Martin Mere
- Les Pickstock
- Sep 2
- 2 min read
Each morning between the beginning of April and the end of August Martin Mere hosts a public moth trap opening. The variety is amazing BUT the opening is performed by daily volunteers who do not necessarily know anything about moths. The wildlife wardens actually open the traps earlier and make a note of the species captured. Unfortunately this is just a ‘list’ with no notes etc to aid the volunteers identifying which is which.
The volunteers offer the egg boxes to the children, many of whom are scared when the moths move, and just drop the boxes, disturbing the moths. The volunteers are under instruction not to handle the moths, or allow anyone to do so. So, unless the dropped moths fly away, they are left on the floor
No assistance is offered for photography (despite the web advertisement) and even if it were, the children just mass around always getting in the way. Cutting out the moths, for a clearer view, can be tricky; and you really only end up with a technical identification image with little chance of ‘artistry’.
I suggested to the two volunteers that some shelving would be advantageous to put the egg boxes on to facilitate viewing rather than peering down the trap. Their tart response was “we just do what we are told”.
Walking around the rest of the site - if you have not been it is very large [and expensive] - other volunteers (and wardens) were much more friendly, including the café staff. There is a magnificent flamingo flock, near to the café (where the bacon butty is rather dry, rating no more than a 5).
If you like ducks and geese this is the place to come as they are often here in the tens of thousands. They are so well looked after, many no longer migrate, becoming ‘artificial’ residents. Whilst ‘ducks’ are not seen as particularly photogenic or exciting, there are more than 30 species, from all over the world.
Another issue with WWT sites - unlike RSPB - is they breed their ’captive’ birds which reduces their conservation commitments. An example is selling food to visitors, mainly children, rather than letting the birds fend for themselves. This encourages the birds staying; but unfortunately other birds and animals are not necessarily getting their correct food.
As far as I know, Martin Mere has the only local collection of White Storks. But their enclosure is rather too constrained for natural behaviours, including lack of high nesting places.
Due to the dry weather the smaller ponds had dried up, so very few dragonflies and damselflies were extant. If you enjoy being pierced, horseflies were in abundance. But I did see a Kingfisher from the Ron Barker hide. This is named after the friend of Sir Peter Scott who developed the idea for the site, which opened in 1975.
Apart from its entry costs (about £19) Martin Mere is a good walk around site for children and school parties but rather poor for ‘wildlife’ and photography.
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