Tuesday 26 February 2008

Mere Sands Wood Outing

Mere Sands has always been a favourite of mine for a quiet walk around and see a good number of birds in a short amount of time. Last Sunday, 24th Feb. I lead the group walk around this wonderful Lancashire Wildlife trust site. We all watched the goings on at the various feeding stations. Good numbers of reed buntings, chaffinch, blackbirds there is 3 in this picture, tree sparrows, nuthatch and lots more, kept us all amused for awhile. We were informed that the water rail shows quite well at the Lancaster hide but we had missed it and there was no food out.


Some of the action at the feeding the stations was being photographed by Laura. A pair of siskins joined the rest of the birds and that helped highlight some of the differences of the finch family.
A stroll around the mere and the hides between the rain shows helped to really increase our list for the day including treecreeper and lots of ducks such as gadwall, teal, wigeon and a female pochard.
We had lunch back at the Lancaster hide and the feeding table had been filled, and so out popped the water rail. When you look at it's toes they look like worms are escaping over the wood!!
The only downside to the day or not was seeing a dead tawny owl in the visitor centre that had been found on the reserve.
It was a good day out for all 25 of us.
Keep birding.
Chris

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