Mersehead Recent Sightings 13th August – 19th August
A month has passed since I began my placement at Mersehead. My duties have been highly varied from land management work such as grass cutting, repainting the holiday cottages, ragwort pulling from the hay field and inspecting the anti predator fence for damage. I have also been involved in a lot of public engagement work, from manning the visitor centre, to assisting in running a stall at offsite events at Kirkcudbright, Cream O’Galloway and Sandyhills. On Wednesday there was an event at Mersehead for children to gain the experience of becoming a wildlife warden for a day. We had two enthusiastic children who were getting involved in bird surveys, moth identification and building a bug hotel. They were very keen about the whole event and it is inspiring to see people take such a strong interest in nature from such an early age.
Also as part of my placement I have been undertaking weekly butterfly surveys. The butterflies have been taking advantage of the fine weather we have had recently, as have the dragonflies and damselflies: lots of Green-veined Whites and Peacock were spotted along with the occasional Wall Brown. A solitary Small Copper and Small White were also sighted. Visitors to the reserve have been enthralled by the butterflies visiting the garden next to the car park: Peacocks and Red Admirals have been frequent visitors along with the occasional Small Tortoiseshell and Painted Lady.
Not much activity has been seen at the hides recently aside from the corvids, however visitors walking the trails have seen (and heard) willow warbler, stonechat, grasshopper warbler, meadow pipit, wheatear, whitethroat and whimbrel. The swallows and house martins have been seen frequently perching on the telephone wires at the reserve, however they will soon begin their migration route back to Africa.
It’s been a good week for raptors: Buzzards and Kestrels have been spotted hunting on the reserve. A Red Kite was also spotted flying across the wetlands. The most exciting discovery was during an evening walk around the reserve that resulted in the discovery of two young barn owls, which were perched on the exterior of the barn calling to their parents. Tawny owls have also been heard calling at night.
Photo credit: J. McDougall
At the visitor centre, visitors to the reserve have been entertained by the presence of our usual birds: yellowhammer, greenfinch, chaffinch, goldfinch, siskin, blue tit, coal tit and great tit. The large number of small birds has not gone unnoticed by a stoat that has taken to spying on the feeders from the bug hotel. A wood warbler, a garden warbler and a linnet have been new visitors to the feeders. A female pheasant has been feeding from the tree stump beside the feeders with her two offspring.
For mammals, brown hare and roe deer have been spotted regularly on the trails. Voles have also been seen and stoats have been seen visiting the Sulwath garden and the visitor centre garden.
Jonathan Taylor, Residential Volunteer