Another Trip to Mere Sands Wood today with the intention of ignoring the Bittern hide until later in the day and having a good walk around, spending some time in the other hides. However, the plan went out of the window in the car-park at 9:00am when two guys arrived from Yorkshire to see the Bittern. I took them to the hide, put them in prime position and pointed out where it was usually seen. I stayed with them for a while to give them some confidence that it would show. It did take a couple of hours before I spotted it in the far reeds and as I was explaining where they could see it, it took flight and flew low over the water directly towards us. What a view! It wandered around for about an hour and came very close to the hide.
I moved on and was pleasantly surprised to find the pair of Goldeneye still there on the other side of The Hollow. I also saw a pair of Great Crested Grebe building a nest on the edge of the sunken tree, well one of them was working hard, probably an optimistic male. Far too early surely!
Back to the visitor centre and a mug of coffee which I took into the Lancaster hide, where a good number of Reed Bunting were showing. A Water Rail popped out for a while to round my day off nicely.
If you haven't been to MSW you are missing a little gem.
Bittern showing well for its Yorkshire visitors
Male Goldeneye feeding on The Hollow
Some people wait for hours and never see this Water Rail - I guess I just get lucky!
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