Mersehead Recent Sightings 25th February - 3rd March
After some strong winds and heavy rain alongside high tides over the weekend, we experienced some minor flooding at Mersehead, with the merse disappeared under water for a short while. It made for a good reserve count on Monday however as many birds were pushed off the beach onto the wetlands, as well as the fields, where there were plenty of new wet areas.
With a mixture of sunshine and snow in the sky we counted 38 redshank, 137 curlew and 129 lapwing in the fields at Mersehead, as well as 75 lapwing at West Preston. From the hides we had 90 shoveler, 263 pintail, 111 teal, 126 wigeon, 15 shelduck, 11 gadwall, 7 tufted duck, and 5 moorhen. There were also 25 shelduck, 21 teal, 10 wigeon, and 7 pintail swimming around on the flooded merse. Looking out on to the beach from West Preston we struggled a little with visibility as hail continued to fly horizontally into our eyes but we managed to see good numbers of waders with 52 curlew, 26 redshank, 119 knot, 14 golden plover, 1 ringed plover, and 572 dunlin. We also heard the elusive water rail in the reedbeds, saw 2 little egret, and had a raven fly over us near the Sulwath centre.
There are still 800 oystercatcher at the high tide roost but with it feeling increasingly like spring we expect these numbers to go down soon. The starling roost has started dropping in numbers but their moves continue to be impressive.
Lapwing in field (photo credit: S.Livingstone)
Also on Monday during our count there was a frenzy of birds displaying. From the Bruaich hide there was a lot of whistling from the teal and quite a few males were arching their backs, tipping their heads back, raising their wings across their backs and then cocking their tails. There was a lot of commotion amongst the shelduck too with some strange cackling sounds and a lot of chasing going on.
Within the anti-predator fence, our key wader breeding area, there are impressive lapwing displays and ‘peewit’ calls at the moment. With redshank still present and 3 oystercatcher spotted in this area too, we will be keeping our eyes peeled for any signs of nesting over the coming weeks.
Elsewhere on reserve Assistant Warden, Lana, has been getting to grips with counting the barnacle geese and there were plenty around this week with 6,742 counted. Over 5,000 of these were grouped together down at West Preston so she was thrown in the deep end of the monochrome sea there.
Apart from surveys, a lot of practical work has been going with contractors working on removing scrub from the dunes and the merse to get these in to a more favourable condition.
Car park work (photo credit: S.Livingstone)
Across from the visitor centre we have been working on improving the car park. After some re-grading and re-shaping it should hold less water and more cars! It will also be tarmacked on Tuesday 7th March so please note that the car park will likely be closed all day Monday & Tuesday (6th & 7th) but alternative spaces will be available nearer the Sulwath centre.
Sarah Livingstone, Residential Trainee Warden