Ruff in Breeding Plumage, Martin Mere
WWT Martin Mere : 9th March 2014
On a lovely Sunday morning we decided to drive up to WWT Martin Mere. I had been reading lately that there was a male Ruff there in nearly full breeding plumage and I really wanted to this quite rare event – rare especially in the north of England. We had an early and pleasant truck-less drive up there and were ready for our cup of tea before setting out for the hides. As it happened they had lost all their electricity and the place was plunged into darkness. Well at least the hides didn’t depend on electricity so we immediately went out in search of our Ruff.
We popped in to the In Focus shop and asked Andy Bunting where the best spot was to look for it and he said that it was quite often on the Mere and could be seen from either the Swanlink hide or the Raines Observatory. On the grounds that we usually see the Ruffs quite closely from Raines we headed off there first.