The event was well attended on both days, and I bumped into
several friends out of our group during the course of the day.
If you had the time, there were some interesting talks on
through the weekend and I know others have attended them, perhaps they’ll share
their experiences. I opted for the Nick Baker guided walk, swan feed and
starling murmuration viewing, oh and a spot of duck feeding, well you have to….
The Nick Baker (who had to leave Dartmoor at 3am to get to
Martin Mere in time that morning!) walk was laid back and informative. Martin
mere’s reserve manager Tom Clare adding additional narrative about the reserve
along the way. It was surprising to hear that Nick hadn’t visited before, and you
got the impression he was quite impressed by what it had to offer.
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| Nick Baker walk |
If you were thinking this would just be a guided bird walk you’d
be wrong; Nick chatted about all kinds of stuff including ivy leaf mining insects,
the importance of holly to winter invertebrates and leaving damaged fallen
trees were they fall, giving it the chance of regeneration such as the
properties of willows. Reminiscing of laying on the floor whilst watching a
crane fly being dissected by ants, climbing a favourite tree to watch badgers
as a youngster and how this interest saved him during a particularly low period
in his young life. We enjoyed laughing at the rats in the Janet Keir hide!! And
seeing a kingfisher fishing from the Gladstone hide.
We wondered at the sight and sounds of pink foot skeins overhead
and awkward whooper swan landing on the mere, more comical when there ice. More
topical chat about birds seen on the reserves; like the incoming Scandinavian
thrushes, redwings and fieldfares and putting apples out for them in your
garden. Admiring the ruff on the mere and telling the different between
godwits.
Video clip from his talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkW4USR2WsQ&feature=youtu.be
The swan feed was mainly a shelduck
fest in front of the discovery hide, despite there being 15,000 pink footed geese and 1660
Whooper swans on site, always good to see the scrum with its accompanying
cacophony. Pintail, teal, mallard, redshank, wigeon, ruff, godwits joined the
throng.
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| Ruff & black tailed godwit |
The starling murmuration is bringing
in bigger crowds by the day, 50,000 starlings swirling about, great to see them
closer to home than Sunbiggin, It’s certainly a good year to see the spectacle,
as there’s one in Frodsham as well.
It was a beautiful sunny still day on Sunday, the perfect day for
our group’s field trip to RSPB Hesketh out marsh; this is an exposed sight and
can be quite unpleasant in winter, so we were fortunate for once with the
weather. Unfortunately the peace and quiet was disturbed by the repetitive recall
of gunfire from the local clay pigeon shoot behind the reserve; at least no
wildfowl were being shot.
 |
| Embankment |
Twittering and moving through the hawthorn hedges we could see tree sparrows,
linnets, goldfinches, long tailed tits, robin, blackbirds, fieldfare, redwing,
song thrush and chaffinch. Pheasant, wood pigeon and a lapwing favoured the
harvested sprout fields.
 |
| Wigeon |
On the marsh whistling wigeon outnumbered everything, others
present included shelduck, teal, mallard, shoveler, a grey heron and a couple
of paddling little egrets. A couple of Whooper
swan families numbering 10 individuals where on the back pools.
A peregrine sat in a distant tree, later to be seen diving
and having an aerial scrap with a crow, whilst up
to five marsh harriers were skimming the embankments below. A green wing tag
which told us one of the female harriers had come from Norfolk, tagged by the North
West Norfolk ringing group with hawk and owl trust.
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| Injured sparrowhawk |
Other raptors included a kestrel hovering over the back fields
and an injured female sparrowhawk; looking very sorry for herself, huddled
close to the fence line, not so far away a shelduck carcass lay partially
plucked on the mud bank. We can only surmise what might have happened to both
birds
Scanning another pool two greenshank, their white plumage shining out alongside
commoner redshank. A sprinkling of dunlin was present with black tailed godwits
and a distant grey plover on a rear mudflat.
 |
| Sheep unperplexed as a flock fed alongside and over the footpath |
A grey wagtail and several meadow pipits, foraged by the puddles
on the path alongside the marsh edge.
Further along the path we found a ‘dopping’? of 11 female - goosanders,
with two goldeneye and two great crested grebes. We eventually found a single Spotted Redshank
on the walk back, its long thin confirming its identity.Sporadic flocks of pink footed geese flew over heading in the direction
of marshside, which is where we headed next.
The Marshside visitor centre was bustling with birders, so we
decamped to Nel's hide to finish our trip. Sadly no dowicher had lingered but
we were treated to additional sightings of snipe, gadwall and common gull.
Not a bad weekend at all.
