Birding Group Visit to Burton Mere Wetlands 30 June 2026
The last day of the Spring/Summer Birding Group term saw us at Burton Mere Wetlands on a day that, despite the rather grim weather forecasts, turned out to be a nice sunny and warm morning with not too much of the recent humidity. Although we didn’t see anything very special there was at least one special bird – not a year tick, but worth seeing.
Out of the five or so Ruff’s that we saw, four of them were in almost full breeding plumage and actually had a ruff which not everyone in the group had seen before. A single Marsh Harrier was mobbed by the many Black-headed Gulls nesting on the scrape. The Avocet chicks have almost all grown so that they now look nearly adult. There weren’t many ducks around; just a smattering of Teal and the odd Shoveler to add to the Mallards but I did see a single Redshank and a single Ringed Plover. Also on the scrape were four Mediterranean Gulls, at one point all standing together in a group.
A Chiffchaff and a Cetti’s Warbler were also present and a Reed Warbler was nesting right in front of the reception hide and could be seen from time to time flying to and from its nest.
We stayed for until 12:15 when we had to leave for our group lunch at “Pesto at the Yacht Inn” where we planned our next term of birding – see next post
| Species | No |
|---|---|
| Avocet | 34 |
| Black-headed Gull | 80 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 10 |
| Blackbird | 1 |
| Canada Goose | 30 |
| Carrion Crow | 2 |
| Cetti’s Warbler | 1 |
| Chiffchaff | 1 |
| Coot | 4 |
| Grey Heron | 1 |
| Greylag Goose | 10 |
| Jackdaw | 8 |
| Lapwing | 2 |
| Marsh Harrier | 1 |
| Mediterranean Gull | 4 |
| Moorhen | 8 |
| Redshank | 1 |
| Reed Warbler | 1 |
| Ringed Plover | 1 |
| Ruff | 5 |
| Shoveler | 4 |
| Swallow | 6 |
| Teal | 20 |
| Tufted Duck | 1 |
| Wren | 1 |