Hi, my name is Emily, I am 11 years old. I love nature and care about the environment. This blog is about my stays at RSPB Mersehead reserve from this year and last year too.
Sadly, due to COVID-19 I haven’t been able to help with the volunteering jobs, but I still did a lot and we (my family) did lots of things by ourselves.
Last year when we arrived it was quite sunny which was a good thing. This year however, when we arrived it was soaking but that was not a bad thing. We simply just ran in and out of the house with the bags. Me and my sister put on our wellies and waterproofs and played games such as ducking under the rain drops and jumping from puddle to puddle, and we took our bikes this year, so splashed through the puddles on those too.
On the first whole day we normally do the circuit walk which is just over 2.5 miles. It is a nice walk because there's so much scenery. I would recommend it to all kinds of people from children to grandparents. It is quite a simple walk (well to me, but that’s coming from someone who goes on walks quite often). We also go and say hello to all the thousands and thousands of geese that have recently come back for the winter.
Look out for the lichen. Photo credit: Emily Connick
There are two fairly wide paths that meet at a FANTASTIC lovely, long, windy and sandy beach . Not the kind that you would lie down on in the sand though. The beach is great for driftwood, seaweed (obviously), sadly lots of plastic washed up on the tides(although the RSPB staff try hard to keep the beach clean), shells and much much more great and wonderful things, like mermaid's ♀️ purses. At the back of the beach there are big sand dunes (where Natterjack toads live, but they are hibernating at this time of the year). I love to climb along the dunes and look down at all the Barnacle geese feeding in the fields.
Barnacles feeding. Photo credit: Emily Connick
One thing we did this year was to go on a night walk. It was a cloudy ️ night. We didn’t see much, only a roe deer that was at the side of the path. I felt a bit sorry for the deer, it was night-time, the time they are most active, and we were coming along disturbing it. It was quite a scary walk but looking back on it I feel proud that I did it.
Roe Deer. Photo credit: Emily Connick
One thing that I love about Mersehead is that if you go in October (like we did) then you can watch the barnacle geese arrive. It’s the most mesmerising thing ever. If you are lucky enough to see them a distance away then you can hide under a tree or bush so they don’t see you, then if you keep watching for a minute or two then they all just fly over the top of you and the noise that they make is amazing . The sky is filled with the sound of wonderful barnacle geese in their thousands. I would DEFINITELY RECOMMEND going to Mersehead in October!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ️.
Barnacles returning to Mersehead. Photo credit: Emily Connick
Another thing that is great to see at this time of the year is the starling murmurations. They are fantastic! They create the most fabulous shapes. The colours on them are fantastic as well. They start gathering just before dusk.
When I get to Mersehead I always have that feeling that I will just see so many birds and I am always right.
During my stay at Mersehead (in Barnacle Cottage) I saw lots and lots of birds such as:
Tree sparrow
House sparrow
YELLOW HAMMER (my fav bird )
Yellowhammer feeding. Photo credit: Emily Connick
Chaffinch
Chiffchaff
Pintail
Shelducks
Barnacle geese
Pink footed geese
Buzzard
Kestrel
Sparrow hawk
Fieldfare
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Linnets
Stonechats
Blackbirds
Robins
Great tit
Blue tit
Song thrush
Little grebe
Canada geese
Starlings
Great Spotted Woodpecker on the bird table. Photo credit: Emily Connick
There are some birds that I didn’t see but my Dad saw a Marsh harrier.
But ……………... out of all the things I did, my favourite was when we were down at the beach just before dinner. Mum made the dinner which was bean chilli then put it into the oven to keep warm for when we came back. So, then we all got on our cosy clothes and started to walk down towards the beach. As we approached the beach, we bumped into our neighbour who was staying in Shelduck.
As soon as my Mum and Dad had finished talking, we had a small wander along the beach and collected plastic that had washed up and collected small bits of driftwood. At that time, it was just about dusk and so we all sat still on a log to see the barnacle geese fly out onto the Merse for the night. And lots of geese did fly out in groups of about 2-3 thousand. They all flew out at the same time gliding along the water like kite borders . At about 6.45 pretty much all of the geese had flown out. So we decided to head back. I can tell you now it was a memorable night.
I just wanted to say a big thank you to everybody who helped us have a great holiday.
I hope I may have persuaded you to visit RSPB Mersehead.
Emily xx