Mersehead Recent Sightings 17th- 22nd June
This week saw us finish the last of our breeding bird surveys for the season. We finished with lapwing productivity, which looks at how many chicks survive to fledging age compared to how many nests we’ve counted. The figure is expressed as the number of chicks fledged per pair. Last year we recorded 30 pairs of lapwing with an incredible 45 chicks fledged, giving a productivity of 1.5. Lapwings need a minimum productivity of 0.6 to maintain a stable population so this was a great result. We hope that this year will be as successful as last year for these wonderful birds.
On the 20th two chicks were seen on the track by the woodland, just by the disabled parking bay, giving visitors great views as they started to explore further afield. A peregrine was also spotted soaring over the reserve on the 22nd.
Fledged lapwing chick. Photo credit: L. Blakely
On Monday we headed over to Southerness to visit Parkdean Caravan Park. You may think that this is a slightly odd thing for us to be doing on a work day but we had a motive in mind! In the middle of the park in a small, reedy pond are some rather unexpected inhabitants… natterjack toads! This unlikely location holds a small number of the toads and, working with Parkdean and local residents, we are hoping to increase this population. This year we have heard 3 calling males and found a number of tadpoles which is a promising sign. In the long term, we hope to join up the Mersehead and Southerness populations in one long habitat corridor, which will now be possible with the new land that we have recently acquired. This will give the natterjacks a bigger, better and more joined up home, making it easier for them to adapt to any change that may occur.
The pool was not exclusively the domain of natterjacks however, as we were lucky enough to find not one but two smooth newts and a number of common toad toadlets.
Common toad toadlet. Photo credit: L.Blakely
We’ve had the moth trap out again this week and what a haul we got! We had over 150 moths in the trap, an intimidating amount for the uninitiated! Some of the highlights included 5 poplar hawkmoth, 11 elephant hawkmoth, 2 small elephant hawkmoth, 1 peach blossom, 72 large yellow underwing and 2 gold spots.
Peach Blossom moth. Photo credit: L.Blakely
Poplar hawkmoth. Photo credit: L.Blakely
The terrific Tuesday volunteers have been out in force again. This time they were helping us to remove some ash saplings and strim and rake the paths to Meida hide to open up the path which was becoming somewhat overgrown!
Strimmed path to Meida Hide. Photo credit: L. Blakely.
Lana Blakely, Assistant Warden