Burton Mere wetlands

A sunny day and a with a few hours to spare last weekend I headed across to the other side of Cheshire and the wonderful RSPB reserve Burton Mere wetlands once again. To those who visit regularly, there probably wasn't a huge amount 'going on' in terms of the birds about there, however there are several species there that I rarely see closer to home so it's always a pleasure to visit.

One of the first birds seen (as well as the usual geese and rails close to the visitor centre) was a female Teal only a few metres away. Admittedly I find some female ducks can be quite tricky to identify, but with their tiny size and bright green patch of iridescent secondary feathers (the 'speculum'), female Teals are quite distinctive. In the background flocks of Lapwings took flight and swirled around in the distance.

Female Teal

On previous visits I hadn't walked across as far as the Inner Marsh Farm hide, so on this visit finally I did, and was delighted to see two Snipe relatively close to the hide (well the closest I've seen them at least!). Even at this distance (maybe 20 metres or so) with their perfect camouflage, whilst still, these small wading birds were all but indistinguishable from their surroundings.  

Spot the Snipe...!

Wandering back along the walkways I changed over to a macro lens to try to photograph some of the many dragonflies I had seen which were making the most of this unseasonable burst of warmth and sunshine. Brown hawkers were abundant but I couldn't get close enough to any to photograph them, however posing nicely on the rails of the walkway were several Common darters. I find darters generally quite obliging to photograph - if approached carefully it's possible to really get up close and personal with them, and even if they do take flight, they will often return shortly afterwards to their favoured perch. 

Male Common Darter

I noticed a movement in the long grass only a few metres from the boardwalk. Something was moving low and fast. I had no idea what it was though was expecting a young rabbit perhaps to appear. I was amazed to see not a rabbit at all, but a Stoat popping its head up to look over the top of the grass. Back down and along another metre or two and up it popped again. I'd readied myself this time and a macro lens would have to do - I was really pleased to get a photo of this small and quick mustelid (though I did wish I hadn't changed from my zoom lens!!!!). Lenses were promptly changed (again...) in readiness, but I didn't see the Stoat again, it was gone as fast at it had appeared. (Weasels and Stoats are very similar, I didn't see the animal's tail which would have confirmed my ID - Stoats have a black-tipped tail, however from the slightly larger size, I'm reasonably confident this is a Stoat.)

Stoat surprise!

Heading steadily back towards the visitor centre I stopped for a while at a screen by a reedbed, there weren't many birds that I could see there other than Coots in the distance, but there was one tiny little busy bird diving at the edges of the reeds. A closer look revealed that this was a Little Grebe (Dabchick). The bird was making short dives and appearing back at the surface not far away from where it started (unlike larger grebes where you have no idea where they are going to pop up again!). S/he stayed very close in to the reeds so the handful of us taking the grebe's photo resigned ourselves to the fact that any photos were going to be very much of the 'bird in natural environment' sort - the background was going to be a bit bitty and messy, but well, this is the bird's home after all, and they're always a pleasure to see, wherever they are.

Little grebe