WWT Martin Mere 14th November 2017

The first birding group visit of November (the previous weeks outing having been cancelled due to bad weather) was to WWT Martin Mere. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see any Brambling, the single Great Scaup or the Greenland White-fronted Geese all of which had been reported as having been seen recently; neither did we meet anyone who had. Be that as it may autumn at Martin Mere always had the spectacle of Pink-footed Geese and Whooper Swans that rarely disappoints.

A good inspection of the trees along the path to the Ron Barker Hide failed to produce any Brambling though I did get a single Redwing. There wer some Tree Sparrows but nothing particularly exciting. At Ron Barker, there were a fair number of Pink-footed Geese with more coming in regularly during the day. There were also some Whooper Swans but many are out in the surrounding fields during the day – a count that morning had them at one thousand strong. There were very large numbers of Teal and lesser numbers of Shoveler and Wigeon. We did get a wonderful view of a Kestrel who flew in and landed on the gate just in front of the hide on the other side of the ditch. She sat there for a while before dropping down into the grass and them coming back to her perch with a field vole for lunch !

As we walked back down to Raines Observatory we looked again at the Kingfisher hide and as we approached it we got a small, mobile group of Siskin.

At Raines there were many more Whooper Swans and some Greylag Geese. There were also high numbers of Ruff – and a very varied set of plumages there were including one that had a very white head and neck. This bird seemed much more belligerent than the other Ruffs and I supposed that it might have some testosterone pumping through it’s system from the spring !

There were a few Goldeneye and Pintail and the usual Shelduck, Shovelers, Pochard etc. At the new Discovery hide which more or less looks out on the same bosy of water we were able to add a single Black-tailed Godwit.

The rain had started by now so we got a bit wet going down to the Janet Keir hide which was almost solely occupied by Rats and apart from a pair of Mallard we didn’t see a single bird. A return visit after United Utilities hide saw an improvement but not by much. It was outside Janet Keir, though, that we got a small flock of Redwing.

At United Utilities we got the fantastic sight of large numbers of Pink-footed Geese arriving on the site from Iceland or Greenland, circling for a while before deciding that they had found their traditional field and then dropping down into in a noisy cacophany until they eventually all found their places and went quiet; presumably ready for a sleep before starting to feed.

The only other impressive spectacle was in the distance in the form of 32 Common SNipe all spaced out feeding on and off a spit of land. The increasing drizzle made viweing a bit tricky, though.

In the reeds outside the Harrier Hide it seems there has been a big Starling roost recently – and hence there have been good “murmurations” Unfortunately that isn’t until dusk so we couldn’t wait around for it. There wasn’t a lot to see there but there were a couple of Little Grebe and the first Marsh Harrier of the Day

In summary, although we didn’t see any of the birds we were really targeting, there are always great experiences to be had at WWT Martin Mere in autumn when all the winter visitors start to arrive.

Bird Sightings : Martin Mere Environs

Bird Sightings : Martin Mere : Kingfisher Hide

Bird Sightings : Martin Mere : Ron Barker Hide

Bird Sightings : Martin Mere : Raines Observatory

Bird Sightings : Martin Mere : United Utilities Hide

Bird Sightings : Martin Mere : Harrier Hide