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 team. 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 have our lunch.  This hide has windows almost down to the ground with small child sized 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? 

Cattle egrets are a feature of Martin Mere these days. In late summer there can be a flock of over 30 present and it increases every year. Today there were five with the longhorn cattle in front of the Ron Barker hide and they are now in stunning breeding plumage, with orangey tones to their crown, breast and mantle, and most notably a pink tinge to their usually orange bills. They only have this tinge when they are breeding, summer plumage birds do not have this, in the same way that great egrets have black bills in breeding plumage but yellow in summer and winter.

This bird was picking flies off the cows head.

I photographed this roost of eastern cattle egrets from the roof of our hotel in Fort Kochi, India last April. As you can see, the eastern version of cattle egret has a lot more colour on the head in breeding plumage than our bird. I actually think that I prefer the subtleties of western cattle egret, this is a bit OTT for me!

While I was in the Ron Barker hide a bittern flew in from the left being mobbed by a male marsh harrier. The bittern took evasive action and swerved to land in the reedbed on the left of Inner Vinsons while the harrier continued on its way. I knew that the bittern wouldn't stay here long because Inner Vinsons was more or less dry and sure enough after a couple of minutes it flew again before dropping onto Outer Vinsons and out of view. Bitterns now breed at Martin Mere. Meanwhile, a couple of hobbies hunted over Long Wood in the distance.

There were a few banded demoiselles on the stream behind the Gordon Taylor hide. These are the first that I have ever recoded at Martin Mere. Also here large red damselflies and four-spot chasers, plus butterflies which included several painted ladies, a couple of red admirals and a few brimstones.

Painted Lady.

White storks have bred this year in the collection.