Pochard 10 (9 males, 1 female)
Tufted Duck 12
Water Rail 1 in ditch in SW corner
Little Grebe 1
Great Crested Grebe 5
Buzzard 1
Siskin 2
Wigeon. This is the biggest flock of Wigeon I have ever seen at Eccleston Mere.
Other species have not fared so well. By recent standards 10 Pochard is not bad, but as recently as 16th November 1997 I recorded 59 Pochard on the mere, and counts of over 30 were regular around that time. This seems to be a long term decline, the Liverpool naturalist Eric Hardy recorded over 200 on the mere in 1941.
Five Great crested Grebes is a dire count. Over wintering numbers have declined dramatically. Up until the end of the 1990s I would have expected at least 20 birds at this time of year, occasionally over 30.
On the otherhand Water Rails are now a regular feature of any birding visit to the mere at this time of year, up to 3 in recent winters, and Willow Tits have made a come back, and would appear to be safe for a few years at least given the accidental creation of some nice wet woodland at the southern end.
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