Having spent the summer working at RSPB Lake Vyrnwy I decided to come back to Mersehead for my second winter as a residential volunteer. Arriving in mid-October I found a wetland covered in wildfowl and fields littered with Barnacle Geese. I spent my first few hours on the reserve sitting in the Bruaich Hide as the sun went down, listening to the amazing variety of wetland bird sounds. The surprise of the evening was the arrival of a pair of Mandarin Ducks in the gloom.
Photo-bombing Crow
Recent Sightings
Raptors have been very prominent recently with a stunning male Hen Harrier regularly seen over the wetland with the occasional sighting of a ringtail. Merlin, Kestrel and Peregrine are seen infrequently with Sparrowhawk and Buzzard being more frequent. In the past week a juvenile Goshawk has been seen harassing the sizeable Starling roost which has been coming into the reedbed outside the Meida Hide.
Waders have included a Green Sandpiper, Greenshank, 2 Black-tailed Godwits and a regular flock of a few hundred Lapwing on the wetland.
Starling murmuration on 5th November
One of the biggest questions with Starling murmurations is – How Many? Why not give it a go yourself, try and estimate the number of Starlings in the above image. Feel free to comment with your estimate on this blog or on our Facebook page and the answer will be revealed soon.
Surveys
One of my roles this winter is to take on a number of bird surveys which are generally conducted on a weekly basis.
WeBS
On my first day of work I conducted the national Wetlands Bird Survey (WeBS) which is designed to count ducks, geese, waders and other typical wetland bird species once a month, usually around the highest tide of the month. With slight thanks to the Sparrowhawk which spooked all ducks out of the long grass I managed to count:
1090 Teal, 150 Wigeon, 86 Mallard, 48 Pintail, 24 Shoveler, 112 Canada Geese, 6724 Barnacle Geese, 7 Whooper Swan, 3 Mute Swan, 3 Little Grebe, 70 Lapwing.
Duck taking evasive action against juvenile Peregrine
Goose Counts
A reserve Barnacle Goose count is conducted at least once a week and a co-ordinated Barnacle Goose count is conducted in unison with other counters around the Solway on a regular basis. Reserve counts have generally been between up to 4000, with a peak of 6724 during the monthly WeBS. This figure also represents the typical count for the general area during the co-ordinated count, with the Solway as a whole having around 31000 birds.
Barnacle Goose - Green DPT (photo taken in March 2014)
A small proportion of the Barnacle Geese have been ringed given Darvic leg rings (coloured ring with 2/3 letter code). Most have been ringed during the breeding season in Svalbard with others ringed here at Mersehead and also WWT Caerlaverock. So far this winter the oldest known bird seen on the reserve is Green DPT, which was ringed in Svalbard on 12 July 1994 as a 1 year old male.
Winter Passerine Survey
A count of Winter Passerines (generally finches & buntings) is conducted each week and aims to see what and how many birds are using areas of wild bird cover which has been specially planted for wintering birds. In the last month species peak counts have included 23 Tree Sparrow, 22 Yellowhammer, 44 Reed Bunting, 21 Twite and 137 Linnet.
So that’s part of my life at Mersehead as a residential volunteer, however it’s not all birdwatching!!
Gavin
Starling Count: Despite saying 'Never Again' after counting the murmuration last winter I decided to give it another go with the photo in this post. Below is the pointillism artwork and the final count came out as 8688!!