It's been a great year so far for quail, with many singing males being
reported. The Derwent Valley in Derbyshire reported 61 singing males about 10
days ago. Not quite so many in our area but still quite a few, so when one was
reported singing distantly on Sunley's Marsh at Martin Mere on Wednesday, it
seemed a good opportunity to add the species to my Martin Mere list.
Of course one of the problems with quail is that they tend to sing mostly at
dawn or dusk which is currently a full five hours before Martin Mere opens.
However, Wednesdays bird was reported as singing at 13:00 from the Ron Barker
hide so it was worth a go. On Thursday I saw plenty of other great birds on
Vinson's but failed to hear quail so decided to try again and a bit earlier
today. The plan worked and I managed to hear one within a few minutes of
arriving.
Obviously as expected I didn't see the quail, but there were at
least two barn owls flying around plus the usual marsh harriers and various
egrets, but no sign of any spoonbills. Perhaps most impressive, there were 11
green sandpipers with 9 on Vinson's and another 2 on Sunley's.
The plant is tubular water-dropwort, a vulnerable and protected species in
England and Wales which has declined dramatically in recent years.
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