Burton Mere Wetlands : 12th April 2016

Burton Mere Wetlands : 12th April 2016

Our first sighting on the day was four Mistle Thrushes in the car park making a lot of noise. We went on to the reception hide where there we were immediately met with a Hen Harrier showing well. A staff member who was out at the Marsh Covert Hide phoned in an Osprey that had been seen over Burton Point. Unfortunately it didn’t come our way.

On the water there were good numbers of Avocets but that was about the only interesting thing so we wandered off to the feeders down by the farm where we hoped to see the Little Owl. We were disappointed in this but got a couple of Wheatear and some other more common birds.

A scan of the scrape showed a mixture of Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank and various ducks. As we got back to the reception hide and walked out the other end, we got great views of a Marsh Harrier. Down at the blind we stopped for a bit to see if we could see the Kingfisher but with no luck having to settle for a couple of Little Grebes. We continued down the path and we could hear a lot of Chiffchaffs, eventually seeing two at the same time.
Down at Inner Marsh Farm we got another good view of the Hen Harrier but it was pretty quiet (and has been the last few times we have been there, perhaps due to too much water and not enough mud) There were a few Gadwall and other ducks, an Oystercatcher and some Little Egrets. Again we could hear Chiffchaffs and other small birds.

We headed up to Burton Point and as we got there a chap told us that there were a couple of Short-eared Owls flying over the marsh. Well they must have got tired of that because we could not see any. We continued on our return journey and dropped into the Marsh Covert hide which was pretty much devoid of life. So it was back to the reception and as we walked back we stopped again at the blind that overlooks the reed bed and here our luck suddenly started to change as we got our first Cetti’s Warbler of the year. We got a quick glimpse as it hopped up a reed stem and when it got to the top it let out its unmistakable song before ducking back down into the reeds.

We moved on past the fish pond where we stopped briefly to look at the two decoy Great White Egrets that the reserve has perched high up in a tree at the back of the fish pond. One assumes that this is to attract other Egrets to try to nest there but I suspect some people took them for the real thing because the reserve had put up some notices about it – perhaps they were sick of people reporting these two birds as real sightings.

As we passed the pond, roughly at the spot where we had previously seen Spotted Crake, we saw a group of people with their scopes out, looking intently into a very wet field. Hoping that this might be a repeat, I asked someone what they had found. Much to my surprise it was a bird that had long been on my “must see” list but that I thought I would have to brave the sewage farm at Neston to even have a chance of seeing – a Water Pipit. After struggling to find where everyone was seeing the bird (it’s next to the Pied Wagtails – unfortunately the field was full of them) a chap let me look through his scope and after a good look I returned to my scope and, now with a bit of an idea of where it actually was, I was able to locate it myself. The view could not have been better and as I kept watching it came more and more out into the open until all the identifying features of this bird were clearly evident. Whilst we were there we even saw two Treecreepers in the tree immediately behind us as eye-level apparently unaware of the presence of humans as they went about their business. A Treecreeper, even two, couldn’t top the Water Pipit, though. The day had gone from so-so to fantastic. This “life” tick was now added to a “year tick” of Cetti’s Warbler – and one that was seen as well as heard. I had to drag myself away from it after about fifteen minutes because the others were waiting for me so I returned to the reception hide where I immediately had another “year tick” pointed out to me – a Little Ringed Plover on the scrape.

So, a day that had started with nice views of Hen and Marsh Harrier but looked these being the sum total of the day’s highlights, suddenly changed into a big birding day and one that took my UK list to 245 species !

Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands : Reception Hide

Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands : Environs

Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands : Inner Marsh Farm