Birding Group Visit WWT Martin Mere 25 November 2025
The last birding group trip for November was to WWT Martin Mere. It was a nice, dry day with great visibility. There was perhaps a lack of birds at some of the hides but we still managed to get 41 species and two year ticks.
We headed straight for the Ron Barker hide, stopping briefly, to look at the trees on the other side of the main road to try to identify a couple of winter thrushes but they were hiding amongst the branches so identification eluded us until our return from Ron Barker where we got better views of year-tick Fieldfares.
At the Ron Barker hide we were amazed to find that there were no birds on the water at all and mostly none on the surrounding grassland. We had to settle for a couple of Buzzards on posts.
Coming back we stopped at the other hides getting a Snipe but it wasn’t until Raines Observatory that we started to see all the usual ducks, though only in small quantities. A single Ruff and a single Black-tailed Godwit were feeding around the water’s edge. There were not as many Whooper Swans as you used to see at Martin Mere which is disappointing.
We headed up towards the newly reopened United Utilities hide. I was told that it had been done up and was much improved but, when we got there, it didn’t seem to be any different so I’m not sure what improvements they made; certainly none to the layout of the interior which is still a huge waste of space having the stairwell in the middle. They would have done better to make it like Ron Barker where the steps upstairs are outside of the hide.
The highlight here was a few Cattle Egret (another year-tick) and a Marsh Harrier, but again quite a quiet day in the hides.
So, not a fantastic birding experience but a good day out on a lovely sunny winter’s day and at forty-one species, including two late year-ticks, not too shabby.
Bird Sightings : WWT Martin Mere 25 Nov 2025
| Species | No |
|---|---|
| Black-headed Gull | 30 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 1 |
| Blackbird | 1 |
| Blue Tit | 6 |
| Buzzard | 2 |
| Canada Goose | 20 |
| Carrion Crow | 8 |
| Cattle Egret | 8 |
| Chaffinch | 4 |
| Coot | 40 |
| Cormorant | 2 |
| Fieldfare | 2 |
| Great Tit | 6 |
| Great White Egret | 1 |
| Grey Heron | 1 |
| Greylag Goose | 20 |
| Jackdaw | 6 |
| Kestrel | 1 |
| Little Egret | 1 |
| Long-tailed Tit | 4 |
| Magpie | 4 |
| Mallard | 40 |
| Marsh Harrier | 1 |
| Moorhen | 20 |
| Mute Swan | 6 |
| Pink-footed Goose | 100 |
| Pintail | 10 |
| Pochard | 6 |
| Robin | 2 |
| Rock Dove / Feral Pigeon | 10 |
| Ruff | 1 |
| Shelduck | 40 |
| Shoveler | 2 |
| Snipe | 1 |
| Starling | 50 |
| Stonechat | 2 |
| Teal | 40 |
| Tufted Duck | 8 |
| Whooper Swan | 40 |
| Wigeon | 20 |
| Woodpigeon | 6 |