Martin Mere

Whooper swans, mallard and ring-necked duck

The blackbird started singing at twenty to four.  It was a lovely sunny April day in February. At a more reasonable hour I checked on the patient to ask how he was doing after yesterday's eye operation then I headed out for a walk to Martin Mere.

Getting off the train at Burscough Bridge it looked like my fear that the rookery had been abandoned was unfounded. A couple were making proprietorial noises and a third flew in with a twig in its beak. I noticed similar activity on the way in as we passed Hoscar Station and again as we crossed Sutch Lane. The warm weather brought out the singing robins and blackbirds in the gardens and a dunnock sang from the hedgerow of that bit of fallow field near the edge of town.

Passing the last of the traffic calming measures out of town I noticed a little egret in the stubble field by the road. The next field had a dirty big puddle in it and a crowd of birds were taking advantage of it to get a bath on a warm day. Most were black-headed gulls and jackdaws, a couple of the rooks from the next field along flew in and joined them and there was just the one common gull. Oh, and eight cattle egrets. They flew over and joined the little egret and gave me the eyeball while I tried to take photos. Taking photos of strongly lit bright white birds against a dark peaty brown soil is a challenge that largely defeats me and so it pretty much did today.

Cattle egret

When I recorded my observation on BirdTrack I got an "are you sure?" flag against one of the records. For the common gull, not the cattle egrets. I've been recording common gulls along this road every Winter for the past never you mind so the element of doubt wasn't coming from my data.

Curlew Lane
I'm really going to have to do test walk over to Mere Sands Wood. 

The big surprise of the walk to Martin Mere was the singing chiffchaff in the trees just further along near Crabtree Road.

Pochard (left) and tufted duck

As always, once I arrived at Martin Mere I headed straight for the Discovery Hide and squinted into the sun to see what was about. There were dozens of whooper swans and they were very noisy. Many had the fidgets and there was lots of barging about and squabbles between pairs. The warm weather seemed to be giving them the travel bug. There were scores of pochards, pintails, shelducks and tufted ducks, rather more wigeons and mallards and very few shovelers and all they on the far side. That bank was lined with greylags, oystercatchers and lapwings. The lapwings were very skittish, unhappy with the pair of great black-backs sitting on one of the islands. 

Whooper swan

Whooper swan

Whooper swan

A few dozen black-tailed godwits mooched about on the islands, occasionally getting themselves caught up with the panicky lapwings. A handful of ruffs and a redshank hid amongst them in plain sight.

Mallards, black-tailed godwits and pintails

Mallards, redshank, ruffs, and black-tailed godwits

The ring-necked duck took some finding. Which was mad because it was right in front of the hide. It woke up and dawdled about a bit to let folk get a good look at him backlit in the sunlight.

Mallard and ring-necked duck

Whooper cygnet and ring-necked duck

Ring-necked duck

Ring-necked duck

Ring-necked duck

Ring-necked duck

Pochard

Pochard

Whooper swans

Whooper swans

Whooper swans

Mallard, whooper swans and ring-necked duck

Mallards, whooper swans and ring-necked duck

Pintail

Mallards, whooper swans, wigeons, pintails and pochards 

I decided I'd not got to the Ron Barker Hide as usual, I would go and have a potter about among the reedbeds, in lieu of my coming in the long way from New Lane.

At the Janet Kear Hide 

The feeders at the Janet Kear Hide were busy with great tits, blue tits, chaffinches and goldfinches. There were plenty of reed buntings bustling about so I lingered awhile in the hopes the local celebrity, a partially leucistic male bunting, would turn up. Alas, it wasn't my day for him. I hope other people had/have more luck with it.

There were hundreds of pink-footed geese in the field by the United Utilities Hide even though it looked deserted at first sight. They were easily overlooked because they were all lined up with their heads down feeding on the far side. There was no overlooking the hundreds that flew in to join them. Luckily I'd spotted a barnacle geese in the crowd before they arrived.

Pink-footed geese

Pink-footed geese

Pink-footed geese

Pink-footed geese

Pink-footed geese

Pink-footed geese

Way over in the reedbeds near the Ron Barker Hide two female marsh harriers floated low over, upsetting a couple of carrion crows but not much else.

A grey ghost of a wader with dark wings shot across the field and headed for the crowd of lapwings in the pool by the Rees Hide. I don't often see greenshanks here.

At the Rees Hide 

I walked round to the Rees Hide. I couldn't find the greenshank but found a couple of ruffs and a black-tailed godwit in the crowd. Teals whistled and quacked in the reeds margins and a few shovelers dabbled about. There was a steady stream of black-headed gulls and herring gulls overhead, heading to all points of the compass at this stage of the afternoon.

The Reedbed Walk 

The Harrier Hide 

It was a glorious walk around the reedbeds. Upwards of a dozen Cetti's warblers were singing in the reeds and a chiffchaff sang from the trees by the Harrier Hide. Mallards and pochards loafed about the roots of drowned willows; tufted ducks, Canada geese and shelducks cruised about the pools, the shelducks being very noisy about it with their chuckling calls. The gulls flying overhead started heading for Southport. Every clump of hawthorn bushes had a singing robin or a couple of blue tits or a troupe of long-tailed tits in it. Despite the warm weather I didn't see any butterflies. I was more relieved than disappointed, there's a cold snap next week and they'll be safer keeping under wraps a couple of weeks longer.

Walking past snowdrops to the Hale Hide

I didn't think I had the legs or the time to walk over to the Ron Barker Hide but the glossy ibis had been reported at the Hale Hide so I decided to walk that far and try my luck. The little pool was busy with moorhens and teals, pintails and greylags nibbled at the last of the potatoes on the dump. But no glossy ibis. So I moved on to the Mere View Hide to see if a higher viewpoint might help. It didn't but I enjoyed watching the rabbits in the brambles.

Rabbit

It was approaching locking-up time so I didn't bother with the Ron Barker Hide (ironically, that's where the ibis was). On the way back I stopped and poked my camera through the wire fence to get some photos of the thirty-two cattle egrets (plus a little egret) feeding on the field across the road.

Cattle egrets

Red Cat Lane 

Looking over to the Pennines

The light played pretty tricks with the landscape on the way back to Burscough Bridge. The hedgerows were busy with house sparrows, goldfinches, singing dunnocks and robins. Woodpigeons and jackdaws went to roost. Hares had staring contests in fields, they'll soon be boxing. 

I shouldn't be surprised to find four cattle egrets feeding by the roadside near Crabtree Road but I was. They were so fiercely backlit they were impossible to photograph.

Looking over towards Mere Sands Wood the lapwings were courting in the stubble fields and, just beyond, a barn owl quartered some rough grazing. The first barnie of the year for me, I hope I'll be getting some less distant views in the future.

The cattle egrets, and little egret, on the edge of Burscough were still there and the lighting let me take some photos. It was an opportunity to get some comparison shots and the backlighting picked up the plumes on the little egret's rump.

Cattle egrets

Cattle egrets and little egret (centre)

Cattle egret

Cattle egret (left) and little egret

Little egret (left) and cattle egrets

Little egret (left) and cattle egrets

I was happy to get to the station and have ten minutes' sit-down before the train arrived. The rookery still wasn't as busy as I should have expected but noise was making up for numbers.