Recent sightings
Well the reserve has had a fantastic show of wildlife this week. With a new bird for Burton Mere Wetlands...see the star sightings below to find out what!
On 21 Sunday we had a pink-footed goose roost count over the whole marsh with a count of 4500, great numbers for this time of the year. The duck numbers and species continue to grow with 900 pintail regularly being seen on the bridge pool, along with wigeon, gadwall, tufted duck, teal, shoveler across the reserve.
From reception hide this week we have had some great autumn visitors with kingfisher whizzing past over reception pool and landing in the willow tree and Thursday we had a really exciting pass of a merlin being mobbed by crow’s right in front of the window and land in the same willow. Several other raptors have been around including, marsh harrier, peregrine, sparrowhawk, kestrel and hen harrier (ringtail) gliding very elegantly over the scrape.
Friday they came in two by two, with cattle egret playing hide and seek with each other under the cows, little egret dropping in for a quick wash, green sandpipers furiously feeding on the scrape along with a couple of spoonbills landing then flying off several times. Three spoonbills then appeared on Saturday.
We have had regular visits from whooper swans on the scrape and the curlew sandpiper appeared for a short feed. Other fabulous shows from the waders include black-tailed godwits and lapwing, both doing spectacular acrobatics to avoid the raptors while the ruff, redshank, snipe and dunlin sneak into their flocks for protection.
The brambling, linnet, bullfinch and siskin all showing well, mainly up near the railway bridge with some great close glimpses of stonechat from reception hide.
All the feeders are buzzing with life that the kids are getting really excited about like great spotted woodpecker, nuthatch, greenfinch and the green woodpecker has been seen in one of its favourite spots up on burton point.
Still some beautiful butterflies around like red admiral, small tortoiseshell, peacock and dragonflies still include common darter and migrant hawker. A spectacular encounter viewed from Marsh Covert Hide by one of our regular visitors was a stoat taking a water vole and then drag it in the reed piles for dinner.
Star sighting
The star sighting for this week is a bearded tit which is a first for Burton Mere Wetlands. It was first seen on 23 Tuesday from the reedbed screen. We have had more sightings since and it was last seen Thursday afternoon. So come and visit you just never know you could be the one to spot it again.
We had a breeding record of them in 2003 in Neston Reedbed with three successful birds fledging.
Wardens' wanderings
Liz and the team of volunteers have been hard at it cutting back scrub, clearing drainage channels, mowing all the path edges, clearing up old cut vegetation, blowing the leaves from the car park and paths and repairing the ramp surface. This time of year there is allot scrub clearance and maintenance going on.
Get involved
Half term is here! We have a spooky a family quiz trail 'Wild Things at Halloween' for the whole family to try and come see what shadowy creatures you can spot in reception hide. The autumnal wildlife is in full swing now with ducks galore and the brown, gold and red colours of the trees are starting to show at Burton Mere Wetlands.
The Badger Hide is still available to hire. Just Friday night our residential volunteer had some great views of two badgers that looked like they had been scrapping. For bookings email: deeestuary@rspb.org.uk
It was Wirral Wader Festival this weekend and we were at West Kirby by the Marine Lake with our camera expert Ron Thomas. Ron brought his camera equipment which looked over to Hilbre Island and gave us good views of brent geese, dunlin and cormorants. This was a great opportunity to highlight the amazing waders we see on Wirral coastline this time of year and be a part of the festival partnership event.