Recent Sightings
After the breathless start to autumn captured in our last round-up blog, October at Burton Mere Wetlands has continued to deliver excellent birdwatching along with unseasonably mild, and relatively dry weather.
With water levels still held low to aid the wardens' cutting of the wet grassland, the shallow scrape, pools and exposed mud have attracted growing flocks of lapwings, snipe, black-tailed godwits and redshanks, whilst we continue to have several ruffs, the odd late avocet, curlew sandpiper and some dunlin venturing in from the estuary.
Lapwing, black-tailed godwit, redshank and teal (Paul Jubb)
The ducks have gradually emerged from their moulting, eclipse plumage to regain their distinguishing plumage colours and patterns, with hundreds of teal regularly feeding around the freshly mown islands on the shallow scrape along with smaller numbers of shoveler, gadwall and mallard, whilst tufted duck, wigeon, shelduck and sometimes pintail - when pushed in from the estuary by tides - most likely found on the deeper Bridge Pool.
After beginning the autumn spending significant time grazing the wet grassland here, pink-footed geese are currently mainly seen flying high overhead between their overnight roost at Parkgate, and local farmland where they feed on crop stubble and pastures - though this will change again as we go through the winter. Greylag geese are enjoying the freshly cut areas of wet grassland, with locally-resident Egyptian geese and ruddy shelduck occasional exotic visitors.
The changing season has also brought about the noticeable return of some of our favourite winter passerines including stonechat, siskin, bullfinch, long-tailed tit, redwing, fieldfare, goldcrest and even one or two firecrests which are a relative scarcity here.
Siskin with goldfinch in alder tree (Paul Jubb)
A drop in water level on The Mere has created a spectacle of little and great egrets, along with grey herons and black-headed gulls, gorging on fish which can be watched easily from The Mere trail. Whilst in this area, many visitors have been lucky enough to see one of our kingfishers, whilst grey wagtails are another winter highlight in the ditches around the old fishery ponds. Cattle egrets are a fixture around the smaller pony herd, which tends to be around Border Pool and Centenary Pool, best viewed from Border hide.
Little grebes have returned to Reception Pool, and can usually be seen on Bridge Pool and sometimes from Reedbed screen too. These are both great places to at least hear, if not see, a Cetti's warbler, though their resident numbers have exploded and you can barely walk ten paces from the visitor centre before a chance of first hearing one. Water rails can often be heard squealing within the reedbed, and occasional glimpses from Reedbed screen for those with patience and luck.
Raptor numbers have grown and variety increased for the winter months; kestrels have been noticeably prominent in recent weeks, with numerous buzzards a constant presence in and around the woodland, and regular sparrowhawk sightings near the feeders and harrassing the smaller birds around the scrape. Merlin are an enigmatic winter visitor, often eluding visitors with their diminutive size and fast, low flight, but they are around for the patient, keen-eyed individuals to find.
Male kestrel, hovering (Paul Jubb)
Marsh harriers regularly hunt low across the wet grassland, and there have been a couple of ringtail hen harrier sightings although they have been distinctly slow in settling on the estuary for the winter. Saying that, a grey male hen harrier was seen flying to the traditional roost off Parkgate's Old Baths last week, along with a minimum of 19 marsh harriers also roosting there - as opposed to their usual roost site of Neston Reedbed, presumably still a result of the damage caused by the devastating fire last spring.
Last but by no means least, as expected as we bid farewell to British Summer Time and dusk sets in before Burton Mere Wetlands closes for the day, a modest-sized starling murmuration - already a few thousand birds strong - has been an impressive spectacle over the scrape and wet grassland for the past few days, before they settle to roost in the reedbed. This spectacle tends to only last a few weeks, before they opt to move elsewhere for the remainder of the season, so pay us a visit soon if you don't want to miss it.
Star Sighting
Yet again it's impossible to single out one, so we've got another double...
Firstly, on Saturday 8 October we were graced with a Slavonian grebe on Bridge Pool, the first at Burton Mere Wetlands with the last record being in 2005 at the reserve's former incarnation, Inner Marsh Farm.
Slavonian grebe (Steve Williams)
Interestingly, a second sighting, photographed by one lucky visitor, on the following Friday, was deemed due to plumage patterns to be a different individual, meaning that after an 18 year wait, we had two within a week!
Secondly, a bird that we are becoming quite familiar with after appearing for the third year running, a long-billed dowitcher was found on Centenary Pool on Friday 21 October, staying for the Saturday before disappearing but (presumably the same bird) returned for a day on Saturday 29 October.
Long-billed dowitcher (Chris Wilding)
Wardens Wanderings
There's been no shortage of machinery working close to the car park and visitor centre for the second half of October, but that was the contractors doing groundwork for the installation of our new café.
Meanwhile, the warden team have cracked on with their usual autumn work programme, which in short is tackling the jungle of vegetation we accumulate every year during the growing season. We've mentioned previously our new grazers, now around 30 wild Welsh ponies loving life munching their way through rushes, sedges and reeds to maintain the short, softer grasses needed for our priority waders to nest on next spring.
For reasons out of our hands, we were unable to get any cattle to graze this year, so the wardens have been out with the tractor and topper to tackle some of the denser areas, and create rides to aid the ponies' movement through the wetlands to facilitate their grazing impact.
A laborious task at this time of year is checking and repairing the electric predator exclusion fence, including patching up the extensive digging done by badgers this year, as well as cutting the vegetation at the base of the fence to prevent the current earthing.
An exciting project we've just got going on the ground is the modification of an existing sluice to install an eel ladder between Willow Pool and Woodland Pool to encourage the growth of our eel population - great for their conservation, but equally good for our resident birds for whom a few might make a tasty meal. You can see the work in progress from The Mere trail.
Get Involved
For the first time since before the Covid pandemic, we're holding an event at Parkgate on Sunday 13 November. This Raptor Watch is not timed for a particularly high tide (it's been a poor year for any tide forecast worth showcasing), instead timed to run until dusk for the spectacle of the large harrier roost on the marsh off The Old Baths car park. Historically it's been a hen harrier roost, but currently there are big numbers of marsh harriers too, and there's chance of seeing other hunting raptors during the afternoon including merlin and peregrine and possibly even a short-eared owl or barn owl.
Event at Parkgate Old Baths car park (Paul Jubb)
After a hugely popular Big Wild Halloween activity during half term, we're pleased to have a more structured, guided family Woodland Wonders event on Saturday 19 November. Then come December we'll have the return of Robin Robin, the Aardman Animations film that we brought to life on our reserves last Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas, we have a selection of beautiful RSPB Christmas cards on display at our mail-order shop in the visitor centre, along with some calendars and eco-conscious gift wrapping options, all available for free home delivery and profits supporting our work here at the Dee Estuary reserve. If you're looking to treat yourself or a loved one to new optics for Christmas, don't miss our Binoculars and Telecopes Open Day on Sunday 27 November (please note the change of date, pushed back a week due to unforeseen circumstances), where in addition to our helpful team we'll have Rob from our optics partners Viking offering a wealth of technical advice and expertise to help you choose exactly the right optics for your needs.
Whilst the end of autumn migration, the shorter days and potential for worse weather may make it less appealing, there's still plenty of winter wildlife to enjoy at Burton Mere Wetlands, and we hope to welcome you here again soon. There will be occasional changes to our normal opening and facilities for the cafe building work between now and Christmas, so keep an eye on our social media and this blog page, for details as soon as they are confirmed to help you plan your visits.