Day spent here today; absolutely belted it down on the walk to the reserve, and I was a hair-breadth away from giving it up as a bad job. Very glad I didn't. Highlights:

Station to reserve:

1 whitethroat
1 reed bunting
3 yellowhammer
12+ corn bunting
10+ house martin
3 pied wagtail
2 yellow wagtail
c10 skylark
4 rook
20+ stock dove
13 shelduck (in someone's garden)
c15 lapwing
1 oystercatcher
1 buzzard

Main reserve:

Goldcrest, chiffchaff, willow warbler, blackcap, whitethroat, reed warbler, sedge warbler, Cetti's warbler, tree sparrow (lots), linnet, reed bunting (lots), swallow, house martin, skylark, song thrush, etc.
10+ swift
1 cuckoo
Moorhen and coot with broods.
1 teal
7 gadwall
3 shoveler
5 wigeon
1 pintail (female with damaged wing)
c15 tufted duck
5 pochard
79+ shelduck
3 mute swan
4+ little grebe
2 great crested grebe (one on nest)
1 ringed plover
30+ lapwing
1 little stint (first time I've seen one in spring plumage)
4 redshank
25 black-tailed godwit
14 avocet
5 oystercatcher (including one chick)
2 little egret
4 grey heron
1 little gull
300+ black-headed gull

Cracking day, with the new reedbed walk from the Harrier Hide an excellent addition (especially if you're partial to reed buntings; never seen so many outside a winter flock); spectacular views of the female cuckoo sat on a fence directly in front of the hide from here; very much the highlight. Fantastic day though it's been, I am, though, extremely glad to be out of my wet socks.

Worth noting, too, that if you're coming here by train, the path immediately from the station has been closed, so you now have to walk around the village to the level crossing; adds around 10-15 minutes to the walk.

-- Edited by Shannon Llewellyn on Monday 29th of May 2017 11:02:36 PM

 

I was working in the Southport area and stopped off at Martin Mere on the way back.  Nothing special to add - no rarities on the reserve and no passage migrants.  I was hoping to take some photographs of Warblers and any butterflies although it did not plan out that well.  Main targets were  Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Whitethroat and Grasshopper Warbler- the latter reeling on the newly opened Reed bed Walk.  2-3 Brimstone butterflies and some Chaser dragonflies were nice to see.  Neither was in the mood to pose though. 

Martin Mere have opened up a new walk opposite the Harrier Hide - it can be accessed from here and loops through the reed bed and onto United Utilities Hide - I think you can get to the two viewing screens but that does not appear encouraged.   It adds a much better perspective to the reserve and enables those who spend too much time in cafes (me) to burn a few of those calories off.  Makes me wonder though any reason for so many bushes in the reed bed?  I am surprised a lot of it has not been cleared out to manage the place.    

-- Edited by Sarfraz Hayat on Wednesday 10th of May 2017 10:57:00 PM

An interesting visit yesterday with my family; totalling 50 species. Highlights includes 4 Mediterranean gulls (a couple of whic gave fantastic views), ringed plover, blackcap, tree sparrows close, redshank briefly close, pochard, and on a nice walk back to the station we had skylarks, corn bunting and a wonderful suprise- around half a dozen yellowhammers -a 1st Martin Mere area record for me!!

Visited the reserve from 10am until closing at 16.30, other than the first hour which was cloudy, the weather was dull, cool and misty, accompanied by a heavy drizzle.

Sightings similar to Shannon's below although probably saw in excess of 40 Ruff. Spent an hour or so from the Ron Barker Hide trying to find the Green winged Teal but failed miserably!

10.30-2pm in murky conditions.

1 Mediterranean gull
1 buzzard
1 possibly 2 little egret
1 great black backed gull
1 tawny owl
1 goldcrest
20+ ruff
2 black tailed godwit
4 snipe
2 goldeneye
whooper swan
pink-footed goose
shelduck
pintail
wigeon
teal
pochard
shoveler
tufted duck
plenty of lapwings around
plenty of tree sparrows around
plus all the usuals around.

10-4pm

1 green-winged teal, found it preening at first on the grass inbetween vinsons & sunleys from the ron barker hide then feeding with the other teals on the back of sunleys.
3 buzzards
1 sparrowhawk
2 kestrels
1 kingfisher
1 little egret
as you would expect at this time of year there was big numbers of wildfowl....
pink-footed geese
whooper swans
shelducks
teal
wigeon
pintail
3 goldeneye on the mere
pochard
shoveler
gadwall
tufted duck
lapwings all around
43+ ruff
15 snipe
3 black tailed godwit
2 great black backed gulls
plus all the usuals around.

I also had 6 corn buntings on curlew lane before here.

An interesting day with 51 species found. Highlights including 2 white fronted geese amongst 30000 pink footed geese, a Jay, a kingfisher that kept hovering along the brook from the United utilities hide with also a female pied wagtail landed on the ground floor roof within a couple of feet from the upstairs hide windows, goldcrest, grey wagtail, a dozen plus snipes and a flock of redwings flying over. The Swan link hide no longer exists which surprised me (although the new discovery hide was built to replace it), they have put a couple of screens in place which are quite neat! Thanks......

930-13.30 today with Dave Morris, Dave's first visit to the reserve and a few lifers as a result I believe.

38 species in a fairly relaxed wander around, the main thing was the arrival in giant flocks of a couple of thousand Pink-footed Geese, against a bright blue sky the sight and sound was wonderful. These are birds fresh in I guess? By the time we left, the main water and most of the immediate fields were carpeted, if you can carpet water...nothing scarcer I could see in amongst them.

Other highlights were a juvenile Marsh Harrier perched up really close on the edge of the Mere, which gave us a couple of close fly-bys, and a quick look at the currently present Pectoral Sandpiper viewed from the UU Hide. It was skulking in vegetation so we were lucky with it. Other birds were as you'd expect, plenty of Ruff and Snipe, chirpy Tree Sparrows, hundreds of Teal, first handfuls of Wigeon and the odd Pintail.

Y'day 21 Sept, pm

1 Greenland White-Fronted Goose, from Ron Barker
1+ Kingfisher (h), from United Utilities
1+ Green Sandpiper (h), from Ron Barker
15 Ruff, from United Utilities
1 Marsh harrier (ad f)
1 Peregrine, caught prey (possibly a teal)
Many Lapwing
2000++ Pinkfoot Geese
1 Snipe
1 Grey Heron
4 Buzzard
2+ Swallow

Also reported by others earlier on:
1+ Little Stint, from United Utilities & Ron Barker
1 Pectoral Sandpiper, from Ron Barker but was flushed by Peregrine

I took my friend out who has recently recovered from not been well over the past 2 months to Martin mere for the day. Saw 45 species including goldcrest, stock dove, buzzard, Marsh harrier, chiffchaff, green sandpiper, ruff, snipe, black tailed godwit, and 4 moorhens that were persisting with fighting with each other for over half an hour at the feeding station- one in particular was trying to chase the other 3 away.

10.00-14.30

1 Buzzard, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Kestrel, 8 Little Ringed Plovers, 2 Common Sandpipers, 100+ Black tailed Godwits, 3 Whooper Swans, 16 Oystercatchers,

2 Little Egrets, a single drake Wigeon plus masses of Lapwings, Black Headed Gulls etc. Lots of newly fledged Black Headed Gulls around too, although the Avocets have all moved on.

May 24th. Around edge of kingfisher pool from kingfisher hide...1 Cetti's warbler..feeding..(watched on/off for around 5 minutes. Also on sunleys marsh 1 little egret.

2nd May 11.30-2.30pm

A cold day here. Highlights included:
1 Swift (my first of the year)
1 Common Tern
2 Trees Sparrows seen and more heard in the undergrowth.
1 Corn Bunting singing on Curlew Lane (Outside of the reserve)
1 Common Whitethroat singing

A really enjoyable leap day at Martin Mere.  Stars of the show were...

Whooper Swans - reliably informed that there are still about 1,000 around, certainly hundreds were on site.  Such fun to watch them bugling away together!

Marsh Harrier - at least one 'cream-crown' harrier seen hunting, from United Utilities hide, Raines Observatory and Ron Barker hide

Ruff - about 50 from UU hide and a few feeding right in front of Raines

Barn Owl - just a delight to watch one hunting from Ron Barker hide - it flushed several Snipe, in the process

Plenty of Wigeon, Pintails, Shelduck, Lapwing
9 Pink-footed Geese
1 Black-tailed Godwit
1 Pochard
1 Ross's Goose

Tawny Owl roosting (but well hidden)
Tree Sparrows

 

My original plan for the day was to drive over to the Wirral, but with high winds whipping around (at least in the morning) I decided that somewhere sheltered might be a better idea.  ITs a fe years since I last visited Martin Mere and I was pleased to say that there were a lot more birds present than the last time I was here. I spent most of my time in the Discovery and United Utilities hides with a half hour or so at the end of the day at the Ken Barrett Hide.

While I do normally try to count numbers ( to add to my Birdtrack records), there were just too many birds on the Mere and too much activity from the birds, prompted to some degree by Marsh Harrier(s) and Peregrine that were hunting. I recall some of the WWT estimates for numbers, but by no means all of them

c1650 Whooper Swan

1 Berwick Swan (seen by one of the WWT staff around 3PM)

1000+ Wigeon

1000+ Teal

500+ Shelduck

c350 Pintail (I've never seen so many)

1000+ Pink-footed Geese (These were off the reserve most of the day, so I only saw a small part of the est 5000 in the area)

1-200 Mallard, c20 Tufted Duck, c10 Pochard and a handfull of Gadwall

4000+ Lapwing (with, reportedly some Ruff in amongst them)

c50 Oystercatcher

1-2 Marsh Harrier (4 reported)

2-3 Buzzard

1 Peregrine

3-400 Black Headed Gull, 1 Herring Gull and brief glimpse of probably Great Black-backed Gull 

A small number of Pheasant and Reed Bunting plus typical tits and finches on the feeders.

I had 42 species in all and a few welcome year-ticks.

Not seen by me, but reported from the Ron Barker Hide - 1+ Barn Owl giving great views mid-afternoon, 1 Kingfisher

-- Edited by Charles Farrell on Saturday 30th of January 2016 01:24:36 PM

10.30-4.15pm.  51 species seen.

hundreds of whooper swans spread around, not a lot of pink footed geese around, lots coming in late on, 1 ross's goose.

big numbers of teal all around, eventually paid of for me just before 4pm when I located the green-winged teal from the united utilities hide but all teal were soon put up by something.

wigeon, pintail, shelduck, pochard, shoveler, gadwall, tufted duck, no sign of the goldeneye.

30+ruff amongst the many of thousands of lapwings around.

3 marsh harrier, 3-4 buzzard, 2 barn owl, 2 tawny owl, short-eared owl had been seen but not by me, 1 peregrine falcon, 1 sparrowhawk, 2 kestrel.

2 stonechat, 1 kingfisher, 7 snipe, 2 goldcrest, plus all the usuals around

Cold wind but good weather otherwise. Highlights included; female pochard close, female sparrowhawk flying over low, about 30+ Fieldfare, 12 redwing, 1000 whooper swans, lapwings and common teal (i couldnt find the green winged teal), 1 oystercatcher, a goldcrest that almost decided to land on me as I stood still watching it close (changed its mind just when it was 1ft from me in the air) and 1 lesser black backed gull and his mate - a hybrid herring/lesser black. Finished feeling very tired but glad I got out. Managed 47 (excluding hybrid gull).

Nice day spent here today; best of the sightings:

Railway station to reserve:

1 goldcrest
1 meadow pipit
20+ tree sparrow, most in a single flock.
1 yellowhammer
30+ fieldfare on the ploughed field running parallel to the road leading to the entrance.
5 or so redwing with them
Plenty of rook and jackdaw
A couple of stock dove picked out from large feeding parties of ferals and woodpigeon, undoubtedly more.
1 sparrowhawk (a male, watching the tree sparrow flock intently)
1 buzzard
100+ whooper swan in a semi-flooded field
2 pink-footed geese in the same field (though away from the whoopers), and perhaps 250 over, in two skeins.

Reserve:

2 goldcrest
15+ tree sparrow
100s of shelduck, teal, wigeon and lapwing
40+ pintail
c40 gadwall
2 shoveler
7 pochard
10+ tufted duck
1 goldeneye
c70 pink-footed geese, coming in in the late afternoon
c100 greylag geese
c150 whooper swan
5 ruff
2 sparrowhawk
2 marsh harrier
1 barn owl

Also at the NW Birdfair for most of the day yesterday.  Had much the same as Steve, but of note I had a single Golden Plover in with approx 1,000 Lapwings out from the UU hide (unusual record at Martin Mere), a lone Dunlin in a similar area, plus a few Goldcrest along the pathways and a Raven overhead.

I was also asked by an elderly lady to help ID a bird she had photographed in the collection area on some ivy, it was a lovely Chiffchaff (not a Siberian though!?).

Nice day pottering about up there as ever......

Spent the day here for the NW Bird Watching Festival. I was interested what people got in the "first annual North west Bird race" but stupidly forgot to check the board on the way out (was instead checking out the hot chocolate..). Our group of 4 casually got 40 species during the course of the day, we didn't participate in the actual contest though.

1 Merlin
circa. 30 Goldfinch, small numbers of Chaffinch and Greenfinch
Long-tailed Tits, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits
Flock of around 14 Tree Sparrows
Grey Heron
Shelducks, Pochard, Pintail, Wigeon
1 single Barnacle Goose (next to Ron Barker hide), Pink-footed and Greylag Geese
5 Ruff
Black-Tailed Godwits
Whooper Swans x many, 2 Bewicks Swans and only 1 Mute Swan that we noticed (later in the afternoon when we realised we hadn't seen one and looked out for one)





No Kingfisher today, no Marsh Harrier, no Buzzard, no Tufted Duck and surprisingly no Collared Dove or Canada Geese!

9:30am - 5:15pm. 10,000s of pink footed geese were the main activity on the reserve today. I went to look for the reported bewicks swan but no sign of it all day. But, just before leaving, my experience told me to give it one last try from the Hale hide. So at 4:40pm and sure enough, found it! My 2nd and best view which also made a few other people including my mother happy. Other highlights included 2 peregrines, 1 buzzard close, a female kingfisher, a common gull and a goldcrest. And that's that for now. Ta.

Steve Burke and I had a decent day today, arrived at around 1030 and left at 5 as the Mere was filling up. It was as atmospheric as ever watching the squadrons of geese flying in.

Walking over from Burscough we saw 5 Corn Bunting, including a nice close perched one, and then when we rounded the corner to head across the fields Steve noticed a raptor and we were thrilled to see a Merlin chase a Skylark right across the field in front of us. Stunning agility, from both birds really. Steve also clocked 3 Redwings and 3 Siskins over us, I missed them both, which was irritating.

On the reserve we had high hopes for a Bean Goose and so we spent an hour or so in the UU Hide first, staring out at hundreds of Pink-footed Geese. No joy on the Beans but great views of 2 juvenile Marsh Harrier and a female Peregrine at pretty close range in front of us. With a Sparrowhawk, the usual Buzzards and a Kestrel that made 6 raptors.

There were hundreds more Pink Foots visible from Ron Barker Hide so we headed over there next. The geese were largely much nearer so we were feeling confident about picking a Bean out. I got onto an interesting bird with orange legs and we spent at least an hour glued to it. It was ticking a few boxes, especially with those legs, but we just never quite got the clinching view we wanted. However Steve spotted 2 interesting birds together and when we looked at them and checked Collins they were juvenile Greenland White-fronted Geese! They disappeared again in the maelstrom but what great birds to pick out. Also present 2 Barnacle Geese and a showy Kingfisher. More great views of the Marsh Harriers from there too.

We went over to consult Andy in In Focus on the geese and he was able to clarify from photos that the 'Bean' was just a Pink-foot, which I think we knew deep down. But it was a great bit of learning for me certainly, and they were my first Greenland White-fronts anyway. In a final twist of irony, the numerous Teal we had largely been ignoring included a male Green-winged, which we obviously hadn't seen at all. In eclipse plumage apparently, so we didn't feel too incompetent after hearing that. But 3 solid hours staring at geese certainly keeps you honest. I deserve a nice easy twitch after that!

Walking back we flushed a Grey Wagtail from the ditch opposite the gate into the reserve. Also notable a flock of 20 or so Pied Wagtails heading into town, perhaps to roost by the big Tesco? Steve's quick photo of the White-fronts made it onto the WWT website too!

-- Edited by Simon Gough on Sunday 11th of October 2015 09:30:53 PM

Afternoon visit to Martin Mere to see the Pink footed Geese come in from Iceland and what a spectacular sight today with thousands arriving at the mere .I recon over 30000 Pink footed geese came into the mere today many coming in from very high which means they are new arrivals from Iceland.
If you want to visit the mere once this year make it in the next week for the spectacular geese arrival, last year 42000 were here at this time ,I recon they may top that this week.
Also today 4 Marsh Harrier (1 ad female + 3 Juvs) Kingfisher-1,a few Ruff, Snipe and Wigeon.

2 Green Sandpiper, couple of Black Tailed Godwit, plenty of Ruff, 1 Marsh Harrier and excellent views of a Kingfisher were the highlights from a visit today.