Welcome to 2015 and our first blog of the year!
I returned to Mersehead on the 3rd after some time off over Christmas and New Year and was eager to check my camera trap which had been left out over the festive period. To my 'otter' delight (forgive the dodgy pun) I discovered the clips below.
After being away for even just a short while, it was good to return to the reserve. There is always something special about walking the trails early on a fresh January morning with ice crunching under your feet, breathing in the clean, crisp air, observing the sun glinting off frosted plants and listening to the sounds of geese, curlew and lapwing calling to each other.
A quick visit to the hides revealed pintail, shoveler, teal, gadwall, little grebe and goldeneye all gliding on the water along with lapwing and curlew around the fringes. As I left the Meida hide a treecreeper was calling nearby. I was also treated to the sight and sound of a chirpy flock of long-tailed tits moving through the tree tops as I wondered down to the shore where I was then greeted by curlew, redshank and 5 ringed plover.
On the return from the shore a vast flock of barnacle geese took off from a nearby field and soon filled the sky. The sound of their wing beats and constant chatting to each other as they passed low overhead is always a thrilling experience.
On the 5th we carried out a survey of the wetland birds on the reserve. The highlights of this were 158 teal, 175 pintail, 61 wigeon, 44 shoveler, 15 gadwall, 480 lapwing, 4 goldeneye, 130 curlew, 26 redshank and 2121 barnacle geese.
Goldeneye - Photo credit: Ben Hall (rspb-images.com)
As many of you will be aware, the annual Big Garden Bird Watch is taking place soon, for those not aware click here for more information but to put it simply we are asking that over the weekend of 24th & 25th January you simply take an hour to look out your window and count the number of birds you see, make a note of how many of each species and pass that information on to us. If you are unsure about your garden bird identification why not pop down to Mersehead for our Garden Bird Identification Course on the 24th.