Mersehead Recent Sightings 10th – 16th December
This week at Mersehead we completed our Wetland Bird Survey, or WeBS, for Mersehead, West Preston and Kirkconnell. What made the weeks’ WeBs quite interesting and more challenging was the height of the high tide this week which came to 8.8m, flooding walkways along the River Nith and covering large areas of the merse at Mersehead. It was a dramatic change to observe and a reminder of how dynamic these estuarine areas are.
High tide at Mersehead. Photo credit L. McKenzie
Our waders and wildfowl on Mersehead and West Preston have maintained relatively similar numbers to our previous reserve count, with 186 Wigeon, 294 Teal, 59 Mallard, 209 Pintail and 60 Shoveler, as well as 6 Gadwall, 5 Tufted duck and 2 Goldeneye observed from the Bruiach and Meida Hides. We were also lucky in recording a Water rail calling during our survey at the Meida Hide. Lapwing numbers have decreased from the previous count with 227 recorded on reserve, while 1324 Oystercatcher, 278 Curlew, 310 Dunlin and 4 Ringed plover were recorded. There was also 1 Little egret at West Preston. Similarly at Kirkconnell, our wader numbers remained stable, with 9 Oystercatcher, 544 Lapwing, 29 Curlew and 153 Redshank. Our wildfowl numbers on this area of the reserve, however, had decreased with the exception of Wigeon which increased to 73, with 2 Teal, 5 Mallard and 6 Pintail recorded. This is thought to be possibly due to the high water levels and mild conditions attracting wildfowl to forage across a wider area in the Kirkconnell compartment.
Pintail at the Meida Hide. Photo credit L. McKenzie
We also completed our weekly Barnacle Goose Counts this week and recorded 3,024, a slight decrease from previous surveys. During WeBS we also observed 5 Greylag geese and 18 Canada geese from the Bruaich Hide, as well as 2 Pink-footed geese on the intertidal-flats.
Surprisingly some of our species highlights for the reserve this week have also come from our WeBS and include a male Hen harrier and female Sparrowhawk, as well as a Peregrine perched on a fence post at Kirkconnell. A Kingfisher was also spotted at the Southwick water estuary, and a male Kestrel was observed perched in a tree in the Sulwarth Garden. We have also continued to see large Starling mumurations, which although less frequent now, still attract visitors to the reserve and is a brilliant display to watch.
Lynne McKenzie, Residential Trainee Warden