Record Count
It is the time of year when wildfowl begin to flock. This is true whether they be wild or feral birds. At Martin Mere we always get a build up of feral Greylag and Canada Geese and today a count of the latter reached 570 beating the previous count of Canada's from 2005 by 120.
If you want to see a genuine wild vagrant Canada Goose in the UK, Martin Mere is actually a good place to do so. Birds considered to be wild turn up occasionally with big flocks of Pink-footed Geese and a number of different races have been seen over the years. The last record here was in 2012.
Not exactly big numbers so far but at least 22 Pink-footed Geese were present today on the reserve. Looking at the forecast it seems unlikely we will have a sizable influx in the next 7 days.
Another six species of raptor day with 3 Marsh Harrier, Merlin, Peregrine, 4+ Common Buzzard, 2 Kestrel and 2 Sparrowhawk. Probably too nippy for the Hobby to appear in the afternoon.
On the wader front 500+ Lapwing, 30+ Ruff, 10+ Common Snipe, Dunlin, 2 Ringed Plover, Little Ringed Plover, 4 Black-tailed Godwit and Spotted Redshank (heard).
Other notable sightings included 300+ Cormorant flying towards the coast presumably from an inland roost. Two Siskin dropped into the Wildfowl Garden.
Apologies for the lack of pictures. There is a bug in our uploader! Although you can see our reserve sightings map by following us on twitter here in focus WWT Martin Mere and here WWT Martin Mere
