News archive

Sunday, 19 November 2006

Field Trip to Mere Sands Wood and RSPB Marshside

Thirteen members met at Mere Sands Wood reserve on a bright and sunny autumn morning. The day began promisingly with two water rails, one in the reeds on the main pool at the visitor centre and the other out in the open below the main feeders. We then embarked on an anticlockwise walk through the trees, calling at each of the viewing hides dotted around the pools. Woodland species encountered included tree and house sparrows, blue, great and coal tits, wren, dunnock, nuthatch, bullfinch, great spotted woodpecker, collared dove, wood pigeon, sparrowhawk, buzzard and tawny owl. The owl was being harrassed by jays and magpies. The water and its margins yielded great crested and little grebes, cormorant, grey heron, little egret, shelduck, shoveler, tufted duck, pochard, gadwall, teal, mallard, pied wagtail - and, the highlight of the day, a male kingfisher perched obligingly for almost ten minutes about thirty feet in front of the hide before flying off with his mate.

After lunching back at the car park the party drove to RSPB Marshside where there were good flocks of geese, ducks, gulls and waders on the flooded fields. Large numbers of golden plover and lapwing were present, occasionally spooked (presumably by raptors unseen by us) into the air. By mid-afternoon the temperature had dropped and the sky become overcast so we called it a day, having recorded well over forty bird secies.