Burton Mere Wetlands : 15th September 2015

Burton Mere Wetlands : 15th September 2015

It seems that we just cannot keep away from Burton Mere Wetlands and, with the resumption of the birding groups visits opening with a visit to Burton Mere Wetlands, we were back there again for the second time this month.  Our morning started with a fantastic – and entirely fortuitous – sighting of two Spoonbills looking impossibly white heading away from the reception hide and over Inner Marsh Farm. They went south and then turned back towards the north before disappearing. They were a bit hard to identify but with all the staff of the reserve watching them the id wasn’t a problem !

We waited for a while to see if the would come back before we headed down to Inner Marsh Farm to look for waders – always a good probability here at this time of year. We were not to be disappointed.

On show, there,  were a number of year first; a single Curlew Sandpiper, two Little Stints and three Greenshanks. There was also a Green Sandpiper,a pair of Ruff and four Snipe and a small flock of Dunlin. Over all this flew a small flock of Lapwing and a fair number of Teal were passing the day on the water.

This banquet of waders was suddenly disrupted when a Peregrine flew through them and got them all up. We watched as it followed some birds towards the Marsh Covert hide where we saw it joined by a second Peregrine. Needless to say the mayhem left the water in front of Inner Marsh Farm completely empty until  eventually a single Oystercatcher flew in, probably wondering why he had the place to himself.

Gradually a few Teal came back in but we concluded that the Peregrines had put  suitable end to a great hour at the Inner Marsh Farm hide. We walked back along the path to the reception hide stopping to admire a passing Marsh Harrier. This brought to an end a very satisfying day that gave us everything – including four year ticks !