Martin Mere (1 Viewer)

mcc28_x said:

Hi,

I've got a day planned at Martin Mere this week. I'm fairly new to birding (6months) so I want to brush up on my ID skills for birds I'm likely to see this time of year.

If anyone can suggest likely candidates for me to read up on before I go that would be great.

thanks

Mark

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Coigach said:

This is a good time of year for fine tuning your Grey Goose identification skills. There have been up to 10,000 Pink-footed Geese at Martin Mere over the past week. This provides a good opportunity to study them in detail and work out why they are not Bean or Greylags. Make note of their bill size, bill and leg colouration, length of neck and darkness of the upperwing in flight. Try to pick out family parties amongst the flock, and work out which are the juveniles.

There are usually a few other species with the flock, notably at the moment, a few juvenile Pale bellied Brent Geese. See if you can spot them.

It's also a good time for raptor identification. There are plenty of Buzzards around, two Marsh Harriers, Peregrine, Merlin, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk. You need to learn how to identify them in flight, so study plenty of flight shots and paintings, even silhouettes. Look especially at length of tail and wing shape.

There will be lots of ducks, but the males are mainly in eclipse. However, this is a good opportunity to learn how to identify them by shape rather than plumage. It's quite easy to do, and is a very useful tool.

That should keep you going for a day or two!

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mcc28_x said:

Thanks Bobby, great detail in your post, I'm about to bury my head in Collins for the next couple of days - btw when do the Whoppers start to arrive

cheers

Mark

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