Awesome Martin Mere

Martin Mere is far and away the best nature reserve in North West England and probably in the top 5 in the country. It's just an awesome place and an example of how a modern day nature reserve should be run. 

Martin Mere stands alone in a Premier League of one member. Most other nature reserves in the North West are in the championship, a few in division one. Pennington Flash is in the National league. That's the difference. There is permanently habitat management happening at Martin Mere and surveys take place every day, from avocet monitoring to NVC habitat surveys. The results are there for all to see.  The meadows that for centuries have been the abode of waders, wildfowl and raptors are more impressive than ever and they are now joined by one of the largest reedbeds in North West England, second only to Leighton Moss in terms of scale I believe. Today I walked for 9km (6 miles) without leaving the reserve and there was still more that I could have seen. There is just masses of habitat.

However, it's not just the wild areas that are impressive. I arrived today at 10am to find queues at the entrance, virtually all families waiting to get in. I regularly bring my granddaughter here for the day and we don't even go into the wild areas, save perhaps the Discovery hide were we sometimes sit and an have our lunch.  This hide has windows almost down to the ground with small chairs where toddlers can sit and see wild whooper swans, ruff, black-tailed godwits and a whole host of wildfowl at point blank range. But this is the only hide which is like this. All other hides are proper birder hides.

Apart from the collection which is impressive enough, there is a large playground near the entrance, a second playground with a new paddle and play area, a canoe safari attraction, a good cafe and an education centre, plus annual events to attract kids, such as rubber duck race, mud fest, downy duck days and Santa's grotto. Coach loads of excited kids arrive throughout the week from schools and groups such as brownies and cubs. At lunchtime I nipped out to my car to get my sandwiches. When I came back to the entrance the queue was still there and just as long. It's a popular place. 

Yet at Martin Mere wildlife and conservation is always at the forefront. You never forget that you are in a nature reserve where wildlife is the priority.  Even the new paddle and play area has miniature sluice gates so that children can allow water to build up behind them and release it when it gets too full. Education is massive at Martin Mere. 

However, once you leave the main building and the collection area you are completely immune to all of this. I wandered around the hides and wild areas today for miles and just saw a handful of people, all kindred spirits, birders or photographers. There are no families walking out to the Tomlinson hide, and not many birders either. It's just you and the birds. At this hide, or the Ron Barker hide or on the reedbed walk you wouldn't know that there were so many people so close. You can't see or hear them, you can't even see the pens which hold the collection.

Meanwhile, I was at Burton Mere Wetlands the other day, a flagship reserve of the RSPB in North West England and found the new cafe closed, with a note informing me that they can't get the staff to operate it. I wonder why that is? 

Experiencing quail from the Old Coach Road

Sometimes in amongst all of the regular mundane birding, I experience something which I just know will stick with me forever and today I had one of those moments!

A quail was heard in a field adjacent to Dairy Farm Road on Saturday, but there was no sign on Sunday or Monday. Yesterday morning I arrived at Dairy Farm Road early morning and walked the full length of the road to the junction with the Old Coach Road but heard nothing. However, I hadn't gone more than 200m along the Old Coach Road when suddenly I was stopped in my tracks by the familiar "wet my lips" call. It sounded a bit distant but as usual with quail I was happy enough to just hear it, because you can count the number of quail I've seen in the UK on the fingers of one........ finger! Yep, in over 50 years birding I've only ever actually seen one quail in the UK, at Burton Marsh way back on 11th May 1986. I have heard plenty though, including one at Dairy Farm Road in 2009, and my excuse for not seeing them is that I don't expect to see them so I don't even bother trying, I just listen and then move on. 

This morning I had the opportunity to call in again and today instead of walking south along the Old Coach Road, I stood near the metal gate at the start of the track that continues straight on from the end of Dairy Farm Road. Almost immediately I heard a quail calling from the field to my right, on the north side of the track, and it seemed a lot closer than yesterday when it had been to the left, on the south side of the track. I just assumed that it had moved, but apparently not, because a minute later a second bird called from the left and then the bird on the right responded, but now it seemed even closer, so close as to be almost next to where I was standing, almost as if it were in the hedge. 

Odd black-headed gull at Pennington Flash

This black-headed gull was off the car park at Pennington Flash today. I've circulated the photos to a few gull people and groups but it's raised very little interest and even less comment. In my opinion it's hood is very extensive for the species, reaching down the back of it's head while the bill is longer and heavier than I would expect and even a little drooped. 

It probably is just a black-headed gull at the extreme end of the spectrum, while the heavy bill might make it a large male, but perhaps it might have some other genes. Black-headed gull x Mediterranean gull for example, perhaps a cross back.

Red Kite, Dairy Farm Road

This morning I arrived early at Dairy Farm Road hoping to at least hear a quail that was found on Saturday. No luck with that but I was compensated by a red kite flying north over the pine wood at the start of the road. There's been at least one bird present in the Rainford area for a few weeks now, but it's quite difficult to pin down.

Moor House and Upper Teesdale

It was a bit of a last minute decision to spend the night in Middleton in Teesdale last night, which today allowed us to have one of our favourite walks along the River Tees from Forest in Teesdale towards the waterfall at Cauldron Snout.

Unfortunately I couldn't find any spring gentian, I guess the unusually dry and warm spring has caused them to flower a little earlier this year, but still a decent showing of birds-eye primrose and plenty of other flowers to keep us entertained. I heard that the gentians are still flowering at higher altitude on Cronkly Scar and Widdybank Fell, but we didn't go that high today.

Best bird of the day was a male black grouse which we flushed from the side of the footpath.  Plenty of other birds including a variety of waders plus dipper, grey wagtail and willow warblers.

Sunset and sunrise on the Great Orme

I stayed overnight in Llandudno last night and took the opportunity to see both the sunset and sunrise on the Great Orme, both wonderful experiences though dawn was somewhat quieter with virtually no people around, whereas there were quite a few people watching the sunset.

Just the usual birds, the only migrant was a nice male wheatear on both days, probably of the Greenland race, though I did also see a flock or 20 woodpigeons fly in off the sea and continue south. Choughs and ravens were quite numerous and it's good to see the majority of choughs without the multi coloured bling that most carried a few years ago.

I spent most of my time in the morning watching the sea birds which were quite impressive with two rafts of easily 800 kittiwakes on the sea and at one moment hundreds of guillemots and a few less razorbills flew off the ledges in one big group and out to sea. Several black guillemots were close to the cliffs and a similar number of gannets were further out. The Great Orme is always an awesome experience.

Pensychnant biodiversity weekend

Pensychnant is a beautiful place on the Sychnant Pass just outside Conwy, excellent for pied flycatchers and redstarts plus other species such as flyover choughs and red kites. It runs many events and training courses, and a few years ago I attended a bryophyte workshop here.

This weekend there was a biodiversity fair which I attended on both days. Lots of stalls and events and things to do, as well as excellent company and tea and cake.

A bank holiday afternoon visit to the flash

Bank holiday or Sunday afternoon is never a pleasant experience at the Flash with far too many people about for my liking. At times I feel like I'm an actor in a freak show, the strange guy in the funny hat who mysteriously frequents the hides and peers through a telescope. Little children stare at me in wonder, youths snigger in their childish way and older folk seem to think I'm the guide in the hide, harassing me with question after question about what I've seen before inevitably the conversation turns to asking me to identify a bird they've seen in their garden based on an impossible description. 

Sometimes it has to be done though, particularly at spring migration time, so 3pm found me at Horrock's hide looking down the spit. Despite everything it was a pretty decent visit, with arctic tern, two common sandpipers and a 2cy common gull on the spit, the tufted duck with the nasal saddle CH1 on the water, and best of all a cuckoo called from the south side and 50 swifts swirled around overhead, unseen by everybody present except the madman in the hide.

Martin Mere

Another visit to Martin Mere today where the Temminck's stint and wood sandpiper were both still present, in fact there were now two wood sands on Woodend marsh and they both showed very well from the Tomlinson hide.

Other highlights included my first cuckoo of the year, singing from poplar trees adjacent to the reedbed.

Temminck's stint, Martin Mere

I was delighted to find a Temminck's stint on Woodend Marsh at Martin Mere today, my 7th at the mere and all have been in May. Also today a wood sandpiper, yellow wagtail and arctic tern plus 50 avocets and six common terns in amongst the usual species.

Arctic tern was a new species at the site for me, which along with grasshopper warbler last week, brings the total number of species I've seen at Martin Mere to 189.

Stone-curlew, Kelsall, Cheshire

A stone-curlew was found in a ploughed field just outside the village of Kelsall in Cheshire this morning. It was still present into the afternoon so we decided to pay it a visit, hopefully safe in the knowledge that it was unlikely to move on until tonight, barring being flushed. 

Sure enough when we arrived it was on view and sitting in the middle of the field, in more or less exactly the same position that it had been in all day. Fortunately however, shortly after our arrival it decided to go for a walk and started feeding at which time it's "thick-knees" were very obvious. A really nice bird, and one of the best views I have ever had of the species in the UK, despite the annoying heat haze.

This was my third stone-curlew in the north west following birds at Leasowe (2009) and Little Woolden Moss (2015).