Marton Mere
Monday 11th - Friday 15th May
Marton Mere
Holiday Village - ///goat.gentle.maybe
This was one of those short breaks to checkout an unfamiliar Holiday
Park & Nature Reserve. Not too difficult to get to by Public Transport
and the Nature Reserve can be accessed from inside the Park.
The Holiday Village grounds and accommodation all seemed to be in good
condition and there was a well-stocked Co-op mini-market and a good choice
of venues to eat out or have delivered. There are loads of footpaths
in the area and I walked to Stanley Park via Sherwood Woodland. Both venues
deserving a full day on their own. I will probably go back there to use
as a base for visiting other places of interest.
Marton Mere itself was a disappointment. I think the write-up for the
place, (*260 types of birds call this area home),
must have been produced some time ago. It's a Local Nature Reserve and
probably relies on volunteers to maintain the mere and reedbeds. There
are not many places where you can actually see the water and there was
nowhere I could see that would encourage wading birds or waterfowl to the
area. Nothing much was
seen from the hides because you couldn't see the water for the reeds.
Seen on the water during my stay were a few Herring Gulls and Lesser
Black Backed Gulls, a Coot, a Pair of Mallards, two Canada Geese
and three Greylag Geese. The only bird of note around the mere was a Common
Whitethroat. The few Sedge Warblers that I heard were too far away from
the footpaths to clearly identify them. Very few flying insects seen during
the week and that was probably because of the low temperature that was
struggling to get into double figures throughout my stay.
As birding holidays go is was quite underwhelming. However, I had some
nice walks and found a couple of places worth going back for. I enjoyed
my time away from the flat and walking unfamiliar footpaths.
* I think the write-up refers to WWT Martin Mere.