Latest sightings
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
Otter today
Good start to the day for head warden Tom Clare with the sighting of an Otter heading down Langley's Brook. That's the water way between Vinson's and Sunley's Marsh. It's the second sighting in that area in the last month. Hopefully more to come as we hav
30 August 2017
Wader Weather
Some overnight rain looks like it brought some waders onto the reserve unless they've been hiding in the wet areas out on the far North western fringes of the reserve. More interesting weather throughout the week, by which we mean some rain fronts. A Wood
29 August 2017
First Pink-footed Geese
Autumn is here! Yes I think we have been saying it's autumn for weeks now during the excellent wader passage but with today's arrival of 2 flying Pink-footed Geese it's official. Found with feral Greylag (400+) on the Mere late afternoon it's quite poss
27 August 2017
Hobby
A 1st summer/2nd calendar year Hobby was seen again soaring over the Mere flushing all the birds just after midday. A juvenile Marsh Harrier was again around in the morning, also the usual Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard sightings.
26 August 2017