Sightings - Martin Mere
17600 Pink-footed Geese
Brilliant start to the day with impressive numbers of Pink-footed Geese roosting on the reserve. The count came to 17600 although we tend to think many more birds are now present in the area by late afternoon as good numbers of new arrivals have been comi
6 October 2017
Wet and Windy
The migration door was well and truely shut today with blustery wind and showers throughout the day. Whooper Swan numbers edged up to 38 birds including the first family party with 3 juveniles and ~ 5000 Pink-footed Geese roosted on the reserve.
4 October 2017
First Whooper Swan groups and Pink-footed Geese
True to form the weather for Iceland and the North Atlantic provided good condition for an exodus of Pink-footed Geese and the seasons first groups of Whooper Swan. At the time of writing 23 Whooper and c.6000 Pink-footed Geese had arrived although some o
3 October 2017
Latest sightings and predictions..
Overcast with some light rain showers and light winds on Sunday making for good viewing condition. It's been noticeable that the numbers of Pink-footed Geese have been dropping back over the week with less than 400 in the roost today. The birds are moving
1 October 2017
Marsh Harriers
Few reports recieved today, but still plenty of action with up to 5 Marsh Harriers still in the area and giving great views at times. Still plenty of Common Buzzard including a few pale birds and one strikingly pale individual.
30 September 2017
Red Kite
Another excellent day for raptors with a juvenile Red Kite new in which spent most of the morning on site being follwed by the resident Marsh Harriers and Buzzards, both keeping a close eye on the new visitor. Other raptor totals for the day 5 Marsh Harri
29 September 2017
Buzzards
An excellent day for raptors, hard to tell how many were seen today but with 21 counted in the air at one point, there were probably easily over 30 seen today. Also at least 5 Marsh Harriers again showing well, Sparrowhawk again on one of the islands on t
28 September 2017
Ruff
A good count of 73 Ruff on the Mere this afternoon, also still plenty of Snipe around with at least 200+ estimated, 25 Black-tailed Godwit and 1000+ Lapwing. Some of the Ruff including plenty of juveniles on the Mere (T. D
26 September 2017
Skua!
The weather today looked superb for bringing in something unusual, very low cloud and rain/drizzle. Good numbers of Snipe with at least 250 possibly more were an indication of new birds in. Then at midday a pale adult/sub adult Arctic Skua flew over the I
25 September 2017
Weekend Sightings
Fairly benign weather conditions made for some pleasant birding over the weekend. The deep low in the North East Atlantic is blocking any major influxes of Pink-footed Geese at the moment although a recent count put numbers near 20,000. A very pale leucis
24 September 2017
Wood Sand & Little Gull
A few new birds today in the form of a cracking juvenile Wood Sandpiper which appeared over the Mere early morning calling and then spent the rest of the day being very mobile around the site appearing to have freshly arrived. Also late afternoon a 3rd ca
22 September 2017
Whooper Swans return
The first Whooper Swans appeared yesterday with a count of 7 birds, we have had 5 with us throughout the summer so 2 new birds seemingly arriving with the recent big arrival of Pink-footed Geese, also coinciding with returning birds on the Western Isles i
20 September 2017
Corncrake and the autumn spectacle
Breaking news for monday with the sighting of a Corncrake on the Reedbed Walk! A great find for visitor Chris Richens who managed to get these great shots before it disappeared into the undergrowth. No further sign by 5pm.
18 September 2017
Tracking the arrivals
More Pink-footed Geese have arrived/are arriving with 5500+ counted early afternoon. If you want to track some of the Pink-footed Geese, WWT Monitoring have set up a site which updates the satellite telemetry on a number of goose species. Click on this li
15 September 2017
Pink-footed Arrivals
Newly arrived Pink-footed Geese coming in from high. Conditions following Storm Aileen looked good for bringing in Pink-footed Geese and in they came. At the time of writing around 1800 birds had come in. The next cou
14 September 2017