Wildlife

The islands on the mere are full of life with upto 1000 black-headed gulls building their nests, watch their squabbles and look out for the first chicks hatching in May.

Cetti's warblers, with their explosive song, are often heard and not seen. We have up to 25 pairs on the reserve, with most of them on the reedbed walk.

Footpaths between hides are full of orange tip butterflies in spring where their favourite food plants cuckoo flower and garlic mustard grow.

Look out for banded demoiselles - a stunning damselfly found across the reserve. The best place to see them is the ditch near the Gordon Taylor hide.

It's always an amazing day when you see a barn owl, with our 600 acres of fields full of voles we have 3 pairs of barn owls which are most active in the summer as they are hunting to feed their chicks.

The reedbed comes alive in the summer as all of the warblers that have been over wintering in Africa return and fill the reedbed with song. See if you can tell the differences between the sedge and reed warblers.

The spectacle of upto 50,000 pink-footed geese flying into roost is amazing, the noise the swirling, watching them fall from the sky.

We have a herd of English Longhorn cattle that do a brilliant job eating the long rough grasses getting the fields perfect for the pink-footed geese in the winter and breeding waders in the summer.

Look out for pintail and wigeon returning from the breeding season to over-winter at Martin Mere.

Come along to the swan feeds at 3pm for a whooper swan spectacular. Look out amongst the swans and you’ll see other fantastic species including shelduck, wigeon, pintail, ruff and black-tailed godwits.

At dusk watch for flocks of starlings returning to roost in the reedbed sometimes they swirl in these magnificent displays.

Spend a mindful moment sat watching the Janet Kear feeding station. A whole range of species can be seen, highlights include willow tits, brambling and tree sparrows.