October 31, 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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