RSPB Mersehead blog 20^th - 26^th May 2023

Welcome to this week's edition of the Mersehead blog, where breeding season is in full swing and cows are on the moooove.

Cattle making there way out to the Mersehead fields. Photo credit: A.Sutton

Every year here at Mersehead, we graze animals like cows and sheep on the fields to help with our habitat management approach. Thursday this week marked the first arrival of the cows…

RSPB Mersehead Blog 13th - 19th May 2023

Another amazing week here on the reserve has been packed with wildlife wonders. My particular favourite, in the last few days, has been watching the Lapwing chicks growing larger and branching out across the fields, much to the consternation of their parents.

Lapwing chicks. Photo credit: CJE Farrell

A primary school group was lucky enough to witness the wonderful scene for themselves…

RSPB Mersehead Blog 6 – 12 May 2023

It has been a super survey week at Mersehead this week, with the much improved weather being taken advantage of by the team.  It has meant a few very early starts, but when you are rewarded by displaying Curlew and singing Reed Warbler there can’t be any complaints for some mild sleep deprivation.

Busy surveying at Kirkconnell Merse and in the Reedbed. Photo credit: P. …

RSPB Mersehead Blog 28^th April – 5^th May 2023

The Barnacle geese have left Mersehead, heading east on their 2,000-mile migration back to their breeding grounds in Svalbard. A count of the Solway on Wednesday recorded 25,000 geese on the Rockcliffe Marshes near Gretna Green, a traditional gathering point as they prepare for departure across the North Sea towards the Norwegian coast.

Photos by G. Chambers

At the start…

RSPB Mersehead blog 22^nd - 28^th April 2023

Mersehead was a buzz of excitement on Monday, with the first fluffly balls of the year seen wandering around the fields! These were of course not actual fluffy balls, but our much anticipated, newly hatched Lapwing chicks. 

Over the last month, several members of the conservation team have been monitoring Lapwing nests in the fields, to assess how successful their breeding season…

RSPB Mersehead blog 15th - 21st April 2023

What a week it’s been at Mersehead: a cacophony of Natterjack Toads can be heard most evenings, the noise carrying easily across the reserve to the main farm buildings; the Swallows are back swooping around the Sulwath Centre; the reedbed has come alive with ‘warbles’ and I am awaiting the emergence of the Badger cubs.  The hope is that some trail camera footage…

RSPB Mersehead Blog 8 – 13 April 2023

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times:  it’s an absolute privilege to be able spend a couple of hours at dawn walking along the Mersehead reedbed rides, hearing the first Sedge Warblers arrive back from their wintering grounds in Africa and joining the Willow Warbler, Reed Bunting and – the main focus of our visit – the Water Rail. Breeding pairs of…

RSPB Mersehead Blog 1^st – 7^th April 2023

It has been a week of two halves on the Solway, with driving rain turning to dazzling sunshine and blue skies. Spring is starting to unfurl across the reserve with more wildflowers blooming and the first butterflies on the wing with Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Small White seen this week.

Small Tortoiseshell. Photo credit: R. Chambers

A herald of spring is the Lesser…

RSPB Mersehead Blog 25^th – 31^st March 2023

At this time of year, the reserve is bursting with life and activity, with natterjack toads emerging from their winter hibernation, lapwings starting to nest and the dusk chorus of birds ever present all around the reserve. Our team of wardens and residential volunteers have been conducting surveys to help monitor the populations of these fascinating creatures and ensure…

RSPB Mersehead Blog 18th - 24th March 2023

The weather has proved both a help and a hinderance to residents of all sorts here at Mersehead R.S.P.B. this week. The wintry conditions seemed to be abating, with temperatures generally rising and signs of spring in abundance. But, in swept a significant amount of rain and wind, couple this with a high spring tide mid-week and that’s a recipe for a spot of flooding.

RSPB Mersehead Blog 11^th – 17^th March 2023

The weather has continued to feel not particularly spring-like, with cold temperatures and even some light dusting of snow earlier this week, turning into rainy, wet conditions later on the week. While all the rain means the access road has unfortunately flooded some days, its good weather for the toads as the rain helps to fill up the breeding pools for the natterjacks who…

RSPB Mersehead Blog 4^th – 10^th March 2023

The first half of the week continued the Spring like feel that was highlighted in last week’s blog.  The hedgerows have been alive with activity, and some (notably a pair of Blue Tits in the Sulwath Garden) have started checking out the available real estate; popping in and out of the plentiful nest boxes dotted across the reserve.  Eagle-eyed visitors will notice a number…

RSPB Mersehead Blog 25^th February – 3^rd March 2023

Volunteers from Mersehead were out completing the national Beached Bird Survey over the weekend. This is one of the UK’s longest running citizen science projects having started 50-years ago. Initially launched to monitor chronic oil pollution, this survey gives scientists an insight into the causes of seabird deaths. With the beautiful weather, it was a stunning…

RSPB Mersehead Blog 18^th - 24^th February 2023

Welcome to the latest Mersehead blog, where the winter season is slowly coming to an end and the promise of spring is just around the corner. As the days begin to lengthen and the weather slowly starts to warm up, the reserve's habitats are starting to come alive with an array of stunning flora. Look out for the delicate white flowers of the snowdrop which can be found carpeting…

RSPB Mersehead Blog 11^th - 17^th February 2023

It’s hard not to mention the onset of spring at the moment, with the sight of snowdrops peeking up from the ground and the sound of birds singing filling the air. In particular it has been lovely to hear the musical notes of the Skylarks while out in the fields at Mersehead this week as they show off their distinctive flight pattern.

While maybe less musical than the songbirds…

RSPB Mersehead Blog 4^th February – 10^th February 2023

In the Celtic calendar spring starts on February 1^st, halfway between the winter and summer solstices. The festival celebrating the advent of spring and the end of the long night was known as Imbolc, and is still celebrated as St Brigid’s day in Ireland. When my fellow residential volunteer told me that spring began in February in Ireland I was confused, but now…

RSPB Mersehead Blog 28^th January – 3^rd February 2023

Whilst still winter, signs of early spring are starting to emerge at Mersehead with the recent milder weather. This last week has seen the start of songbirds like great tits and song thrushes try out their mating calls and songs, filling the air with melodic trills and chirps. Whilst on the ponds, teal have been seen practicing their iconic displays, flapping their…

RSPB Mersehead Blog 21^st – 27^th January 2023

This weekend is the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch and Mersehead is one of the reserves being live streamed over the weekend. You can check out the action at the visitor centre bird feeders live from 9am on Saturday here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQY4ZFLiGnw, or have a look at some footage from earlier in the week here https://www.facebook.com/TheRSPB/live_videos/?ref…

RSPB Mersehead Sightings 16th – 20th January 2023

It has been a cold week here at Mersehead and our wetland birds have been struggling to find any wet land with most of the reserve being frozen over. Despite the freezing conditions, our volunteers have been out in the first beach clean of the year.

Beach cleaning. Photo credit J. Lister

In exciting news, a White-Tailed Eagle has been spotted on the reserve! The…

RSPB Mersehead Blog 7^th – 13^th January 2023

It’s been a wet and windy week at Mersehead , and with the water table so high, and the road once again flooded, the Wetlands were bucking the trend at the start of the week by looking surprisingly dry.  Whilst this meant the ducks were huddled far away at the back of the field, it illustrates the amount of control we have over the water levels on the wetlands, even…

RSPB Mersehead Sightings 1^st – 6^th January 2023

The first working day of 2023 was bright, sunny, and cold with a thin layer of ice covering the wetlands. A total of seven wildfowl species have been spotted this week snoozing and diving in the limited open water: Shoveler, Pintail, Mallard, Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall and Tufted Duck. Little Grebe was present whilst Water Rail has been heard squealing from the depths of the reedbed…

RSPB Mersehead Blog  10^th – 16^th December 2022

The freezing temperatures have left Mersehead looking like a winter wonderland this week. With the beautiful sight of glistening frost coating the reserve it is lovely to be outside, although necessary to wrap up warm! 

Mersehead looked like a winter wonderland this week! Photo credit S.Doyle

Frozen webs and wetlands from the Bruaich hide. Photo credit S. Doyle

A robin…

RSPB Mersehead Blog  3^rd – 9^th December 2022

With temperatures dipping below freezing for much of the week, the main objective has been keeping warm whilst we look to progress the Winter work program of habitat management and infrastructure maintenance work.

The weekend volunteers, led by George, have done an excellent job in coppicing willow from behind the polytunnel.  The younger, more flexible branches were then…

RSPB Mersehead Blog 26^th November – 2^nd December 2022

With the footpath through the woodland to the beach complete, our Tuesday volunteer group headed down to the beach for a litter pick this week. With large tides hitting the sand dunes last week the inevitable deluge of plastic had followed.

Some of the more unusual items discovered where a floodlight, platypus and a Welsh independence sticker!

At first glance…

RSPB Mersehead Blog: 19^th – 25^th November 2022

It's been an exciting week for the staff and volunteers at Mersehead as we're pleased to announce the re-opening of the woodland path that leads to the beach! After several months of hard toil, sweat, and our very resolute Tuesday and Saturday volunteer work parties, the final touches have now been completed to the path. The completion of the woodland path to the beach…