Day Out To WWT Martin Mere : 26th July 2011

Day Out To WWT Martin Mere : 26th July 2011

We went up to Martin Mere mainly because I wanted to get a part exchange price on my 4 year old Opticron scope from the “In Focus” store there. I spoke to Andy Bunting who works in the shop there and who we have talked to on previous occasions. In fact if memory serves me well he sold me the Opticron originally. I wanted to upgrade to a Swarovski  ATM80HD and was looking for a chance to offset some of the cost. We came to a mutually satisfactory agreement and I placed my order for the scope with stay on case and 20 – 60x eyepiece. Having taken the plunge we did the rounds of the hides and found some other pleasant surprises.

As we entered the main building we had checked out the main sightings board and a Pectoral Sandpiper had been spotted at the Ron Barker hide so we headed there straight away. That particular hide has given us great views of Kingfishers before as well as other good birds so we had high hopes. Apparently the Kingfisher has reappeared (according to the web site) but we didn’t see it. However we did see large numbers of Lapwing and a couple of Avocet adults with 4 juveniles. A long look at the shingle (or is it gravel) unearthed a couple of Ringed Plovers and then a Common Sandpiper which was a first for us ! It kept disappearing into the greenery on the island and as we were trying to spot it again, out came the Pectoral Sandpiper – also a first for us. There were also a few Shelduck and Moorhens and a grey Heron.

On the gravel path there were also Pied Wagtails rather amusingly being chased by a young stoat who was doing backflips and bounding around in a comical manner . It looked like it was chasing the birds just because they were there and the birds couldn’t figure out why it was bothering them and tried to go about their business anyway by hopping out of the way when they had to and then returning to theri gravel pecking. There were also great views of a number of adult and juvenile Swallows perched in large numbers on the logs that overhang the brook and where we have seen the Kingfisher before. A Tree Sparrow also put in an appearance sitting on the fence by the brook.

We then walked down to the Janet Keir hide where we checked out the bird feeders. As usual they were dominated by Woodpigeons and Collared Doves but there were large numbers of Chaffinches and smaller numbers of Goldfinches and Greenfinches and Great and Blue Tits. We popped into the United Utilities hide where we could see the resident Whooper Swan and Greylag and Canada Geese. We could also hear Oystercatchers and on a distant post sat a Common Buzzard. Andy Bunting later told us that if you see a bird of prey on a post at Martin Mere it is almost certainly a Common Buzzard.

We then popped into the Harrier Hide but there wasn’t a lot going on there so we walked back down to the cafe for a cup of tea. We left trying to beat the Manchester rush hour but we will have to go back in a couple of days to pick up my new scope so we weren’t too disappointed with the day !

Bird List