Streaking Across the Reserve

RSPB Mersehead Blog 1^st – 7^th July 2023

It’s all about the butterflies this week with not one, but two exciting species recorded on the reserve. First spotted on the reserve 2-years ago, a Purple Hairstreak was seen in one of the oak trees along the footpath to the beach. This butterfly can go under-recorded due to it’s habit of remaining high in the canopy of oak trees where it feeds on honeydew.

Purple Hairstreak

The sighting of the week however has to go to the Comma. Dumfries & Galloway has a rich variety of butterflies with 32 species recorded over the past 10-years. Comma have recently begun to colonise in larger numbers, and this was only the second record for the reserve! Our local recording centre, South West Scotland Environmental Information Centre, would welcome reports of Comma sightings to help monitor their spread across the region. Find out more about SWSEIC and how to submit records here.

Comma

Another exciting wildlife record this week was the sight of an Emperor Dragonfly patrolling a ditch. Although common further south, this species is scarce throughout the region but is starting to become a more regular sight.

Emperor Dragonfly.

Reserve work has focused on preparing the wetlands in front of Bruiach and Meida Hide for cattle grazing as the Belted Galloway herd will sooner be moving into this area. These mighty natural lawn mowers are one of the most effective ways of maintaining grassland habitats, slowing succession, and keeping areas open ensuring a wider variety of wildlife can flourish. Cows will eat more common and vigorous plant species, wrapping their tongues around vegetation and pulling it out which allows more delicate and less competitive species to grow. Together with trampling the ground, this helps to create a mosaic of different plant heights and micro habitats. 

Belted Galloway grazing near the Information Centre.

The merse (saltmarsh) has become a haze of purple this week as Common Sea-Lavender has started to bloom.

Common Sea-Lavender.

White/Buff-tailed Bumblebee.

The Aberdeen Angus herd will be moving out to a section of the saltmarsh next week where we graze with a high density of cattle for a short period of time. This gives a longer grass recovery stage and allows flowering plants to set seed. The diversity of wildflowers across the section of merse which has been mob grazed for the past 8+years is currently giving the merse a kaleidoscope of colour. This in turn provides a diversity of insects feeding on the nectar.

Wildflowers on the Upper Saltmarsh

With a heart-shaped face, buff wings and a pure ghostly white belly, the Barn Owl is a distinctive and much-loved countryside bird. Our resident Mersehead barn owl is currently hunting extensively throughout the early evening into the dusk as it is raising chicks. A favoured hunting spot is the upper saltmarsh where it has been seen quartering the ground daily this week. Shoveler is a scarce breeding bird for Dumfries & Galloway, so it was fantastic to see a brood of 9 tiny ducklings out on the reserve.

Barn Owl at Mersehead.

Female Shoveler with ducklings.

Rowena Chambers, Warden

RSPB Mersehead is running a full and varied program of Events. For more information on individual events and to book a place please go to our website: https://events.rspb.org.uk/mersehead

*Holiday Cottages – In the winter, RSPB Mersehead is home to internationally important numbers of wildfowl including the Svalbard Barnacle Geese. Book your Mersehead holiday this winter through the cottage links – Barnacle and Shelduck – located in the heart of reserve.