Otter notice
⚠️ Otter notice ⚠️
Please note that from Mon 2 Sept to Fri 6 Sept the otters will be off show whilst we complete works on their habitat. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Latest sightings
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
Marsh Harriers
Feeling very autumnal over the last few days with increasing numbers of Pink-footed Geese upto 250 around today.Also a good count of 5 Marsh Harrier as well as 2-3 Sparrowhawk, 4 Kestrel and several Common Buzzard. A famil
12 September 2017
Pink-footed Geese
An influx of Pink-footed Geese undoubtably in from Iceland started to arrive late yesterday building to 40+ this morning. The pressure charts for Iceland have hinted this possible movement although we haven't heard of any large departures from Iceland or
9 September 2017
Latest sightings
A brief update. Yesterday a Bittern was seen in flight from the outer Reed Bed Walk. Wood Sandpiper being occasionally seen on the Mere. Three Green Sandpiper today, 36 Ruff, Greenshank, 70+ Snipe, 600+ Lapwing. One of thr
7 September 2017
Latest Sightings
Complilation from the past few days. Not a massive influx of migrant waders but potentially some new birds in. More weather in the next week looks interesting if you don't mind dodging the showers. Lapwing numbers seem to have gone up again with 600+ bird
6 September 2017
Snipe a plenty
Great weather for Snipe. It's probably just us but when it's raining Snipe do look a little perky, celebrating the soft conditions perhaps. Difficult to accurately count the numbers but with 43 counted on the Mere alone there must be twice that number sec
3 September 2017