A Field Notebook: Fifty years of Martin Mere

Friday 5 January 2024

Fifty years of Martin Mere

Fifty years ago today (half a century!), my Dad took me to Martin Mere for the first time. I was aged 11. The reserve opened to members a few months later, but wasn't open to the public for another year, yet Dad somehow got us a guided tour of the new reserve by the first curator, Peter Gladstone. A few days later we received a letter from Peter which I still have.

Fifty years later my wildfowl trust membership is the only one which has withstood the test of time. Even when my RSPB membership fell by the wayside for a while, still I stayed a member of the Wildfowl Trust (or Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust as it is now), and I've had two spells of volunteering on the reserve.

My database tells me that over the past 50 years I have been to the reserve on nearly 460 different occasions and seen 186 different (wild!) species of bird there, more than any other single site.

I wanted to spend some time at Martin Mere this week in order to celebrate the anniversary and remember my Dad, and I've not been disappointed with some great birds and birding. Many things have changed over the years, for example my Dad would not recognise the harrier hide and nearby reedbed which did not exist when he was alive, while the hides around Woodend marsh are very new, having all been built over the past year or two.

The array of birds on offer has also changed dramatically. Today I saw three different species of egret, two great white, two little and 14 cattle egrets with the longhorns. At least seven marsh harriers quartered the marsh, unthinkable in my Dad's time, and Cetti's warbler sang from the reedbeds. Two months from now, the first avocets will have returned, birds which my Dad wouldn't dare have dreamed of.

Back in the early days, long before the reedbed walk, when the old Crawford hide looked out over farmers fields rather than Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust land, I'm not sure that it was possible to get to the sewage works, and even if it was possible, I'd certainly never even heard of Siberian chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita tristis. Unappealing though this area might sound to many, the scrub around the sewage works has really added a new dimension to birding at Martin Mere, opening up the possibility of species which otherwise would be very difficult, as evidenced by last years yellow-browed warbler. Today I had to be content with a single Siberian chiffchaff, which was calling, and several regular P.c.collybita chiffchaffs. The photo above is a Siberian chiffchaff from last January.

This red-breasted goose arrived in the north west with a big flock of pink-footed geese at Banks in December and everybody seemed relatively happy with it's credentials. Unfortunately it blotted it's copy book by traveling to Martin Mere with the pinkies where it joined up with the feral greylag flock and decided to stay. It's got a limp on it's right leg which seems to make some birders doubtful of it's origins, though I personally don't understand why a limp would indicate captive origin. Do wild birds not get injuries? To be honest I would have thought that an injury would be more likely in wild bird.

As for it staying with the greylags, I don't see what that proves either. It's easy to imagine a scenario where an injured wild bird arrives with pink-footed geese at Martin Mere and meets the feral greylag flock. Feeding is easy and Martin Mere is relatively safe, so why wouldn't it stay a while? It's safer and easier than hobbling around a marsh with a pink-foot flock which is always on the move. Plenty of other wild birds are on the mere, there's a few hundred wild whooper swans for a start, which are fed every day by the trust, plus many other species such as shelduck join in the frenzy. Why does being on the Mere suggest that it's an escape?

It's a smart bird whatever the truth.

Bewick's swans used to dominate the Mere, with several hundred present every winter, but these have all but disappeared and have been replaced by many more whoopers. These are whoopers flying over Langley brook.