Browse by Tags

With the wonderful weather we've had over the past few days, things have been busy down here at the reserve. Although the weather may have cooled down the bird action certainly hasn't with this morning bringing with it some brilliant views of a female marsh harrier and a male hen harrier , both...

Needless to say, Rhian's excited proclamation - upon the arrival of our first avocet of the year in mid-February - that spring was here, was a little premature. Since then we've had plenty more snow flurries, frozen pools and lots of gratitude for the stove in our reception hide. However, we've...

"The problem with gulls is that they all look the same", is a sentence that I commonly hear. Many different gulls look similar, and experienced birders learn to look for the subtle differences between species for proper gull identification. With the high degree of hybridization among gulls...

Yesterday we had a lesser scaup grace our meres, this great American duck is a very common sight across North America and gets its name from the its size difference from its cousin the scaup, or greater scaup. As the lesser is a tad smaller but in the UK when theses rare birds turn up this make them...

Another excuse to let people know how well behaved one of our water rails is ....

Thank you to all those who have attended our trail Monday evening dusk walks ... I hope you'll agree that the site of our resident great white egrets coming into roost right over your heads was worth it! Other sightings from Monday include green woodpecker, male hen harrier, peregrine, siskin...

A minor piece of management work has paid off and a very confiding water rail is showing off right in front of the reception building. Our lovely wardens and volunteers spent yesterday cutting vegetation near to the reception building and I hope you agree that it was worth it

A ghostly grey figure has been haunting Burton Mere Wetlands on a regular basis and many visitors have seen it, in fact some have even photographed it ... But no need to worry if you're afraid of the dark this stunning male hen harrier is the culprit! He has been showing on and off throughout...

It looks like the RSPBs Dee Estuary Nature Reserve is the place to be this autumn, we have had some spectacular birds passing through on the marsh and arriving at Burton Mere Wetlands. Three (two adult and one juvenile) common crane have been seen of the RSPB's Burton Point midweek, these magnificent...

Up to three hen harriers are back on the Dee Estuary already so get yourself down to Parkgate this weekend from 12 noon to see them. Look for the green "Love Nature" marquee on the promenade at Parkgate and you could get views like this .... Female Hen Harrier by A. Davis

It has not just been the visitors here at Burton Mere Wetlands enjoying today’s sun there has also been a number of Common Lizards sunbathing near our open top bunker hide. These dragons of the undergrowth are not so common as their name would suggest they have declined due mainly to habitat...

Photo of juvenile marsh harrier by Matt Thomas ( http://www.deebirder.blogspot.co.uk/ ) Sightings of marsh harriers have been better than ever before here on the Dee Estuary with probably eight different individuals being seen in the last month. And just to make things more interesting a couple...

Its not only Team GB that have enjoyed a record haul of gold this past few weeks. Team Dee Estuary have four golds at the moment in the form of golden headed marsh harriers, not something I have experienced before here. As this excellent picture from Andy Davis shows they can easily be seen from...

The large over-summering flock of black-tailed godwits are keeping the visitors entertained and the peregrines bellies full! However, if you take a closer look then you may see that some of these birds are sporting coloured rings on their legs. This is not a fashion statement but actually a scientific...

Spotted flycatcher: This is one of at least four young found feeding around the car park and woodlands at Burton Mere Wetlands. A really nice site as this bird has declined by 80% in recent years. We know of at least 4 pairs that have bred locally though :)

Fantastic news for us as our single pair of nesting terns have fledged a chick :) This may not sound that impressive to all of you that have visited the northeast and other tern strongholds but it is only our 2nd ever nest and perhaps more importantly the very 1st time they have fledged, a small step...

With all this rain maybe we should be building an ark .... come to think of it the reception building here is a safe bet if we get any floods! Returning waders are stealing the show at the moment and despite what you may have heard on the news this week some waders do return this early. Despite...

Last night a regular visitor found a pectoral sandpiper feeding in front of the Marsh Covert hide which means that we are just one away from the magical 30 wading birds barrier . To put this in context the "RSPB Handbook of British Birds" only lists 34 wading birds in its main section with...

If you believe the wading birds then perhaps it is ... or is it? Not many people know this but long distance migrating waders actually start returning to their wintering grounds in June! The evidence is clear here at Burton Mere Wetlands too as several spotted redshanks are present in full summer...

A first for the new Burton Mere Wetlands :) Finally, after a few months of regular nearby sightings a local (?) red kite shows itself and boy did we know about it - several hundred black-tailed godwits, avocets, black-headed gulls and lapwings mobbed it until it disappeared over the horizon - no wonder...

Babies are a plenty down here at Burton Mere Woodlands despite the poor weather. All this rain may have been disastrous for some parts of the country but our ground nesting birds seemed to have fared well so far .... no doubt thanks to our quick thinking reserve staff who set the sluice gates to wide...

Perhaps not the exact origin of the saying but coot chicks are very bald indeed! This is one of five on the pool just outside the reception building at Burton Mere Wetlands. We also have a newly hatched brood of greylag geese and five different broods of avocets, so babies are the feature of the...

"Congratulations on the birth of your baby avocets" do greetings card companies make such a card? Sometime on Sunday, Burton Mere Wetlands' first ever avocet chicks hatched and instantly begun to steal the show. Three tiny grey, fluffy, long-legged, up-turned-billed chicks are unbelievably...

I'm not sure why but every bird beginning with "Wh" is turning up here at the moment. Earlier on it was the whimbrels en route from west and southern Africa to their northern breeding grounds and this past week has seen a large fall of wheatear, whinchat and white wagtails on the Wirral...

"Seconds out, round two..." should be the cry as the ruff at Burton Mere Wetlands are duking it out! Don't worry though as their version of the duking it out is actually more of an showy dance. These fascinating birds become rather odd-looking at this time of year as their breeding hormones...