Visit to RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands 10th March 2012

Visit to RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands 10th March 2012

After our second morning at Parkgate we returned to Manchester via Burton Mere Wetlands reserve which is just down the road from Parkgate and partly overlooks the same bit of estuary. The newly built reception and hides is very good and the site is very mature already. They have not as yet built the walkways that may eventually join up the two hides they have with the hide on the opposite side of the marsh which is, of course, Inner Marsh Farm. When we were there that hide still seemed to be full of people so it obviously hasn’t been abandoned in favour of Burton Mere Wetlands. It does have the advantage that there is no charge to visit the Inner Marsh Farm site and there is at Burton Mere.

If there is one objection that can be levelled against the site it is that it is very much oriented towards “family” custom and they have gone for comfort and heat over other priorities of hides like unobstructed (by glass) views etc. However it is a good site already.  We overheard at Parkgate that they have increasing sightings of Lesser-spotted Woodpecker here of late so we paid particular attention but to no avail !  The first thing I noticed – even before going into the reception hide – was a single Barnacle Goose in among the Canadians which gave a striking example of exactly how disimilar they are in all respects except both are black and white. There were also two Common Redshanks and two Spotted Redshanks that were feeding together and, again, this was a good opportunity to see exactly how different the two are next to each other. There were also a couple of Pintail and some Shoveler, Pochard, Wigeon and Teal. One of the niceer sightings was a Little GRebe casually swimming along the little stream of water that runs right in front of the hide.

Over at the far hide the star attractions were two Snipe that were in the reeds that were so well camouflaged that despite only being a matter of a few yards from the hide made themselves very difficult to see. A “ringtail” Hen Harrier came over providing fantastically close views from all sorts of angles as it idly circled around one of the ponds before disappearing behind trees at the far side. There were also Pintail, Shoveler and Teal and a couple of Grey Herons.

We walked back through the little woodland path where we stopped to note some very likely Woodpecker holes and drillings but we could not see any. At the feeder station there were lots of Tits and Goldfinches. On our way back to Manchester we finished f with a substantial roost of Rooks in a tree and a Buzzard overhead. By now – the 10th March, we had already seen 83 species of birds in just 10 days of the month.

Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands Reception Hide

Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands Far Hide

Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands Feeder Station