RSPB Mersehead Recent Sightings 20th – 26th March 2021
After such warm temperatures, this week has felt noticeably cooler - not helped by the chill wind which has had clouds scudding across the skies, and which the Barnacle Geese have been battling against.
Complex skies over Mersehead. Photo credit: B.Taylor
Barnacle Geese battling the wind. Photo credit: B.Taylor
A Grey Heron was busy fishing on the wetlands on Sunday. It was employing the most common technique for feeding; walking very slowly to explore the area and then standing still with the neck lowered before darting the head into the water.
Grey Heron. Photo Credit: B.Taylor
Flowers are popping up all over the reserve and the Sulwath garden is full of Daffodils and Crocuses. The cherry blossom is coming into bloom and the warm weather over the weekend saw it busy with a mix of White-tailed, Buff-tailed and Tree bumblebee activity. As discussed in last week’s blog, these are mainly queen bumblebees which are stocking up on nectar and hunting for new nest sites. Unlike most animal life, bees live in large eusocial colonies. These colonies have an overlap of generations, where there is cooperative care of juvenile bees (usually all the offspring of one queen bee). This is an interesting social organisation as it is initially difficult to see the genetic benefit to the worker bees of caring for the offspring of the queen, rather than having their own. The key to understanding this is that the male (drone) bees grow from unfertilised eggs, and therefore all their genetic information is transferred to the next generation. The result of this is that the offspring of a male drone and a queen bee are more closely related to each other (75%), than the usual parent-offspring relatedness (50%). Drone and worker bees therefore promote their genes more by helping to rear the offspring of the queen, than by producing their own young.
Tree Bumblebee. Photo credit: B.Taylor
A male and female Chaffinch were flying together through the woodland, and the olive-green rump of the male was fantastically on display. Although the loud, rapid song of the chaffinch defending its territory has been common occurrence for a few weeks now, the nests will not be assembled until at least April.
Chaffinch singing. Photo credit: B.Taylor
Evidence of ‘mad March hares’ has been seen this week, with Brown Hares being noticeably more active. Males are chasing females through fields and along the side of the woodland. When disturbed, hares can rocket out from their ‘forms’ (depressions in the ground) at up to 45mph. A trail camera caught footage of a fight breaking out as a female fended off an overly persistent male. Watch out for this in the compilation of footage from around the reserve.
Roe Deer, Lapwing, Badger and Brown Hare from trail cameras around the reserve.
Also featured in this clip is a Lapwing gobbling up a worm. A key part of the lapwing diet, worms provide nutrients for the energetically expensive display flight. This fantastic display by males serves both to attract a mate and to defend their territory. As reserve work shifts towards monitoring waders and wildfowl through their breeding seasons, we’ve begun work observing lapwing behaviour. Pairs will be nesting in the coming weeks.
Lapwings often share fields with other waders, and around 300 Golden Plover have been flocking nearby. Unlike most waders, Golden plover are not closely associated with water, and will winter on grassland as often as mudflats. During the winter, Golden Plover are less striking, but as seen in the following photo (in an attempt at digiscoping!) most are now showing breeding plumage. Notice the contrast of the dark black of the face and belly, and the golden spangles on their upperparts.
Golden Plover. Photo credit: B.Taylor
Last week saw the first Common Toad sighting and, late on Friday, the first Natterjack toad was spotted! It is still a bit early for mass gatherings of Natterjack toads, with the cold temperatures putting them off venturing out. They are likely to be keeping warm in their sand-dune burrows. Like the common toad, Natterjacks lay their eggs in long spawn strings. However, where the common toad lays 2 rows of eggs per string, Natterjacks will lay just one row of eggs in each string. The first common toad spawn strings were found this week in the shallows of breeding pools, wrapped around vegetation.
Common Toad Spawn. Photo credit: B.Taylor
3 Gadwall pairs have been spotted on the wetland. A relatively rare breeding bird at the reserve, it will be interesting to see if these pairs stay during breeding season, and hopefully we can spot a nest! Gadwalls prefer shallow edges of lakes for breeding, surrounded by vegetation.
On Thursday morning, 4 Whooper Swans flew over the reserve. These are mainly wintering birds and will be making their way back to Iceland for the breeding season. The key distinguishing feature which tells them apart from the more common Mute Swan, is the large yellow ‘v’ shaped patch on its bill.
Please note that Mersehead is open to visitors but all indoor facilities are closed under Tier-4 rules. This includes the bird hides, Visitor Centre and toilets, with our trails and car park remaining open at present. We will keep you updated on any changes.
Beth Taylor,
Residential Volunteer
good blog.