Mersehead Recent Sightings 23rd – 29th January 2021
Mersehead was waking up to a hard frost, thick ice and a light layer of snow over the weekend. Hundreds of wildfowl including Teal, Pintail and Shoveler were crowded together feeding on the limited open water. A flock of around 380 Lapwing were snoozing on the ice and it was a nice surprise to see a female Goosander snuggled into the base of some thick vegetation. Redshank in flight is a daily sound as they dart between the iced pools in the fields searching for food in the frozen ground, we have recorded a count of 23 in the field behind the car park.
Mouth of the Southwick Water looking towards Portling. Photo credit: R.Flavelle
A walk along Rainbow Lane at the weekend found a flock of 52 Twite foraging for seeds amongst the sea purslane. A regular local visitor reported an amazing close encounter with an Otter feeding on sprat in the creek next to the footpath. Raven nest every year along the cliffs and can generally be seen or heard along this stretch of the reserve. A couple of Greenshank have been enjoying probing through the mud along the Southwick Water. It was great to see a male Hen Harrier hunting along the sand dunes on Sunday.
Twite. Photo credit: G.Chambers
Raven. Phot credit. G.Chambers
Our garden birds have been enjoying the plentiful supply of seed and fat balls over the last few cold and blustery weeks. It has been fantastic to sit and watch the daily soap opera of winter survival from the lounge window. Are you taking part in the world’s largest bird survey? Big Garden Birdwatch is running from 29-31 January, submit your results here and let us know who was top in your garden. We will certainly be joining in from Mersehead, recording the diversity of visitors to our homemade driftwood table. It was great to see 8 Tree Sparrow and 11 Yellowhammer this morning.
Driftwood Towers. Photo credit: R.Flavelle
Pink-footed goose migration is evident with large skeins continually flying over the reserve. The Barnacle Geese will be calling Mersehead home for a little while longer as they don’t depart for Svalbard untill late April-early May. Look skyward when the geese jump excitedly into the air as this is often the sign of an approaching predator, most frequently Red Kite or Buzzard. Fieldfare have returned to the reserve with flocks of up to 30 foraging for insects in the grassland fields. A lone Redwing has been spotted along with 3 Mistle Thrush.
Barnacle Geese. Photo credit: Dave Jackson
The fortnightly count of all the waterbirds across the reserve took place today. As the high tide covers the estuary, wading birds are forced off the mudflats and congregate on the edge of the tide. A total of 8 wader species were recorded across the two high tide roosts today; 3200 Dunlin, 2700 Knot, 600 Golden Plover, 150 Grey Plover, 186 Curlew, 60 Ringed Plover, 390 Oystercatcher and 43 Bar-tailed Godwit. The gull roost was represented by 3 species with Black-headed gull, Common gull and Herring gull recorded.
Out on the wetland habitats it was great to count 197 Pintail and 224 Wigeon. Gadwall, Shoveler, Tufted Duck and Little Grebe were also present along with the usual hundreds of Teal. Around 30 Teal were showing off their courtship display with plenty of head flips and tail wagging behaviour. A group of 18 Redshank were huddled together along with 440 Lapwing.
Lapwing on the Ice.Photo credit: R.Flavelle
As January draws to a close, the first signs of spring can be heard in birdsong. The distinct “teacher teacher” of the Great tit resonates from the hawthorn hedge. Wren, Chaffinch and Blue tit have been heard warming up their songs too. Instead of singing, the Great Spotted Woodpecker drums against the bark of dead trees to advertise its presence and territory. We heard our fist drumming this morning. It was great to stand a watch 2 Treecreeper and a Nuthatch gather insects as they nimbly scaled the branches.
The Mersehead year list has reached 91 with Long-tailed tit, Jay and Whooper Swan added this week.
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.
Rowena Flavelle, Warden