Went to Martin Mere today, Sunday 15 November. This reserve is decent in size,c.554 acres and I admit in 41/2 hours of serious birding today I didn`t get around it all. The mere was chock full of wildfowl, but even so more wildfowl would come in for the "evening feeding time" well after I left.
Still I saw at least 400 mallard-that is what I counted going around(reliably informed by staff its about 900+ at the moment). Only c.25+ whoopers on the main lake(about another 100 or so to come in, but remember Dec, Jan & Feb normally have peak counts of 400+). There was an impressive showing of 40+ pochard(probably the largest concentration in Lancashire).Maybe 30 pintail(again fairly large concentration but the Ribble estuary normally has the lion`s share of this wintering duck). The star of the show undoubtably though was the ring-billed duck showing to wonderful effect as it pirouetted away from all other wildfowl, giving a solo performance well distanced from all other birds-as if it knew it was the centre of attention! The feral pigeon flock here was very similar to the one at Helmshore with 25/30 birds in the flock-are they really always this number?
Other birds seen:- black-tailed godwit, snipe, shelduck, greylag goose, pink-feet, mute swan(lots ofi.e.100s coot). moorhen, lapwing, snipe, wigeon, great tit, blue tit, chaffinch, robin, magpie, black-headed gulls, kestrel.
Also 19 species of fish for those of a piscatorial nature. Ha! Ha! Thirteen species of dragonfly(throughout the year)-I saw none!
