Day Out to WWT Martin Mere 25th November 2012

Day Out to WWT Martin Mere 25th November 2012]

It was the North-west Bird Fair over the weekend so we managed to get up there on the second day. There were lots of interesting stands and displays and I attended a half-hour seminar on digiscoping with Swarovski scopes but we still managed to find plenty of time to get to the main hides and so some good birding. The highlights at this time of year are obviously the Whooper Swans and The Pink-footed Geese which were plentiful, but there were also lots of birds of prey about – though we did not manage to catch them all we did get a great sighting of three Peregrine Falcons all at the same time, on the same fence about eight posts apart from each other. But that wasn’t all.

We also saw a souple of Kestrels and a Marsh Harrier and A Buzzard. We did miss the supposed Merlin and the definite Sparrowhawk but we still felt we had done quite good. There were skeins of Pink-footed Geese to-ing and fro-ing across the sky before deciding to settle in the fields near the Ron Barker Hide. There were also good numbers of Whooper Swans and huge numbers of Teal. We didn’t manage to see the alleged Green-winged Teal that had been around recently but it would take a lot of time to sift through the Common Teal in order to find it – if it was still there.

One of the highlights for me was to see my first Brambling at the Janet Keir hide, usually mixing in with a small number of Greenfinches but occasionally coming down to the feeders. A Great-spotted Woodpecker also showed nicely.

All in all a great day out but the place was heaving with people and the hides were full to bursting point. We normally visit during the week and we had forgotten those days when we only went at weekends.

Bird Sightings : Ron Barker Hide

Bird Sightings : Raines Observatory

Bird Sightings : Martin Mere Environs

Bird Sightings : Janet Keir Hide

Bird Sightings : United Utilities Hide

Bird Sightings : Swanlink Hide