Martin Mere (Wildfowl + Wetlands Trust centre)
Saturday September 20th
 cheeses |
We stopped briefly in Glasgow looking for a deep fried Mars bar, without success, and then again in one of the big motorway service-centres for cheese, ham, and bread.
We had time for one long stop on our way south and we'd picked the Wildfowl and Wetlands centre at Martin Mere, inspired by our visit to the centre at Caerlaverock. But this was on a different scale entirely -- there were hundreds of cars in the carpark and it was the busiest tourist location of our entire trip, outside London. A weekday would probably be a better time to visit, if you have the option.
Half of the centre consists of wetlands for wild birds, surrounded by observation buildings (way too fancy to be called "hides"). The other half is an ornithological zoo, with birds in open pens, divided by continent. There are oodles of ducks and geese of all kinds, as well as flamingos and cranes and other waders. Unfortunately it was drizzling and overcast, and most of my bird photos didn't work out that well.
