Mersehead Recent Sightings 20th – 26th August
The start of the week felt very autumnal with the cool breeze and birds starting to flock together. Out on the beach a flock of 22 redshank have suddenly made an appearance whilst over the merse a group of 46 lapwing went sailing by. Round on the spit at the mouth of the Southwick Water the oystercatcher and curlew have started forming the high tide wader roost. Ringed plover have been present on the beach this week too. Twice this week, a wisp of snipe have flown over the Visitor Centre.
Red kite has been seen over the reserve for a fourth week in a row, it was spotted hunting over the sand dunes. Stonechat can be heard chattering away in the gorse bushes on the merse path. A rare sighting at Mersehead, red squirrel has been spotted this week.
Photo credit: R.Flavelle
Large flocks of goldfinch can be seen flying from the species rich grassland where they are feeding on common knapweed upto perch on the telegraph wires. They are being joined on the telegraph wires by house martins and swallows. The swallows at Mersehead are preparing to migrate. They flutter about restlessly and often gather on telegraph wires. The return journey to Africa takes around 6 weeks. Swallows from different parts of Europe end up at different destinations. Ours end up in the very south. They travel down through western France and eastern Spain into Morocco before crossing the Sahara desert and Congo rainforest - finally reaching South Africa and Namibia.
On Wednesday, the autumnal feeling left the reserve with temperatures reaching 22oc, the perfect day for a butterfly survey. Jonathan recorded 4 small white, 16 green-veined white, 1 small copper, 3 painted lady, 3 peacock and 10 wall brown.
Rowena Flavelle, Warden