Spring Clean

RSPB Mersehead Blog 30^th March – 5^th April

Beach clean

Following our third beach clean, the shorelines at RSPB Mersehead are now looking squeaky clean! A huge thank you to our hardworking Tuesday Work Party Volunteers who helped out with this. I was amazed by the amount of rubbish we collected over two of our beach cleans. 

Rubbish collected from RSPB Mersehead during 2 beach cleans. Photo credit: F. Sanders

Although we picked up a lot of larger pieces of plastic on the beach (macroplastics), we left behind a lot of microplastics (pieces of plastic <5mm). When you get your eye in, you start to notice these microplastics amongst the grains of sand on many beaches. One form of microplastics that are particularly prevalent along coastlines are nurdles (please see image below) which are the raw materials used for manufacturing plastic products. Nurdles are similar in both size and shape to a lentil and come in many different colours. The ‘The Great Nurdle Hunt’ aims to decrease worldwide nurdle pollution through data collection, engagement with stakeholders and education. You can get involved with this by signing up to survey a stretch of coastline to determine the number of nurdles in that area. It's a great way to find out the distribution of nurdles worldwide whilst helping to clean up beaches at the same time.

Nurdles collected during beach clean at Mersehead. Photo credit: F. Sanders

Livestock Fence Repairs

Over the past week, we have continued tidying up the livestock fences at Kirkconnell Reserve. Following the 9m high tides we experienced in March, the fences have suffered a lot of damage so we have replaced fence posts and sections of wire where necessary. Soon cattle will return to these fields to graze! 

Section of fence line stretching across a creek at Kirkconnell Reserve. Photo Credit: F. Sanders

Spring Bird Activity

We were really happy to record our first sighting for this year of a Northern Wheatear on Mersehead Reserve on Tuesday. In addition to this, we were very excited to spot our first two Lapwing nests at Mersehead when out surveying earlier this week. Over the coming weeks, Lapwing monitoring will become one of our main priorities and we will assess the breeding success of the nests we find on here on site.

Scottish Badgers

This week we were very lucky to be joined by Elaine Riley from Scottish Badgers for a Badger training session both in the classroom and out in the field. We learnt lots of interesting facts about Badgers. For example, they can smell a worm from 100m away and 1m deep into the soil, and they create “Daytime Nests” which they use for sleeping above the ground. Whilst out on reserve, we stumbled across a few fantastic examples of Badger footprints in the mud which you can see in the image below. Badger latrines were also spotted around the reserve during our training session, including some “disco poop” which is bascially Badger faeces that sparkle due to the beetle shells within it! 

Fox pawprints shown in the photograph on the left in comparison with badger footprints shown in the photograph on the right. Photo credit: R. Chambers & F. Sanders 

Freya Sanders, Assistant Warden 

At Mersehead you will find the RSPB’s only self-catering holiday cottages - Barnacle and Shelduck. Available summer dates are currently going quickly, follow the links to book your next holiday.

Upcoming events: For more information on individual events and to book a place, please go to our website: https://events.rspb.org.uk/mersehead

*Flooding - Please note that Mersehead nature reserve is prone to flooding during periods of high rainfall and/or strong winds and tidal surges. To avoid disappointment at these times, please contact the reserve in advance of your visit by email in the first instance at mersehead@rspb.org.uk or check the RSPB Dumfries and Galloway Facebook Page for daily updates.