New Hides Officially Open!
WWT Martin Mere Wetland Centre is pleased to announce the opening of two new hides - Rees Hide and Tomlinson Hide.
In early February, Martin Mere announced the plans to build the new hides and asked the public for their name suggestions. We received over 100 suggestions and ultimately made the decision to go with the names of Tomlinson Hide and Rees Hide.
The Tomlinson Hide is named after Chris Tomlinson, who worked at Martin Mere for over 40 years, establishing the reserve and creating the reedbed. Rees Hide is named after Eileen Rees OBE, who also dedicated over 40 years to the trust, monitoring our swans on the reserve.
The hides were opened on 28 April, with the Rees Hide officially opened by Eileen Rees, who kindly said a few words about her time at Martin Mere and the conservational work completed by the trust.
Chris Tomlinson said: “It is a great honour to have this hide named after me and a huge nod of thanks must go to all those involved – I know how much work is involved behind the scenes in making such a thing happen.
“Having worked at Martin Mere for 40 years on the reserve, I have spent many an hour sitting in all the other hides counting and observing birds – and witnessing the fantastic array of wildlife and habitat this very special place has to offer.”
Louise Clewley, Reserve Manager at Martin Mere, said: “We’re really excited to see what comes in front of the new hides. We’ve created new scrapes with lots of mud exposed so fingers crossed we’re going to get lots of waders. We’ve created lots of islands which will hopefully provide nesting opportunities for avocets and common terns, maybe the oystercatchers.
“Come and take a look when you next visit, it’s a great spot to see the marsh harriers hunting. And listen out for Cetti’s warblers and sedge warblers in the reeds.”
We'd like to give a special thanks to Bob Owen, who kindly contributed towards the hides in memory of his late wife, Joan Owen. Joan Owen was a volunteer at Martin Mere for 20 years.
