woensdag 20 juni 2012

Not so wild

After a calm start yesterday morning, Menzie, Tammo and me headed for the WWT reserve Martin Mere, north of Liverpool.

We entered the reserve and did some birdwatching at all the hides. There weren't many birds around, just the regular stuff. We saw plenty of Avocets, a Green Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plovers, Marsh Harriers, lots of Tree Sparrows and a lot of ducks. After the 'wild' birdwatching we went to see all the captive ducks that are being held here at Martin Mere. Within a few seconds I already had two UK ticks: Marbled Duck and White-headed Duck, great! We went through all the different  parts of the 'duck zoo'. Eventhough I'm not a fan at all of captive ducks it was fun to see all the different species from up close. A funny observation was a displaying Common Crane there, it was full of testosteron as it tried to impress us!

 Marbled Duck (Marmaronetta angustirostris)
 White-headed Duck (Oxyura leucocephala)
 Lesser White-fronted Goose (Anser erythropus)
And a dumb juvenile Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), yet to find out you can also fly over a fence..

On our way to Martin Mere we also passed some nice fields that held some singing Corn Buntings. One was singing from really close by so I recorded the song and photographed it.

Corn Bunting (Miliaria calandra)

Corn Bunting by Fmeijer

There was also a family of Mistle Thrushes foraging in the field:
Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus)

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