Birding Group Visit to Marbury Park : 10th March 2015

Birding Group Visit to Marbury Park : 10th March 2015

The birding group visit this week was to Marbury Park. It was a pretty quiet affair really. Wes searched the reed bed for Bittern but to no avail. Budworth Mere had the usual Cormorants and Black-headed Gulls on posts and the water held mainly large numbers of Great Crested Grebe and Tufted Duck with just a single Pochard mixed in. At the feeder station there were the usual birds that we had already seen at the bird table at the mere hide; Tits, Nuthatch and the like. In the woods we found a Great-spotted Woodpecker but really the high points of the day were as we left.

On the side of a path we saw two Long-tailed tits going to and fro into a large heap of bramble. Closer inspection revealed a beautiful, and surprisingly large, nest that they were building. It looked pretty complete and you could actually see the ball of the nest moving around as one of the birds shifted around inside. A few of us were taking a bit too much notice for the Tits so rather than upset them we all moved off. This was the first time I have seen a Long-tailed Tit nest in the wild and it made a great impact on me. It was roughly at 53.282700, -2.520732. As we turned left on that path to return in the direction of the car park we also saw a nice sized flock of Redwing on the grass very close to us and these two things were very much the highlight of my day.

Bird Sightings : Marbury Park