeing where the noise came from. I just don't have the eye for owls. I meet people who can spot owls as easily as I can pick out dunnocks or goldcrests and they can stand me in front of an owl and tell me precisely where to look and I won't see it. There'll be an example of that in the yearly round-up, that particular bird I'd walked past twice and it was four yards away. At least short-eared owls and barn owls give you a sporting chance by hunting out in the open.

Birch bracket fungus

The rain became persistent and I took the hint and set off back to Burscough Bridge for the train home. A male marsh harrier floated past Brandeth Barn and wasn't popular with the pied wagtails. A buzzard on the fence near Crabtree Lane was ignored by the jackdaws and starlings. And for once the train back to Manchester was running and on time.

Tarlscough Lane