RSPB Mersehead Recent Sightings 12th – 18th May
It has been a glorious sunny week at Mersehead with temperatures reaching as high as 20oC. Butterflies can be seen in every direction with Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Orange-tip and Green Veined White all present in large numbers. On Saturday a Speckled Wood was spotted along the path to Meida Hide. In Scotland, the Speckled Wood is mainly confined to the far west and north-west with just a few colonies established in Dumfries and Galloway. It is believed that this butterfly is becoming more widespread in Dumfries and Galloway so please report any sightings to the South West Scotland Environmental Information Centre.
Although warm during the day, the night temperatures have dropped right back down to single figures with a minimum temperature of 3oC recorded during the week. The low number of moths caught during the weekly Garden Moth Survey is a reflection of this, with just 2 Hebrew Character, 1 Powered Quaker and 1 Common Quaker recorded. However, we did see our first 2 Poplar Hawk-moths of the year. This moth has an unusual resting position with the hindwings held forward of the forewings and the abdomen curved upwards at the rear. Distributed commonly throughout most of Britain, the adults are on the wing from May to July, when it is a frequent visitor to light. We ran an additional moth survey in the sand dunes this week to see what species were present. We recorded 3 Flame Carpet, 2 Powered Quaker, 1 Common Carpet, 1 Hebrew Character, 1 Water Carpet and 1 Lunar Marbled Brown.
Poplar Hawk-moth. Photo credit: L.Blakely
We have been completing the second round of wildfowl and wader surveys this week which found us at Kirkconnell Merse at 5:30am in time to see the sun break over the top of the surrounding hills and the lingering remains of a mist rolling low over the merse. In addition to seeing displaying Curlew, Redshank and Oystercatcher we were lucky enough to see an Otter enjoying his breakfast on the edge of the River Nith and find a Skylark nest, were one chick was eagerly awaiting the arrival of his.
Skylark nest. Photo credit: L.Blakely
Our Natterjack Night guided walks have been a great success with a good chorus heard and plenty of toads seen. We saw the Barn Owl glide over the sand dunes into the dusk, heard Grasshopper Warbler singing and Snipe drumming as we investigated the natterjack pools. Our surveys have found a total of 69 spawns strings so far and we have estimated 10,000 tadpoles have hatched. Amphibians lay a huge amount of eggs to ensure that a percentage of them will survive to adulthood. Many animals will eat natterjack toad spawn/tadpoles including fish, insect nymphs and other tadpoles, including fellow natterjack tadpoles if they are hungry enough! The guided walk “Natterjack Night” will return next May.
Natterjack Toad. Photo Credit: C.Murray
Natterjack Toad spawn and Common Frog Tadpoles. Photo credit: L.Blakely
A female Marsh Harrier has been spotted over the reedbed and on Wednesday evening an Osprey was hunting the wetlands. Lapwing chicks are starting to hatch and tiny Mallard ducklings are bobbing about. Reed Warblers can be heard from Media Hide, Wheatear has been seen on the beach and Cuckoo has been heard calling from the trees along the cliff edge.
Rowena Flavelle, Warden