Not sure where to see wildlife as winter rolls in, or need some ideas for where to go on your next wildlife walk? Take a look at our latest wildlife sightings.

Mere Sands Wood

The woodland at Mere Sands Wood has been looking particularly beautiful this month as the leaves turned orange and started coating the woodland floor. There are still lots of fungi to be found, including candlesnuff fungus, jelly ear fungus and waxcaps, while a particular highlight for visitors was a kingfisher showing well at Rufford Hide throughout the month.

Seven Acres

Seven Acres is a wonderfully tranquil place to take a stroll at this time of year. Winter finch flocks started growing in numbers in November, with lucky visitors spotting siskins mixed in with chaffinches, goldfinches and bullfinches. Tits, too, have started roving around in noisy groups: long-tailed tits joined blue tits and coal tits in the woods. True to form, redwing numbers are steadily rising, with the birds seen gobbling up berries across Seven Acres.

Seaforth

Our Seaforth nature reserve in Liverpool really comes into its own at this time of year, providing a crucial, undisturbed roosting and feeding ground for wading birds, ducks, geese and gulls. Regular visitor Gavin Thomas shot some incredible video footage and pictures of Seaforth’s wildlife in November, reporting that he counted 5,977 waders of 12 species! Around 5,000 of these were knot: dumpy little waders that are easily spooked into murmurating groups.

The long-staying spotted redshank was also seen at Seaforth in November, plus a whimbrel and plenty of snipe.

Brockholes Nature Reserve

November is a fantastic time to spot winter thrushes feeding on our bountiful berry crop, and Brockholes proved to be a particular hot-spot in November. Redwings and fieldfares arrived from their Scandinavian breeding grounds to join blackbirds and songthrushes in a feast of frosty berries. Other seasonal delights included bitterns on Meadow Lake and the sound of water rails squealing – their weird, pig-like call can be heard below.

The female smew that arrived last month was still seen on Meadow Lake, an area of Brockholes that saw a lot of the birding action in November! A Cetti’s warbler was regularly heard calling around the lake, while large numbers of ducks including gadwall, wigeon, shoveler, teal, goldeneye and pochard have taken up residence there. Number One Pit was also a great place to see ducks on the reserve, as well as a green sandpiper that was flitting between here and Meadow Lake.

Lunt Meadows

Seaforth isn’t the only place for incredible birding in Merseyside – Lunt Meadows is a wonderful spot for a wildlife walk too, especially as winter rolls in. Snipe were seen bathing in the pools, stonechats and reed buntings flitted through the trees and the short-eared owls showed wonderfully. The best time to try and see them is early in the morning, once the sun has come up, or before dark in the afternoon.

One visitor was surprised to see a swimming weasel and captured the wonderful photograph above. Thank you, Kevin Hall!

Bickershaw Country Park

The work our Bickershaw Project is carrying out at Bickershaw Country Park is coming on in leaps and bounds. Just a few months ago we carried out an initial water vole survey and didn’t record one vole. Now, however, after lots of dedicated work to improve the wetland and create new streams, we have recorded hundreds of them.

Our Wigan Projects Officer, Mark Champion, definitely had the sighting of the month though. He was lucky enough to watch a long-eared owl flying for 20 minutes over a newly created area of wetland and streams at Bickershaw. It shows why we do this work!

Heysham harbour

The Heysham Peninsula is a fantastic place to spot seabirds, waders and waterfowl, as our November wildlife sightings show. Duck numbers seemed to grow every day, with top counts including:

• 200 shelduck feeding between Red Nab and Pott’s Corner
• 150 wigeon gathered at No. 1 Outflow
• Four red-breasted mergansers in the low tide channels
• One drake scaup floating out from Morecambe stone jetty

Volunteers at Heysham Bird Observatory were also pleased to see a distant red-throated diver out at sea; a passing couple were delighted to spot a purple sandpiper on the outfalls, which has since been sighted again; and a merlin flying rapidly along the south harbour wall was a real treat. Other unusual birds included:

• A grounded firecrest
• Small numbers of snow bunting flying overhead on migration
• A black redstart near Ocean Edge

But it wasn’t just the birds that put on a show around Heysham harbour in November. A gorgeous red swordgrass moth was seen sunning itself on the seawall by Heysham outfalls, while two bottlenose dolphins were recorded off the north wall!

Heysham Nature Reserve

One of our local Wildlife Watch groups was delighted to find a kingfisher behind the dipping pond towards the end of the month – an excellent record for the reserve. We were also astounded to see a Siberian chiffchaff calling plaintively by the Heysham Nature Reserve office, in amongst a long-tailed tit flock. It’s a beautifully buff-coloured bird with a thin white eye-stripe and pale legs, and a completely different call to the chiffchaffs we’re familiar with during spring and summer. The Siberian chiffchaff has a thin, piping, monosyllabic call that’s more like that of a dunnock.

Middleton Nature Reserve

November was a busy month at Middleton Nature Reserve near Heysham. Thrushes visited in large numbers to feed on juicy hawthorn berries, with minimum numbers counted at any one time hitting:

• 30 redwing
• 17 fieldfare
• 12 blackbird
• Two song thrush

Ducks, too, started building up at Middleton, with 34 gadwall recorded on the No Swimming Pond on a single afternoon: the highest ever count of adult gadwall for the reserve. A goldeneye was seen on the Main Pond before flying away, while other ducks included a lovely drake pochard and a very strange gadwall-wigeon hybrid!

Woodcock, snipe, jack snipe and water rail were all recorded at Middleton Nature Reserve in November, plus a solitary green sandpiper.

Are you planning a spot of winter wildlife watching in December? We’d love to see your pictures and hear about your sightings, so don’t forget to tell us all about them on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Simply click one of the icons below.