Happy New Year to all the Dee Estuary’s followers! 2017 was a year to remember, with breeding cattle egret and a couple of good rarities in the shape of buff-breasted sandpiper in May and pallid harrier in September; let’s hope 2018 can match it!
We’ve barely drawn breath after a busy festive period which saw almost 1200 visitors pass through Burton Mere Wetlands’ doors, but we have an exciting couple of days ahead; we had a Parkgate High Tide Watch planned for Thursday 4 January’s 10metre tide, but we’ve decided to also be at the Old Baths car park on Wednesday also as the 9.9m tide is likely to be pushed in higher by 50mph westerly gales! It will be rather rough to be stood out watching, but those who brave it could well be rewarded with the tide flooding much if not all of Parkgate marsh and potentially excellent close views of hen harriers, short-eared owls and the like. High tide tomorrow is 11.45am, with Thursday’s at 12.30pm.
If you do venture out to Parkgate on Wednesday, it’s well worth stopping by Burton Mere Wetlands afterwards to warm up with a hot drink, plus we’ll have our lovely sandwiches back on sale after the supplier’s Christmas shutdown. Plus, there’s more than a few good birds to check out, with recent highlights including little stint, white-fronted goose, pintail, brambling, merlin and still a very confident kingfisher.
Anybody who visited Burton Mere Wetlands over the Christmas period will have noticed signs on Puddington Lane informing of the road being closed on Saturday 6 January. We have checked with the council to determine how this would affect the reserve; access to Burton Mere Wetlands will be possible approaching from Puddington village, but closed from the Burton direction. So if you are planning to visit this Saturday, make sure you come off the A540, Chester High Road, at Puddington Lane by Craxton Wood Hotel.
If your New Year’s resolution was to get more active, see more wildlife or get more involved with local events and activities, then you may be interested in a couple of forthcoming events. At Burton Mere Wetlands on Sunday 14 January we have the Big Farmland Bird Walk, loosely linked to the RSPB’s huge Big Garden Birdwatch campaign. We have also arranged a Hilbre Low Tide Birdwatch in partnership with the Wirral Coastal Rangers on Saturday 27 January, a rare opportunity for a guided walk across the sands from West Kirby to Hilbre Island for a great chance of close views of some specialist winter visitors like purple sandpipers and Brent geese.
If you haven’t registered for the Big Garden Birdwatch yet, there’s still plenty of time to do so, here. It a really simple way to make a direct contribution to nature conservation, an excuse to relax at home for an hour and hopefully something you’ll really enjoy. Let’s try to make this year the biggest yet!