Saturday 25 November 2017

A quick but successful sprint round Marton Mere

The Safari took advantage of a sunny morning yesterday and picked up CR for a swift rush round the nature reserve. We had family duties in the afternoon so were time limited to make sure we got back to Base Camp to make all the necessary preparations. We had a particular target in mind and after the double success of the Scaup and Ring Necked Parakeet at Stanley Park the other day C was 'expecting' to see the Bittern(s?) and Otters, not that he's ever seen the latter here. At the wetland a Water Rail called from one of the pools and a Meadow Pipit got up from the long grass around the northern edge. At the main gate we decided to go round anti-clockwise for a change taking us to the Woodland Watch hide first. Here a Grey Squirrel mooched about with a small number of Chaffinches and a Dunnock. Over to the left two Apple trees had shed their fruit and three Blackbirds were taking advantage of the windfall. C spotted another movement beyond the Blackbirds, a Fieldfare - superb, that's the one we wanted as they've been thin on the ground so far this season. But from our seat at the far end of the hide we couldn't see it as it was down in a little depression. Only one thing to do - move seats to the near end and success, there it was in all its multi-coloured thrushy gorgeousness. At long last we got a much improved pic for our Year Bird Challenge, we'd got it on our tally last March but that one was at distance and in atrocious light, so a closer one even if still in poorish light was much appreciated. A second one appeared but neither stayed long as a passer-by on the footpath behind the hide flushed them deep in to the scrub.
Moving on we didn't stay long at the next hide nut carried on to the Bird Club hide passing a singing Cetti's Warbler and calling Goldcrest on the way. RH was already in the hide but hadn't found anything out of the ordinary. There were a lot of Coot on the water and all of a sudden something got them scuttering across the water towards the far bank. We couldn't see what was causing the commotion, possibly just a Cormorant coming up underneath one of their backsides. The main thing we noticed was that the ginormous reed island that recently appeared had disappeared being broken up and floated off by the previous day's gale force winds and rise in water level from the torrential rain. That meant that we didn't have close views of many of the wildfowl that we'd enjoyed on recent visits and we didn't see many Teal of which one which may be the Green Winged Teal that was apparently reported last weekend. 
Wandering on we left RH to go the opposite way. A few yards later we saw that a large Willow tree that blocked much of the view from the little viewing platform had been removed - good stuff. We had a bit of a slippery look from the platform only to flush a large number of Wigeon, Shoveler and Teal...so that's where they were all hiding!
At the bridge the water going down the overflow was prodigious as was the flooding in the fields to the east, rarely have we seen them so wet. Wet but fairly devoid of birds as far as we could tell.
Along the reedbed we heard more Cetti's Warblers but through the scrub we had very little. A quick stop at the Heron Hide gave us a lot of glare and not much else, certainly no Bullfinches.
We saw RH coming from the opposite direction approaching the Viewing Platform so we aimed that way too. After a bit of chat our phone went off, JS was calling, we'd not long since noticed him down at the far end by the bridge. "Have you seen the two Otters by the Mute Swans?", "err no we haven't where exactly?, "By the juvenile close in to the reeds", "Oh yes, cheers, nice one!!!" Thanks for that J.
A little far off for a decent pic but they did put on a good show for several minutes, unfortunately our time was up and we had to leave before the show ended. We'll never tire of seeing Otters here.
Diving Otter or floating football?
So no Bittern for us as usual but great that C broke his Marton Mere Otter duck.
Where to next? We've got a couple of visits back to the nature reserve lined up next week, one of them will be helping the volunteers out with a bit of hedgelaying which should be fun even if we will mostly only be standing and pointing cos of our bad hands. No flailing an axe around for us!
In the meantime let us know who's breaking up and sailing away in your outback.


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