Birding Group Visit to Burton Mere Wetlands / Inner Marsh Farm: 2nd December 2013
For various reasons the birding group visit this week was moved to Monday rather than Tuesday and was at Burton Mere Wetlands on a cloudy and overcast – but dry – day. The rumoured Golden Plover and Little Stint refused to make an appearance but there was a good showing of Wigeon and Teal and there were a few Black-tailed Godwit and a pair of Dunlin. At the back were a few Snipe and in the reeds to the left of the hide we found a Wren and a Stonechat.
Over at the Reedbed Hide there was a mixture of small numbers of Shelduck, Gadwall, Shoveler as well as Teal and Wigeon and a few Black-tailed Godwit.
The trees along the path from the far hide to the reception hide had a lot of birds up top and we managed to locate at least one Siskin but there were also Chaffinches, Goldfinches and Greenfinches. We also found a pair of Bullfinches, one male and one female and a single Coal Tit.
We went on to Inner Marsh Farm and there again we failed to find the Golden Plover and Little Stint – I am starting to think that that at Burton in particular some of the sightings are fanciful ! Anyway we did see a variety of water birds including Shelduck, Gadwall, Wigeon, Mallards etc. We also saw a Grey Heron and A Little Egret. There were a few more Dunlin there and more Black-tailed Godwit. On the walk back to the car park we had good sightings of both Redwing and Fieldfare, Dunnock and Meadow Pipit and a Robin and a Dunnock. A single Curlew flew overhead.
We drove a bit further down and walked onto the marsh path. Unfortunately there was rifle practice going on (this had generally been scaring birds off all morning) so we could only go so far. It probably wasn’t worth going any further with all the shooting going on. Nevertheless we did manage to see a lovely female Kestrel looking a glowing golden in the gloomy afternoon and a Common Buzzard gave us a quick view. Apart from that it was Crows and Jackdaws and a couple of Wrens.
Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands Reception Hide
| Species | Count |
|---|---|
| Greylag Goose | 12 |
| Common Shelduck | 20 |
| Eurasian Wigeon | 500 |
| Mallard | 40 |
| Northern Shoveler | 8 |
| Common Teal | 500 |
| Common Coot | 20 |
| Northern Lapwing | 400 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 6 |
| Dunlin | 2 |
| Common Snipe | 5 |
| Black-headed Gull | 100 |
| Northern Wren | 1 |
| Common Stonechat | 1 |
Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands Far Hide
| Species | Count |
|---|---|
| Common Shelduck | 20 |
| Gadwall | 10 |
| Eurasian Wigeon | 30 |
| Northern Shoveler | 8 |
| Common Teal | 30 |
| Eurasian Common Moorhen | 4 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 4 |
Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands Environs
| Species | Count |
|---|---|
| Coal Tit | 1 |
| Great Tit | 6 |
| Common Blue Tit | 8 |
| Dunnock | 1 |
| European Greenfinch | 2 |
| Eurasian Siskin | 1 |
| European Goldfinch | 20 |
| Common Bullfinch | 2 |
Bird Sightings : Inner Marsh Farm
| Species | Count |
|---|---|
| Greylag Goose | 30 |
| Common Shelduck | 4 |
| Gadwall | 8 |
| Eurasian Wigeon | 20 |
| Mallard | 8 |
| Grey Heron | 1 |
| Little Egret | 1 |
| Common Buzzard | 1 |
| Common Kestrel | 1 |
| Northern Lapwing | 60 |
| Eurasian Curlew | 1 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 6 |
| Dunlin | 4 |
| Northern Wren | 2 |
| European Robin | 1 |
| Fieldfare | 20 |
| Redwing | 8 |
| Dunnock | 1 |
| Meadow Pipit | 8 |
| European Goldfinch | 4 |