Birding Group Visit to Burton Mere Wetlands / Inner Marsh Farm : 22nd April 2014

Birding Group Visit to Burton Mere Wetlands / Inner Marsh Farm : 22nd April 2014

This morning visit to BMW and INF was our first chance to see the improvements made at the site and opened to the public the previous Friday. As we approached the site we were amazed to find that the main track from Puddington Lane had been tarmaced and the path down to the site itself had been given a heavy coating of stones so that the usually frequent and deep potholes had all been filled in. It was like a new site and this was just the start to some really impressive work conducted on the site making it a more systematically organised site taking in both the usual parts of the reserve and a walkway leading on from the far hide and going all the across to the path to the old Inner Marsh Farm hide. Additionally they have landscaped the site adding a couple of viewing blinds. It is their intention to sell Inner Marsh Farm for development and they intend putting their offices in the old barn on the BMW side of the site. This work has been done very well and the improvements are impressive. To to all this we had some very good sightings including a life tick !.

The life tick was a Yellow Wagtail and was one of the first birds we saw from the reception hide, bobbing around amongst a group of Pied Wagtails that included at least one White Wagtail ! On the grass near them were a pair of Common Sandpipers. In front of the hide there were Swallows and House and Sand Martins swooping across the water and on the islands we found a pair of Little Ringed Plover.

A couple of Redhanks and a range of the usual ducks were present but the Avocets were the most splendid of the water birds.

We walked down to the far hide and as we neared the bend in the path that leads down to the hide we heard a Grasshopper Warbler reeling loud and clear. We spent quite some time listening to it but we couldn’t see it. We could also hear Sedge Warblers and I managed to get a quick glance of a Sedge Warbler parachuting. A quick detour down to that hide was fruitless apart from a very nice pair of Garganey – the first of the year.

We walked down the new boardwalk and although we did not see too much I think that the new blinds are very promising and are a great addition to the site. They expose to view a part of the site that has always been impossible to see from either the BMW or the IMF hides whilst hiding the viewer. As we got to the end of the boardwalk the land rises up to the gate that you reach if you are coming down from Inner Marsh Farm and after you get past the pasture land. In the trees and bushes around here there were lots of birds including Sedge Warblers and Whitethroats.

At the Inner Marsh Farm hide there were impressive numbers of Black-tailed Godwits, now coming into their summer plumage. There were a smattering of Shelduck, Gadwall, Shoveler and Avocet but really the Godwits were the best birds here.

We returned back to Burton and as we walked we got a great view of a Whitethroat and we again heard the Grasshopper Warbler. Back at the hide it was mentioned to us that someone had seen a Little Owl in a tree next to the Nissan hut next to the barn at the far side of the site. We didn’t think it very likely that we would see it but  we gave it a shot anyway and we found the tree. At first there were just three Shelduck perched in the tree until I saw a brown, speckled circular shape near them. A scope showed that it was indeed a Little Owl. One of the reserve workers said that a female was actually nesting in the tree. We watched for quite some time only taking our eyes off it occasionally to glance up at the Whitethroat that kept perching on the electrical cable overhead singing loudly.

We decided that time was getting on and some of our group could hear lunch calling. With 43 species under our belt and nine year ticks and a single life tick we retired to the Inn at Ness for a beer and some lunch very contented.

Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands : Reception Hide

Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands : Environs

Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands : Far Hide

Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands : Inner Marsh Farm