October 2011 archive

Oct 31 2011

Summary of October 2011

Summary of October 2011

We went to Martin Mere on the 2nd where I bought a new pair of binoculars and gave them their first run out. The birding group got going properly this month so we went to Marbury Country Park on 4th and Pennington Flash on the 11th and Leighton Moss on the 18th and Inner Marsh Farm on 31st. Inner Marsh Farm is now expanded with the addition of three new hides and the opening up of other ponds. The whole area is now called Burton Mere Wetland. See below for more details of this first visit to the new RSPB site.  On the 24th no one else could attend the weekly birding group outing due to various commitments. We had planned to go to Wigan Flashes which had been postponed previously but since there was only myself and Anne and Mike available we decided to go instead to Martin Mere for our first real sight of the Whooper Swans and the Pink-footed Geese in large numbers.It was a fine day and we did a comprehensive tour of the site with around 31 species spotted and large numbers of some of them as the migrants start to collect for the winter.

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Oct 31 2011

Birding Group Day Out to Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB 31st October 2011

Birding Group Day Out to Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB 31st October 2011

This was the first time we had been to this particular part of the site. Previously the site had been called Inner Marsh Farm and had a small entrance “hut” and a small car park. You could walk through woodlands and then between fields and then back into more woodlands before you came to the single hide which overlooked a lake. They instituted  an expansion plan which involved digging out some more lakes and adding three more hides on the opposite side of the lakes from the original hide. The area opposite the old hide has now become the new reception area where they have a main “hide” which is a large windowed double-glazed affair – all rather posh. They have another, smaller hide just off to the side and both of these overlook the new ponds. There are also toilets here though, as yet, no cafe or coffee machines. We started off by checking in at the hide at Reception but only remained there briefly before going on to the far hide where there is a little display charting the history of the whole site and how it got to the substantial size it is now.

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Oct 25 2011

Day Out to Martin Mere WWT 25th October 2011

Day Out to Martin Mere WWT 25th October 2011

It being a Tuesday, it would normally be a birding group day but as it happened everyone else was busy – probably because it was half-term – so we were looking at just the three of us – Anne, Mike and myself – going to Wigan Flashes which was the scheduled visit for this week. Since we didn’t have to fir in with anyone else for the day we decided to make more of a day of it so we decided to go to Martin Mere where more of the Pink-footed Geese had arrived and the first big batch of Whooper Swans had already arrived.

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Oct 18 2011

Birding Group Day Out to Leighton Moss RSPB 18th October 2011

Birding Group Day Out to Leighton Moss RSPB 18th October 2011

Although the day started out pretty wet and looking a bit grim, by the time we got to Leighton Moss RSPB the day had picked up a little and although it remained very variable, the weather managed to keep dry whilst we were there. We thought we stood a bit of a chance of seeing Bearded Tits as there had been reports of them particularly near the grit trays on the Avenue so we headed off in the direction of the Public Hide first. Although we did not manage to see any Bearded Tits we did have one or two highlights.

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Oct 11 2011

Birding Group Day Out to Pennington Flash 11th October 2011

Birding Group Day Out to Pennington Flash 11th October 2011

We were supposed to go to Wigan Flashes this day but the weather was so poor that it was decided that we should go to Pennington Flash again just because it has enough hides to provide pretty continuous cover if needed and needed it was as we went from hide to hide whenever there was a bit of a lull in the rain. there was also a driving wind which is always at its most furious in the Horrocks hide where we started. The only good spot here was three Little Grebes although we all spent an age discussing whether a duck with a white front was actually a cross bred Mallard or something more interesting. In the end we decided that it was a cross breed because it started swimming with other Mallards when some flew in. Apart from that it was all Coots and Canada Geese and Lapwings and Cormorants

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Oct 04 2011

Birding Group Day Out to Marbury Country Park 4th October 2011

Birding Group Day Out to Marbury Country Park 4th October 2011

We were hoping that today’s birding group visit to Marbury Country Park would be a chance to catch up with those birds who had seemed to be lying low of recent weeks but we walked through the woods at Marbury with hardly a sight of any birds. I spotted a single Nuthatch and there was the odd Blackbird and Magpie and even a Jay was spotted by some but- other than that – the pickings were lean indeed. We did eventually spot a couple of Buzzards and a Kestrel but woodland birds seemed to be at a premium today. We had better luck when we came to Budworth Mere however.

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Oct 02 2011

Day Out to Martin Mere WWT 2nd October 2011

Day Out to Martin Mere WWT 2nd October 2011

I had been looking for a new pair of binoculars and since I usually get my kit from the “In Focus” shop at Martin Mere WWT  I asked them to let me know when they had a pair of Swarovski 8.5 x 42 ELs in stock so that I could have another try of them before taking the plunge – having tried them before but being in need of further certainty before lashing out on an expensive bit of kit. So we headed up there and spent about an hour trying them out and – eventually – buying them. I needed a quick cup of tea to recover from the spending so we headed off to the new cafe for a refresher before setting off around the site. As usual, we headed down to the Ron Barker hide first.

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