Dee Estuary - Burton Mere Wetlands

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Recent sightings

• 8 May 2013

  A bank holiday boom

  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 from the comfort of the reception hide.

  This past weekend brought with it the first cuckoo sighting of the year and a stunning drake garganey showed well on the main scrape for most of saturday. The common terns have also arrived on the reserve with reports everyday since sunday and the avocets have well and truly settled in again this year with around 25 nesting on the reserve. Away from the water, the warblers have been in fine voice, as anyone on one of our successful early morning walks over the weekend will be able to verify. Sedge warbler, reed warbler, blackcap, grasshopper warbler, and common whitethroat have all been seen or heard. 

  The bluebells are out in the woodland and anyone wanting to get the best out of the woodland should grab themselves a place on our guided walk on Saturday the 18th May at 10am. By popular demand there will also be another dawn chorus walk on Sunday 19th May at 5am. Booking for these is essential so pop down or give us a ring on 0151 353 8478 to get a place. Full details: http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/d/dee-burtonmerewetlands/events.aspx

  Elsewhere on the estuary the marsh at Parkgate is beginning to recover from the damage caused by the fire 4 weeks ago. Hopefully our wardening scheme will prevent any further incidents and the habitat can fully recover.

  Finally, in matters more pedestrian, the A540 will be closed on Sunday 12th May from 9am till late morning between the A5117 to the Two Mills junction, there should be a diversion in place but getting here from that direction may take a bit longer.

  Posted by Duncan Halpin

• 17 March 2013

  "Much about?"

  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 had a number of good sightings to please those who have braved the weather.

  That first avocet quickly moved on, but ten days ago we had three fresh arrivals, gradually growing in number to the eleven we have today; making themselves at home on the main scrape, hopefully preparing to nest on the same "avocet island" as last year.  In amongst the usual wintering waders were a handful of spotted redshank for much of the past two months, along with two to three hundred golden plover, not a common sight here on the Dee Estuary.

  One of our keen-eyed regular visitors picked up a solitary corn bunting in a mixed flock of winter finches and reed buntings making the most of our sacrificial seed crop a short distance from the reception hide.  The lesser scaup which had been picked up on pools around the south end of the estuary for weeks made a brief appearance at Burton Mere Wetlands, mingling with the tufted duck on the reception pool.

  After widespread disappointment that we'd not had a bittern this winter, a couple of reliable sources have reported brief glimpses in the reedbed from Marsh Covert hide - will it stick around for the summer and how long until we hear one booming?!  Visitors to the Inner Marsh Farm hide last wednesday were treated to this winter's first sighting of a green-winged teal, along with a Cetti's warbler perched on a bulrush in front of the hide.  Today, that side of the reserve has had reports of a single ruff on passage (or will we be lucky enough to see courtship behaviour again like last year?).

  Soon we'll bid farewell to our winter flocks, and the iconic short-eared owls and hen harriers will leave our marshes for their higher breeding grounds; a worrying time for the latter, after their pitiful recent breeding success, we must hope that the increased efforts of the RSPB to protect them on the heather moorlands will begin to make a difference.

  For daily updates on sightings at the RSPB Dee Estuary reserve and all around the Wirral and north-east Wales, visit http://www.deeestuary.co.uk/index.html

  Posted by Dan Trotman

• 11 March 2013

  White Wingers

  "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 and the wide variations of juvenile plumage, these can be some of the most challenging birds to identify.

  Over the weekend, we have had black-headed gull, common gull, herring gull, Mediterranean gull and the lovely little gull all make an appearance on our main scrape all visible from the visitor reception hide.

  The best tip we can give is to look at the bird’s wings, or wing tips; most of our common gull species have black primary feathers on their wing tips, which fold back along its tail feathers but the more unusual, and rarer gulls have white wing tips.

  Below shows three pictures the first  two showing the little gull and the third the Mediterranean gull.

  

  Little gull by Austin Morley: See the small balck bill, white wing tips, no black hood (adult out of breeding plumage) this is the worlds smallest gull.

  

  Little gull by Austin Morley: This picture shows the black under wings another distinctive characteristics of little gulls.

  

  Mediterranean gull by Austin Morley: This picture shows the birds adult plumage with full black cap, red bill and pure white wing tips.

  So keep your eyes open and check through the flocks of gulls as your might get lucky and see a rare and unusual gull amongst them

   http://austinmorley.blogspot.co.uk/

  Posted by Austin Morley

• 4 March 2013

  A duck lesser in name only

   

  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 no less great.

  This bird has been loitering around the areas for a few weeks now and was first spotted near one of the border pools of Shotwick Boating Lake, hanging around with the local tufted ducks.

  Therefore, what is a lesser scaup and how does it differ from the scaup? Well have a look at theses stunning pictures below the first one shows its bill nail really well, this is the black spot on the tip of its bill. On a lesser scaup this bill nail is narrow and small while on the scaup its tends to be much larger and wider across the tip. The lesser scaup also tends to have more white and dark colouration on its flanks then the scaup.

  Besides the bill, what really marks the scaups either Lesser or Greater apart from  the coloration of the back and flanks of this bird while paddling around on the lake.The second picture shows the notch on its head, this is another distinguishing feature of lesser scaup.

  Sorry guys, that was confusing! Nevertheless, beyond that, these are beautiful birds, rare birds whether lesser or Greater.

  So here is an assignment for you. Get outdoors with your binoculars and try to find some of these brilliant birds they can come to any fresh water pond or lake and can even bee seen off shore in rafts of floating wildfowl.

  

  Photo by Austin Morley: Showing the small narrow black bill nail.

  

  Photo by Austin Morley: Showing the birds flanks and pale back pattern.

  Posted by Austin Morley