Boom! - Bittern at Mere Sands Wood

Remember that you saw them here first!

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The photo below got a 'notable' on BirdGuides.

 

Mere Sands Wood LWTT

After seeing reports of a Bittern which was showing well at Mere Sands Wood LWT, I set off today with high hopes of seeing it and perhaps even getting some photos.  I decided not to do the full walk round that I usually do, but to go straight to the Rufford Hide from where the Bittern has been seen.

I expected the hide to be full when I got there, but surprisingly it wasn't.  I managed to get a good seat overlooking the main spot where the bird had been regularly sighted and then sat for three or four hours either watching nothing or a vague shape rustling through the reedbed.

Fortunately there were  other birds on hand to relieve the boredom including a Kingfisher and female Goosander which gave excellent views.

It was also nice to meet up with Brian Rafferty, a chap with whom I have chatted over the internet with a couple of times and whose blog I follow form time to time. Indeed it actually was Brian who recognised me from my name and blog title.

Here's the Kingfisher fishing from a perch in front of the seedbed.

 

 

This female Goosander was patrolling the water in front of the hide.

 

 

And this Little Grebe was bobbing around in front of the hide too.

So after three or four hours sitting in the hide this was the best shot of the Bittern that I managed to get today, Anyone good a removing reeds in Photoshop?

Grebes at Mere Sands Wood LWT

Following on from my trip for the Crossbills at Birkdale LNR earlier today, I decided to call in at Mere Sands Wood LWT on the way home to get some shots of Great Crested Grebes and Little Grebes which a friend of mine had recently photographed here.

The birds were nesting in front of the Cyril Gibbons Hide, the only hide that I'd never visited before, so it was worth going just to get the lay of the land here. I wasn't disappointed, because within 10 minutes I was taking close-up shots of a Great Crested Grebe fishing only three or four metres away from me.

There were just two birds which were nesting in a small patch of green reeds about 15 metres in front of the hide.  Unfortunately, by this time I was looking almost directly into the sun and so it didn't make for good photographs.

So most of these shots are when the male bird swam away from the nest to fish in the area to the right of the hide, barely three metres away from me at times.

The distinctive calls of the Little Grebes were echoing around the Mere for most of the time I was there and there were at least six birds about (3 pairs).  However, for a long time they didn't come close until near the end of my visit, when I managed to get these shots.  They seemed to be building a nest under the branches of an overhanging bush to the left of the hide. Another 10 minutes and I would have gone and missed them.

Sometimes it's just about having fun!

Mere Sands Wood Nature Reserve

Here's a selection of photos from a recent trip to Mere Sands Wood Nature Reserve:

Here's the full list of what I saw:

• Water Rail - superb views for photographs from Lancaster Hide
• Brambling - only a brief glimpse at the visitor centre
• Reed Bunting - great to see lots of them in the reed beds
• Jay
• Nuthatch
• Great Spotted Woodpecker
• Chaffinch
• Bullfinch
• Greenfinch
• Tree Sparrow
• Blue Tit
• Great Tit
• Coal Tit
• Long-tailed Tit
• Dunnock
• Robin - loads of them being very aggressive with each other
• Starling
• Woodpigeon - a good few thousand in a single flock
• Blackbird
• Magpie
• Carrion Crow
• Teal - a good few hundred on the frozen water - never seen so many
• Goosander - five or six males circling the water, landing and taking off again
• Cormorant
• Great Crested Grebe
• Mallard
• Coot
• Moorhen
• Pheasant
• Kestrel - over nearby field
• 3 rats
• 1 rabbit
• 1 grey squirrel

Bitterns and Owls

I had a great day out with John Conway from the 'Bring Nature To Life Forum' and his friend Steve today firstly at Mere Sands Wood and then at an undisclosed place fairly nearby to see the Bitterns and later the Short-eared Owls.

From Rufford Hide at Mere Sands Wood LWT one Bittern showed well at times (well, the longest and best views I've ever had) although it was a little too far off for me to take any worthwhile photos. All John's Bittern shots on the forum are way better than any I took today, but I wasn't disappointed as I had good views and learnt a lot about digital photography from both John and Steve.

If it wasn't for the nearby reserve staff trying to meet their grant quotas for removing unwanted vegetation, sometimes with a chainsaw, the bittern would probably have come a lot closer - it's a shame they didn't work on something else whilst the Bitterns are showing. John did briefly see a second Bittern today, but I missed it. There were also Goosander, GC Grebes, Coot, Teal, Moorhens, Grey Herons, Mallards, some distant Gulls and a Sparrowhawk around the pools, but unfortunately no Kingfisher today.

Then we went on to see the Short-eared Owls. For a long time they were a 'no show' and unfortunately Steve had to go before two eventually appeared, quartering the field for prey. Although the light was starting to fail, It was well worth the wait just to view them through my binoculars. They stayed around for a quite a while and flew past several times, but I only got a few record shots as I'm still learning how to shoot such fast moving birds. A little later a third bird briefly showed. Finally, we moved up the field to get some more views of the SEO's which had reappeared a little further away, and we were treated to a good few minutes of a couple of Barn Owls flying around - the icing on the cake!

Many thanks to John and Steve for a great day out - they were both very friendly and helpful to someone who is keen to learn about birding and bird photography (me!)

Cheers lads, hope to see you again sometime.

Mere Sands Wood, Lancashire

I went out to Mere Sands Wood LWT today with Sarah and her dad (Grandad Bob) with the original intention of going on to Marshside at Southport later in the day.  We were also doing a spot of geocaching in the area to show Grandad Bob the ropes of this outdoor activity.

Mere Sands Wood looked to be a great place but we saw very few birds today.  The birds we did see were the 'usual suspects' including:

• A solitary Cormorant
• Grey Heron
• Teal
• Tufted Duck
• Coot
• Moorhen
• Mallard
• Wood Pigeon

Unfortunately the star bird, the Kingfisher, didn't make an appearance today although we did find the right place to see them.   While we were out, the weather changed very quickly from being very breezy but bright to being dull and overcast with some rain.  It was too dark for photographs for most of the time were birdwatching here.

Back on the car park just before we were leaving we met a man who had videoed some Tree Sparrows on the feeders and he also showed us some fungi which were quite abundant here.

We decided that it has got a bit too late and dark to carry on to Marshside today and so we finished off our trip with a couple of caches. So it was a slightly disappointing day in terms of birding but quite good from a geocaching and scenery point of view (see my other blog).