A Bad Day for Buzzards

                     

The seasons are marching past and the blog has been a bit neglected, not because I've not been getting out but more finding the time to update it. However time doesn't stand still and nature definitely has a more autumnal feel now - not just in the weather but in the appearance of winter visitors such as redwing and pink-footed geese, both of which I've seen for the first time this autumn in the last week. The weather has been indifferent to say the least and on the day I had earmarked for my trip out the heavy rain had flooded out my first choice destination Martin Mere. With a marginally brighter forecast on the Dee Estuary I diverted my course to Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB for a first visit since January. 

What the forecast had optimistically described as 'light showers' turned out on arrival at lunchtime as being driving rain, but in truth there were sufficient spells of brighter and drier weather in between the squalls to make it enjoyable. Burton Mere provides striking vistas with the open landscape giving big views dominated by man-made and natural giants from the Connah's Quay power plants and the steelworks to the hills of North Wales and the Dee Estuary. It is also rich in wildlife albeit today most things were hunkering down from the wet weather.  

  

The bird feeders near the visitor centre were deserted but a little further along through the woodland the second feeding station had a group of bedraggled blue tits, great tits, goldfinch and a coal tit bobbing in to stock up on food. The boardwalk path runs alongside the reedbeds, with viewing screens and the Marsh Covert hide along the way, and two shrill whistles alerted me to a kingfisher whizzing along the ditch on the opposite side of the path but little else stirred. From the end viewing screen some ducks were dabbling on the open water and given this is eclipse season, when the males briefly indulge their feminine side by sporting different plumage as they moult, they did some keen peering before I could be satisfied there were two teal amongst the more obvious shovelers. 

  

The boardwalk snakes round the marsh and up towards the railway embankment and since my last visit a new section had been installed which will eventually lead to a refurbished hide. The rain had temporarily abated and in the sunshine migrant hawkers buzzed furiously over the reedbed hunting for food and chasing rivals off territories. I made my way up towards the railway bridge and beyond across the field towards the hill fort viewpoint. Three buzzards were soaring over the rolling saltmarsh but had drawn the attention of the local corvids and a posse of carrion crows and jackdaws harrassed them relentlessly up and down the estuary. It was a bad day all round for buzzards as besides this pestering I had earlier spotted one miserably perched on a fencepost in the driving rain in what I suspected would be a fruitless wait for prey. 

 

A small clump of trees at the top of the field marks the edge of the hill fort, an Iron Age relic commanding the estuary. My quarry here were parasol mushrooms which sprout in great abundance and size at this spot, and I was rewarded with one dinner-plate sized specimen. On my return journey to the Visitor Centre a small common toad was definitely enjoying the wet conditions more than the rest of us and I helped it on its way off the footpath. Guttural croaking overhead picked out a raven winging its way past and the corvid collection was added to with two jays. 

 

South of the visitor centre the path becomes more exposed with open views over the farm fields behind and the estuary to the front. A cock pheasant whirred out of the long grass right beside the footpath as I passed and as I recovered my composure I spotted the dead flowerspike of a broad-leaved helleborine (thanks to the identification note!). A brief stop in the bunker hide as the wind picked up added three Egyptian geese, two redshank, some distant little egrets and a handful of pink-footed geese. One of the pink-footed appeared to have a damaged wing, perhaps an encounter with power lines or a gunshot wound - it's always an eye-opener to realise the perils these migratory waterfowl experience on their journeys and indeed how many of the geese soldier on despite these wounds. Hopefully this individual will recuperate over the months ahead or at least find a safe permanent home on the Mere.