The wildlife at Mersehead has been braving this week’s bizarre weather and even flourishing despite it.
Bluebells are out in the woodland and young are emerging. Nine mallard ducklings can be seen from the visitor centre. We hope it won’t be long before oystercatcher chicks join the nursery: a pair has decided to nest in perfect view, directly opposite the window. We’ve seen them swapping over incubation duties to allow the other to eat.
The lapwings have kicked off their brooding too. They’ve been showing off their nesting behaviour and we think there are at least eight nests so far. They’re under frequent, yet nifty, bombardment from the rooks, crows and buzzards, each trying to scavenge an egg or two for their own young. Have no fear because it’s not a one-sided battle – lapwings gang up to mob predators, seeing them off with a bosh on the head and a high-speed chase.
It’s been a big amphibian week. On Saturday, the first natterjack spawn string was found, freshly laid the night before. Newly-hatched common toad and frog tadpoles are wriggling in the pond. The weather hasn’t been a welcome start for them, but hopefully they’re not at too much of a disadvantage.
Photo credit: Catherine M Weir
That’s not all of the amphibian-related news either! We’ve learnt that young newts like our woodland, thanks to school children building shelters there on Thursday. They found too many to count.
Migrants are still arriving. For example, a considerate whitethroat made itself known to our warden on Saturday morning. The male arrives before the female and starts building a number of potential nests. On her return, the female chooses her favourite and completes it, compacting their agreement.
We expect our most famous Svalbard migrants to be off on their travels soon too. The barnacle geese are particularly flighty at the moment, making goose counts mighty challenging. If they haven’t fooled us, we still have over 7,000 individuals.
We think they’ll be off this week, so quick – visit before they go! You might be lucky enough to see a whimbrel passing through from Africa to Shetland too, like a visitor did this week.