Birding Group Visit to WWT Martin Mere 26 November 2024
On the 26th of November the birding group had a day out to WWT Martin Mere. It turned out to be a sunny day with only one, very brief, spattering of rain. We managed to get 39 species of birds at 2 year-tick winter thrushes.
We headed straight away to the Ron Barker hide and settled in there for half an hour. We saw a couple of Marsh Harriers and a couple of Buzzards as well as a Kestel. In among the cows in the pasture was a single Cattle Egret. The water was mainly covered in Teal though there were a few Canada Geese, four Whooper Swans and a single Pink Footed Goose.
The surrounding field, though held hundreds of Pink Foots and Lapwings. As we walked down to the hide, we got a Mistle Thrush and our thrush spotting was much enhanced by a small flock of Redwing. From the hide a pair of Fieldfare were seen briefly atop a leafless tree showing very well in the sun.
Walking back down from the Ron Barker hide we got a couple of Tree Sparrows and Green and Gold finches and the usual Great and Blue Tits and a single Coal Tit down at the Janet Keir hide.
The main scrape had a very full collection of birds though I still think that the number of Whooper Swans is quite small compared to what it used to be like before ethe demolished the Swanlink hide and built the Discovery hide to replace it. I don’t think the Whooper Swans took to the new landscaping. Be that as it may, the scrape was full of Pintail, Shelduck, Teal, Mallards, Tufted Ducks etc and from Raines Observatory very good views of Ruff were to be seen; a single Black-tailed Godwit was also there.
We stayed until about 2pm and then drove home. A very nice morning out with thirty-nine species seen and two year-tick winter thrushes to keep us happy.
Bird Sightings : WWT Martin Mere 26 Nov 2024
| Species | No |
|---|---|
| Black-headed Gull | 30 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 1 |
| Blackbird | 3 |
| Blue Tit | 6 |
| Buzzard | 2 |
| Canada Goose | 20 |
| Carrion Crow | 8 |
| Cattle Egret | 1 |
| Chaffinch | 10 |
| Coal Tit | 1 |
| Coot | 30 |
| Fieldfare | 2 |
| Goldfinch | 6 |
| Great Tit | 3 |
| Great White Egret | 1 |
| Greenfinch | 4 |
| Greylag Goose | 20 |
| Kestrel | 1 |
| Lapwing | 80 |
| Little Egret | 4 |
| Magpie | 3 |
| Mallard | 30 |
| Marsh Harrier | 2 |
| Mistle Thrush | 1 |
| Moorhen | 10 |
| Pink-footed Goose | 200 |
| Pintail | 14 |
| Pochard | 30 |
| Redwing | 3 |
| Robin | 2 |
| Rock Dove / Feral Pigeon | 30 |
| Ruff | 14 |
| Shelduck | 50 |
| Starling | 40 |
| Teal | 400 |
| Tree Sparrow | 2 |
| Tufted Duck | 20 |
| Whooper Swan | 40 |
| Wigeon | 20 |