Day Out to WWT Martin Mere 18th August 2012

A look at the weather forecast for Burscough suggested a fine day and with the weather being so changeable this month we thought we should drive out to Martin Mere WWT for the day. I was encouraged but recent reports on their web site that there had been a number of Kingfishers seen from the Ron Barker Hide. We had seen Kingfishers there before but not this year – so far ! Would we get lucky? Read on.

When we got to Martin Mere the weather wasn’t exactly as described but, given that this was a Saturday, we were happy enough because it was still dry and not too busy. We headed straight for the Ron Barker hide whic is what we usually do these days because it is so very reliable for seeing something or another of interest even if it is not what you intended.

Before we had had a chance to get set up in the hide we were already watching a Marsh Harrier flying low over the ground and later we were to see another (or the same one) near a Kestrel both on the lookout for a meal.. A quick scan of the water revealed a fair number of Black-tailed Godwits in several variations of plumage. As usual, lots of Lapwings and a smattering of Coots and Moorhens and around 30 Black-headed Gulls and a few Herring Gulls. There were lots of Mallards on the water and Swallows overhead. As we started to examine the various islands we saw two Common Snipe roosting on an island but later they came off and gave us better views as they fed in the water.

Later in the day we got chatting to another birder who said he had seen a Sparrowhawk take a Snipe from the Ron Barker Hide so there were more yesterday. As we were looking at the Snipe we panned across and there was a Wood Sandpiper. The supercilium was very clear and other birders confirmed the id. This was a first for the year for us but it wasn’t to be the last first for the year as our attention was drawn to – a Kingfisher, just to the right of the bridge perched on one of the two sticks that protrude from the stream and presumably were put there for this reason. It perched there long enough for photographers to get lots of pictures of them – including me as I brought my 500mm lens with me just for this possibility. With a 1.7 teleconverter on it and the ISO cranked up I just about managed to get enough speed to get half-decent pictures, although they were still hand-held and therefore a bit soft. Eventually it flew under the bridge and was lost for ten minutes only to reappear on the left side of the bridge perched on one of the gnarled branches that overhang the stream. Further views were enjoyed by everyone.

So, a second first for the year ! Returning to a scan of the islands we also saw a Common Sandpiper. Looking further back there seemed to be a few Teal around and there were a couple of Grey Herons in the background. As we sat scanning the water another birder cam down from the upper hide and pointed out a tree in the distance where, upon examination, we found a lurking Sparrowhawk – another first for the year. Perhaps this was the one that did for the Snipe yesterday ?

By this time we were getting towards 1pm so we thought that, fantastic as this hide was, we had better get going if we were to see any of the other hides. We skipped the Kingfisher hide – from which we have never seen a Kingfisher – and popped into the Hale hide. This was totally devoid of any birds – except one; a Green Sandpiper which was slowly walking around the edge of the pool. Unfortunately it walked around to the right and we lost sight of it behind the very overgrown greenery to the right hand side of the pool that obscures a lot of the view from half of the hide. This bird was our third year tick !

We dropped in to the Raines Observatory but there was nothing out of the ordinary there so we headed off for lunch around 2pm and then went down to the United Utilities hide which is another favourite of ours, though at this time of year it is overgrown. As we arrived we were greeted to the sight of a Marsh Harrier fling low and only about 60 feet or so from the hide so we got spectacular views. It seems to be almost impossible to come to this hide and not get good sightings of Marsh Harriers. In fact, a little later on we saw three Marsh Harriers together though rather more distant. Another birder said that there had been reports of a male Hen Harrier around but I don’t know about that and I certainly didn’t see one.

There was a particularly large roost of Greylag Geese amounting to around 500 and there were also much smaller numbers of Canada Geese. There were five Cormorants, three Herons, Lots of Lapwings and scattered among them, Starlings. Whilst we were looking out the right side of the hide where there are a lot of bushes I could hear a short alarm call being repeated and it sounded as if it came from one of the bushes there. After much scanning I eventually found a warbler hiding among the branches and there were clearly two birds because the one I was looking at was not making the alarm call. I thought long and had about what this largish, rather plain, warbler was but it had very few distinguishing features being mainly plain light brown on the back and with only the slightest barring on the end of its tertiaries. It had a whitish throat and only the faintest of eye stripes. In the end I had to put it down to a possible Whitethroat. I wasn’t entirely happy with this id but I couldn’t recall seeing a bird that looked quite like this before so when I got home I looked up the Martin Mere web site for the day’s sightings and there it reported that someone had see a Garden Warbler near the In Focus shop so this got me trawling through the books and videos and, in the end, I was quite convinced that we had seen a Garden Warbler -a life tick for us ! Whilst the books were fairly convincing the videos we have of Garden Warblers convinced us completely.

At that point, however, we were still mulling this bird over when we saw something entirely strange. On a metal post in the distance we saw through the scope what appeared to be a white bird lying on its back on top of this post with it’s neck flopped down the side of this pole and a sad-looking head turned to one side. We looked at this over and over again trying to see if we were imagining this interpretation of what we were looking at. Even after a while we still couldn’t imagine what it was if it wasn’t a dead bird. Then eventually we looked back again – it was gone ! A big mystery that we could not figure out.

By this time the afternoon was getting on so we popped into the Janet Keir hide where, apart from the inevitable Woodpigeons, there were only a Moorhen and chick and a Mallard. We have never seen so few birds from this hide as this ! A quick visit to the Swanlink Hide proved to be fairly ordinary so we called it a day. I think we could fairly say that we were happy with a life tick and three other year ticks.

A nice little bonus on the way home was a Buzzard giving us a nice set for the day of Buzzard, Marsh Harrier, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk !

Bird Sightings : Ron Barker Hide

Species	Count
Teal	4
Mallard	100
Grey Heron	2
Marsh Harrier	1
Sparrowhawk	1
Kestrel	1
Moorhen	10
Coot	20
Lapwing	50
Black-tailed Godwit	20
Common Sandpiper	1
Wood Sandpiper	1
Black-headed Gull	30
Herring Gull	4
Kingfisher	1
Swallow	10

Bird Sightings : Hale Hide

Species	Count
Green Sandpiper	1

Bird Sightings : United Utilities Hide

Species	Count
Greylag Goose	400
Canada Goose	50
Cormorant	5
Grey Heron	3
Marsh Harrier	3
Lapwing	100
Garden Warbler	1
Starling	40

Day Out to WWT Martin Mere 18th August 2012