Something a little different to our usual blog content, here our former site manager, Colin Wells shares a fascinating insight to some local botanical history, inspired by his coronavirus lockdown experiences.

Burton Point (Lynne Greenstreet)

During lockdown a daily early morning walk of mine has been along the Burton Marsh Greenway from Denhall Quay to Burton Point. I realize how lucky I am to have the estuary on my…

Image: Paul Jubb

Burton Marsh Greenway is re-opening today (Wednesday 20 May) after being temporarily closed.

We are delighted to re-open this permissive path (part of National Cycle Route 568) which provides people with green transport links while enjoying views across our RSPB Dee Estuary reserve. Sadly it had to be temporarily closed on 9 May due to a significant rise in anti-social behaviour.

We are very grateful for the patience and support…

Burton Mere Wetlands

Despite some very slight changes in lockdown restrictions in England, Burton Mere Wetlands remains closed to the public for now. Our priority is to ensure that we only re-open when we have everything in place to keep our members, visitors, volunteers and employees safe.

We must also make sure that the wildlife that calls our site home is ready to receive attention after a couple of months completely…

The RSPB Dee Estuary nature reserve is vast and complex, covering over 6000 hectares of varying wetland habitats making it the fifth largest RSPB reserve and the largest protected coastal wetland in the UK. Since 2011, Burton Mere Wetlands has become the much-loved heart of it all, but this series of blogs aims to lift the lid on some of the wilder, lesser known locations we manage.

Owing to its location just the other…

The RSPB Dee Estuary nature reserve is vast and complex, covering over 6000 hectares of varying wetland habitats making it the fifth largest RSPB reserve and the largest protected coastal wetland in the UK. Since 2011, Burton Mere Wetlands has become the much-loved heart of it all, but this series of blogs aims to lift the lid on some of the wilder, lesser known locations we manage.

After Burton Mere Wetlands, Parkgate…

Following the clear instructions from the Government on Monday evening for us all to remain at home apart from a limited number of allowed activities, we are closing our reserve to visitors until further notice.

This means we will close our car park, toilets, hides and trails to the public. These measures are on top of the earlier closure of our visitor centre. It is with great sadness that we ask people to refrain from…

Following the latest government advice we have made the difficult decision to close our visitor centre to visitors from 5pm on Thursday 19 March. This is to prioritise the health and welfare of our staff, volunteers and visitors.

These are difficult and unsettling times for all of us but we hope that nature can provide a welcome respite in whichever form and wherever you may encounter it. We want to do everything we can…

Recent sightings

It's been a wild, windy week with lots going on! Walking towards the visitor centre every morning we're greeted by the sound of the increasingly active scrape with the many black-headed gulls and lapwings busy getting ready for breeding season. It's that lovely transition time between winter and spring, with wigeon, teal, shoveler, shelduck, gadwall and tufted duck all present on the scrape…

Recent Sightings

Spread your wings and shake off the cobwebs - spring is here!

Perhaps tempted by the increasingly sunny skies (and who could blame them!), the most noticeable change to our main scrape this week has been the rapid increase in avocets, making their way back up north and pairing off in preparation for breeding season. Burton Mere Wetlands is a haven for this landmark species, and if you plotted their numbers…

Recent Sightings

What a mixed week of weather with a great mix of birds. 

Across the reserve but mainly from the visitor centre we have had great views of black-tailed godwits, lapwing, snipe, ruff, curlew, oystercatcher, dunlin, redshank, spotted redshank and still occasional sightings of green sandpiper. We did also have a special little wader visit us for a couple of days but you will have to see my star sighting of the week…

Written by Matthew Scarborough, Burton Mere Wetlands residential volunteer

One of the best things about living on a nature reserve is that you’re always a few steps away from seeing amazing things. As a birder it has been such a pleasure to be able to just step out outside and be surrounded by birds and wildlife, some of which are quite scarce in the UK.
The most reliable spectacle that I see get to see every day…

Written by Matthew Scarborough, Residential volunteer.

Recent sightings

A wild weather week with all sorts of weather conditions from sleety rain to warm still sunshine has been reminding us that spring isn’t too far away now!

Great white egrets have been seen every day this week mixed in with the usual daily sightings of little egret and grey herons fishing in pools around the reserve. Some days all three of them…

Recent sightings

The week has been wild yet wonderful! Thankfully the weather did not put off the wildlife or the visitors. 

On Tuesday all the pink-footed geese that were feeding out on the fields past the Bunker Hide decided to head out to the marsh round about high tide time. It was slightly unusual to see them head out on mass in the middle of the day but fantastic to see them as they flew right over the Visitor Centre…

A little update to let you know how I'm getting on as a residential volunteer at Burton Mere!

Written by Matthew Scarborough

Recent sightings

The wetlands here provide us with many daily spectacles and this week we have had the usual fantastic variety and views of raptors. Common sights are soaring buzzards and sparrowhawks as you arrive at the reserve and kestrels just outside the Visitor Centre hovering very obligingly for photographers. Most days we also have marsh harriers quartering over the marsh and reedbed as…

Recent sightings

A week of beautiful wildlife much like the last with a couple unusual visitors that turned up, see my star sightings to find out who!

Still hanging around most of the week was the great egret, one showing well on the Reception Pool then up to seven seen at Inner Marsh Farm Hide. Great to see little egret and grey heron with the great egret, brilliant to watch them interacting with each other as they all…

Written by and posted on behalf of Katie Ellis and Matthew Scarborough

Recent sightings

A week of fairer weather has brought out lots of winter wildlife and lots of visitors too. 

Waders and ducks are still in abundance across the reserve with good numbers of black-tailed godwit, dunlin, redshank, lapwing, snipe, ruff, curlew, shelduck , teal, wigeon, pintail, gadwall, tufted duck and shoveler. Good numbers of geese have…

Recent sightings

 

Its been a fantastic week with everything from robins starting to sign again to the classic Winter visitors still showing well like (ringtail) hen harriers at Burton Mere Wetlands.

This week’s sightings have been for everyone from the novice to the more experienced wildlife watchers starting their new list for 2020 or just simply coming getting for a nice walk and some fresh air.

The waders this…

Posted on behalf of Katie Ellis

 

Recent sightings

Waders have been on top form this week with lots of the expected types of birds seen including dunlin, ruff, redshank, black-tailed godwit, curlew and golden plover residing on the scrape and over at Inner Marsh Farm hide. We’ve also been treated to sightings of up to 7 spotted redshanks on the scrape and a green sandpiper was seen at the end of the day on Friday. Flocks of la…

Happy New Year to everyone from the Dee Estuary team.

It has been a brilliantly busy start to our year at Burton Mere Wetlands. For starters this week we’ve had the water pipit that had been somewhat elusive in December, now a good spot to look out for it is from the Gorse Covert Woodland. From the bench there is a view looking across to the farmers muck heaps where it seems to like to hide behind. Spotted redshan…

I have been here now for 15 months and I’m loving it now more than ever!

 

My favourite project while working at the Dee has been managing the Point of Ayr nature reserve. As assistant warden I get to organise allot of the management there. This year that involved the Winter Wardening Scheme and carrying out Breeding Bird Surveys and managing the little tern project there.

This year at the Point of Ayr was the best…

 This weeks blog was written by Matthew Scarborough our newest residential volunteer.

Recent sightings

Here at Burton Mere Wetlands we’ve had another excellent week for wildlife. Our resident stoat seems even more active than usual and has been spotted quite a few times this week leaping around the wetland.

It has been another great week for raptors with regular sightings of marsh harriers, buzzards and kestrels

…

It’s been a while since we’ve had an update from Woolston Eyes, so here’s a 2019 round-up from me (Dan Gornall):

 

Breeding season round-up:

All in all it was a great breeding season for the Eyes. Perhaps the highlight was the reserve's first ever breeding record of garganey and the first confirmed breeding in Cheshire since 1975! Black-necked grebes had a good year, with 10 fully fledged young being…

Recent sightings

Wet and windy sums up the week! Nevertheless the wildlife at Burton Mere Wetlands is here to cheer us up in times of gloom.

So despite the weather, the waders and wildfowl have not disappointed. Out the back on the wet grassland area the waders have great wet habitat to feed on, so a lot of them are spending time out there. The main scrape thankfully has still had some gems like dunlin, ruff, spotted reds…