Burton Mere is one of my favourite places to visit in the area, and I am there fore more frequently than I post about here.  I usually wait for a sunny day, but my most recent visit was on a very grey day with light barely filtering weakly through uninterrupted cloud. Although I don’t know a great deal about birds beyond my garden,  I was lured out by the promise, on the RSPB Burton Mere Facebook page, of Great White Egrets.  I have seen Western Cattle Egrets many, many times in Egypt, where they are ubiquitous and lovely, but had never seen the Great White.  I was tremendously lucky to be there when there were eleven on them standing on the edges of the woodland ponds and perching on low branches in the small lakes behind the estuary.  They were magnificent, the size of herons and infinitely more visible against the dark foliage.  It was a real, simple pleasure to stand and watch them preening and chattering.

I was also lucky to see a colourful stonechat on a Great Reedmace (more commonly known as bulrush).  They rarely perch in one place for very long, and are easily startled but it paused near enough for me stand and watch for a moment, and for my camera to pick it out quite clearly.  In the everyday world beyond the nature reserve my camera usually attracts comment because of the zoom lens attached to it, a good 5 inches long, but at Burton Mere this is a baby amongst giants.  Lenses so long that they have to be supported on monopods and brackets are part of the standard kit, some of them painted in camouflage patterns.  Fortunately, binoculars are available to rent for the day in the RSPB reception area.

I usually take photos of the trees and plant life as well as the birds, and in the undifferentiated greyed out textures of  the day, I decided to make a game of it and concentrated on taking photos that might convert well to black and white instead.  Some of the results are below.  At the end of the afternoon a burst of sunshine broke through, painting one of the meres in pure gold, providing a lovely contrast to the darkening shadows.

Opening hours for RSPB Burton Mere and its cafe, together with other useful information, are on the RSPB website at  https://www.rspb.org.uk/days-out/reserves/dee-estuary-burton-mere-wetlands.

My other posts about Burton Mere are on here on the blog, all of which can be found at https://basedinchurton.co.uk/category/rspb-burton-mere/ 

 

 

 

 

Short video on the day, only 40 seconds, showing pintail ducks and redshanks very busily and noisily foraging in the grass on the edge of the mere.  The sound at the end is someone entering the hide and walking across the wooden boards.