St Helens Birds and Wildlife: Eccleston Mere

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Scarce or vulnerable species include but are not restricted to any species of wader, ducks other than mallard, all owls, any birds of prey, grey or yellow wagtails, grey heron, all grebes, Cetti’s warbler, water rail, willow tit, corn bunting etc. If in doubt, please ask.

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Eccleston Mere

Water rail 1 showing well in ditch along western side of mere.
Willow tit 1 in SW corner
Pochard 13 (9mm, 4ff)
Wigeon 2 (m&f) under island
Mute swan 6 (5ads & 1 juv.)
Snipe 7
Kingfisher 1
Bullfinch 2
Lesser redpoll 1
Siskin 1+ heard
Teal 2+ heard
Tufted duck 8 (5mm, 3ff)

Once again the water rail showed exceptionally well, and shows little sign of nerves, even when it's obviously aware that you are there. It seems quite happy so long as you don't make any sudden or loud movements. The biggest challenge with this bird is spotting it in the first instance. Today I first noticed some ripples behaving in an odd way in the ditch, and on further investigation it proved to be the rail.

I was only about 2m from the bird as it walked along the ditch, and it even allowed me to open my Velcro sealed camera bag, get the camera out and fire off a few shots. It's difficult to get a decent photo of the rail, it's very dark in the ditch and there's lots of bramble and branches in the way so you're constantly focusing on the wrong thing, or the camera speed is so slow that the bird is just a blur. However, here are the best I've managed so far.