Burton Mere Wetlands and Denhall Quay 20th February 2024

The birding group outing this week was to Brockholes. We decided not to go there.; instead we went to Burton Mere Wetlands where, last week, we had gone before going up to Parkgate for the high tide. Unfortunately they were strimming all around the scrape that morning, so we had very little chance to see anything there as everything had gone somewhere quieter. This week there were repair works down at Inner Marsh Farm so there wasn’t much prospect of seeing anything there. However, the rest of the site was free of uproar so we had a chance to catch up on a couple of things. When we arrived there were already a lot of cars in the car park, presaging something special. It turned out that an Otter had been seen at the screen hide.

We weren’t particularly interested in seeing an Otter and we fully expected every male of pensionable age (and a lot younger) to be down there with their cameras so the chance of seeing it appeared to me to be nil. We concentrated, instead, on the usual collection of birds with the best sightings being close views of both male and female Marsh Harrier raising hell among the very many Lapwings, three Spotted Redshanks and a smalling group of early Avocets.

There was nothing else special and by the time we got to the screen hide, the action was over. Another highlight, though, was our first visit to their recently opened (and much anticipated) cafe. They seem to have done a reasonable job of it though you can imagine it being very short-staffed sometimes. Where there were two quaint outdoor loos, they have now added five super-loos, all with plenty of room for your kit as wll as yourself. Now all we need is some loos down at Inner Marsh Farm !!

Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands 20th Feb 2024

Bird Sightings : Harp Inn, Neston 20th February 2024