Change is in the air

Mersehead Recent Sightings 14^th-20^th January

It’s been an incredibly mild week at Mersehead, at times feeling like winter is on its way out! Various buds in the gardens are sprouting up-our first snowdrops are out-with crocuses and daffodils on the way. The birds on the feeders and in the hedgerows are starting to sing loudly too with great tits, house sparrows, and blackbirds being the noisiest at the moment. The great tits will no doubt be looking for nesting sites around the reserve from now on and their “teecher teecher teecher” call is an easy one to keep an ear out for as you are walking around.

Great tit-Visitors’ Centre (Photo credit: S.Livingstone)

 
We have also been noticing the difference in the geese with the barnacles being more spread out around the reserve. The weekly count on Wednesday came to a total of 3,758 but whereas we have typically found them in 6 or 7 compartments whilst counting, this week they were stretched across 15 different compartments. They seem to be feeding out on the merse more these days since the fields they initially favoured have been eaten down to low sward levels.

The sound of pink-footed geese has returned to the skies as well with big skeins flying over the reserve this week. These geese are amongst the first to migrate back north, although many will stick around for some time yet. On Tuesday, with dense fog sitting on the fields, you couldn’t see them at all but the famous “wink wink” call was loud and clear overhead.

This week we also had a WeBS survey, thankfully done on Monday when the skies were clear. Good numbers of waders were recorded with 39 redshank, 204 lapwing, 229 curlew, 340 dunlin, and 1234 oystercatcher. The highlight amongst the ducks was the pintail with 408 on reserve-our peak count for the winter so far. Nearly 300 of them were in one field enjoying one of the pools. We are also seeing good numbers of shoveler with 62 on the wetlands this week, and 2 shelduck have become a regular sighting from Meida hide, looking very large compared to the teal and wigeon!

It was a quieter story for the Winter Passerine survey this week with just 24 skylark, 40 chaffinch, 54 linnet, and 23 reed bunting recorded. There have been plenty of other sightings around the reserve with regular reports of the tree creeper, great-spotted woodpecker, and goldcrest in the woodlands, as well as a kingfisher darting across the viewing windows at the Meida hide. Elsewhere on the trails a male merlin was seen perched on a fence post at the top of the fields near the sand dunes, and the female hen harrier was spotted, again perched, in the middle fields enjoying a recent catch. In the early hours of Friday morning the tawny owl was heard hooting away, and the barn owl swooped out of one of the old farm buildings just as dawn was breaking.

Male merlin (Photo credit: Chris Gomersall)

Our biggest highlight of the week was probably the starling roost however. Those lucky enough to be sat in Meida hide on Saturday were treated to good weather and a magnificent sight of thousands gathering over the reedbeds. It appears to be the biggest roost yet this winter for Mersehead. Mid-week saw impressive murmurations again, with our reserve ecologists here on Tuesday lucky enough to catch the spectacle at the end of the day.

Snowdrops in Sulwath garden (Photo credit: S.Livingstone)

Sarah Livingstone, Residential Trainee Warden