Birding Group Visit to Burton Mere Wetlands 24 June 2025
We had been on holiday in Spain for a couple of weeks at the start of June, so it was the 24th June before we rejoined the birding group when we had a morning out to Burton Mere Wetlands. I say the birding group but there were only four of us! Be that as it may, we made the best of it and actually had a good visit and even got a single year tick as soon as we arrived.
On the scrape, the Avocets, Black-headed Gulls and Canada Geese all had lots of young scurrying around making finding other birds difficult. We got the usual range of ducks and waders but the highlights were a pair of Spotted Redshank in breeding plumage on the main scrape and a Spoonbill down by the bridge which was looking particularly splendid. According to the staff it is the first time a Spoonbill has bred at Burton Mere Wetlands and she had a pair of chicks in a nest in the trees looking back from the new Inner Marsh Farm hide. I didn’t go all the way down there as I wasn’t feeling up to it but the others did and they added some breeding plumage Knots and Black-tailed Godwits to their day-list.
I walked slowly back to the café which was open (rare for a Tuesday), sitting for a while at each bench to listen to the ambient sound which was blissfully quiet and soothing; in fact there didn’t seem to be many visitors apart from the regular birders that you always see there.
I sat outside the café and scoped a Little Ringed Plover and waited for the others to catch up. When they did, we walked out to the barn and got a Kestrel, a Buzzard and a Marsh Harrier! Over the scrape there were Sand Martins flying and staff told us that these were – at last – breeding at the reserve.
Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands on 24 June 2025
| Species | No |
|---|---|
| Avocet | 36 |
| Black-headed Gull | 60 |
| Blackbird | 2 |
| Buzzard | 1 |
| Canada Goose | 20 |
| Cetti's Warbler | 2 |
| Chiffchaff | 1 |
| Coot | 6 |
| Gadwall | 10 |
| Great White Egret | 1 |
| Grey Heron | 4 |
| Jackdaw | 30 |
| Kestrel | 1 |
| Lapwing | 4 |
| Little Egret | 20 |
| Little Grebe | 1 |
| Little Ringed Plover | 1 |
| Magpie | 4 |
| Mallard | 10 |
| Marsh Harrier | 2 |
| Moorhen | 2 |
| Oystercatcher | 1 |
| Redshank | 1 |
| Reed Warbler | 1 |
| Rook | 50 |
| Sand Martin | 20 |
| Shelduck | 2 |
| Shoveler | 8 |
| Song Thrush | 1 |
| Spoonbill | 1 |
| Spotted Redshank | 2 |
| Swallow | 4 |
| Tufted Duck | 4 |
| Woodpigeon | 4 |
| Wren | 3 |