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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Martin Mere (1 Viewer)

Sandra (Taylor)

Sandra (Taylor)

Well-known member
Had good afternoon at MM today. Loads of birds around - hundreds of whooper swans; am adamant 3 swans I saw on the back pond from the restaurant window were Bewicks but my daughter-in-law thought not; spent nearly an hour just watching the feeding station - a pair of GS woodpecker
looked stunning; 6 or 7 tree sparrows sitting on one branch were crying out for a photo to be taken but my camera wouldn't 'reach' them. 100s of lapwings kept being spooked by an unknown something that only they could see; a few ruff and a big flock of godwit; pintail.

One bird I wished I hadn't seen ws a pinkfoot with a broken wing. It didn't seem to be affected by it - was just walking along the banking, stopping to eat potatoes, but the wing was just dragging on the ground. Very sad to think that this lovely bird will spend the rest of its life on the reserve - won't travel back whence it came. It looked newly broken because the wing was perfect - no broken feathers at the end with coming into contact with the ground, and it was very clean. Might the staff try and catch it and at least remove the wing or will Nature be allowed to take its course?

(Were you at the reserve, Jaff? - thought I saw your car. The car had gone in the early afternoon. Couldn't see you in the hides we visited though.)

Sandra
 
I wasn't far from you today, Sandra, I was over at Leighton Moss after taking eldest lad and all his gear back to Uni.
Martin Mere is an area that I have never visited, so interesting to read about what you saw.
Not nice about the poor pinkfoot, hopefully they will catch the bird and do something about the wing. It can't be comfortable for the bird to say the least.
 
Keith Dickinson said:
I wasn't far from you today, Sandra, I was over at Leighton Moss after taking eldest lad and all his gear back to Uni.
Martin Mere is an area that I have never visited, so interesting to read about what you saw.
Not nice about the poor pinkfoot, hopefully they will catch the bird and do something about the wing. It can't be comfortable for the bird to say the least.
Click to expand...

Hope you had lots of goodies Keith. Although the weather was miserable at MM it was good to be out there in the fresh air.

S
 
We were going to visit Martin Mere on Saturday but the fog/mist was that thick we decided against it, a bit pointless trying to spot birds when you can't even see to the end of your scope!
 
Aye we were there yday. But you wouldn't have spotted our car as we in our dad's new Ford Kuga.
We looked at the exhibition and then went to Swanlink and decided it was too busy and wet to go to any of the other hides so stayed there till about 2:00 and then we went to see what was doing at Mere Sands. Saw a perched Peregrine from Swanlink though so that's probably what was upsetting your Lapwings although the two GBB Gulls that were roaming around the Mere had the same effect. You did see Bewicks on that pond but they are part of the collection.

Just for your info at Mere Sands we spent an hour in Lancaster Hide and saw ten Bullfinch and a Fox (briefly). No sign of the Bittern that's hiding there.

A shame we never bumped into you then Sandra.
 
Sandra (Taylor) said:
......One bird I wished I hadn't seen ws a pinkfoot with a broken wing. It didn't seem to be affected by it - was just walking along the banking, stopping to eat potatoes, but the wing was just dragging on the ground. Very sad to think that this lovely bird will spend the rest of its life on the reserve - won't travel back whence it came. It looked newly broken because the wing was perfect - no broken feathers at the end with coming into contact with the ground, and it was very clean. Might the staff try and catch it and at least remove the wing or will Nature be allowed to take its course? .....
Click to expand...

I don't know for sure what they will do with the bird, but console yourself with the fact that it couldn't have found a better place to spend the rest of its life. Anywhere else and it would probably already be dead, and at least it's not on its own in the middle of a potato field.

I think that it's very unlikely that they will try to catch it, because imagine the distrubance to all of the other birds if they did, and really there is not much they can do anyway. It is just a fact of life for birds. In anycase, many geese with broken wings live for years if they have good source of food.

If the staff try to help this bird, are they then expected to help every sick bird that comes on to the reserve? In the autmun there were around 25,000 Pink-feet on the reserve, how many of those needed help? And what about the Teal which are hunted by the Peregrine? Should the staff not also help the Teal and stop the Peregrine hunting? Unfortunately you can't view nature from a sentimental point of view, if you did, you'd see a tragedy everytime you walked out of the door.
 
Last edited:
If the staff try to help this bird, are they then expected to help every sick bird that comes on to the reserve? In the autmun there were around 25,000 Pink-feet on the reserve, how many of those needed help? And what about the Teal which are hunted by the Peregrine? Should the staff not also help the Teal and stop the Peregrine hunting? Unfortunately you can't view nature from a sentimental point of view, if you did, you'd see a tragedy everytime you walked out of the door.[/QUOTE]

No - i wouldn't expect the staff to do that; or any of your way-out suggestions about teal & peregrine. That's just silly talk. Maybe the peregrine will swoop in and take the goose - now who's talking silly ;)

:-O
 
No - i wouldn't expect the staff to do that; or any of your way-out suggestions about teal & peregrine. That's just silly talk. Maybe the peregrine will swoop in and take the goose - now who's talking silly ;)

:-O
Click to expand...

The Peregrine taking the goose would be the ideal solution. I think that they have been known to take Pink-feet. Sorry, I didn't mean to be silly, it's just that if you start intervening, where do you stop? One animals misfortune is anothers opportunity.
 
Sandra (Taylor) said:
Had good afternoon at MM today. Loads of birds around - hundreds of whooper swans; am adamant 3 swans I saw on the back pond from the restaurant window were Bewicks but my daughter-in-law thought not; spent nearly an hour just watching the feeding station - a pair of GS woodpecker
looked stunning; 6 or 7 tree sparrows sitting on one branch were crying out for a photo to be taken but my camera wouldn't 'reach' them. 100s of lapwings kept being spooked by an unknown something that only they could see; a few ruff and a big flock of godwit; pintail.

One bird I wished I hadn't seen ws a pinkfoot with a broken wing. It didn't seem to be affected by it - was just walking along the banking, stopping to eat potatoes, but the wing was just dragging on the ground. Very sad to think that this lovely bird will spend the rest of its life on the reserve - won't travel back whence it came. It looked newly broken because the wing was perfect - no broken feathers at the end with coming into contact with the ground, and it was very clean. Might the staff try and catch it and at least remove the wing or will Nature be allowed to take its course?

(Were you at the reserve, Jaff? - thought I saw your car. The car had gone in the early afternoon. Couldn't see you in the hides we visited though.)

Sandra
Click to expand...

Paid a visit to Martin Mere in the fog yesterday, didn't see much as you would expect with fog! though I did see the Pinkfoot with the broken wing feeding well, the broken wing didn't seem to be bothering it at all.
 
Johnny1 said:
Paid a visit to Martin Mere in the fog yesterday, didn't see much as you would expect with fog! though I did see the Pinkfoot with the broken wing feeding well, the broken wing didn't seem to be bothering it at all.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that update Johnny. I 'spect it's got used to it now!

S
 
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