Toad in the Mull

RSPB Mersehead Blog 9^th – 15^th July 2022

The Sun was out in all its glory last weekend, and it was great to spend Saturday welcoming and chatting with visitors, which acted as a reminder of the wide variety of individuals that Mersehead caters for.  Families with children collected their Big Wild Summer event packs and explorer rucksacks, and returned many hours later having had a fabulous time completing the 8 unique and engaging challenges dotted around the trails.  Dogs – with their owners – went off to the beach to enjoy the infinite expanse of sand and mud, and wildlife enthusiasts reported sightings of Little Egrets, Great-spotted Woodpeckers and Treecreepers.

One of the 8 fabulous information boards you can see on the Big Wild Summer trail. Photo credit: P. Radford

A regular point of discussion with the last of these groups was how quiet the reserve can seem at this time of year.  This perception is understandable, given that the Wetlands are currently dry-lands and our breeding waders and wildfowl have dispersed.  Many were appeased by a helpful point in the direction of the viewing window, where a Yellowhammer was making a regular appearance, but also there was a general acceptance that, from an ornithological perspective at least, it’s just “that time of year”.  Much like the rest of us, after a busy season of displaying, mating and raising young (and having to get up every day for the dawn chorus) it’s no surprise many of our passerines are in need of a rest!  I have noticed over the last couple of weeks, that bird feeders that were being emptied in a matter of hours are now not needing filling for a couple of days at least.  This would suggest that the warmer weather has encouraged many garden and farmland birds to begin their summer moult, when adult birds shed their worn out breeding plumage and grow new feathers to get them through the winter.  During this time many birds won’t be able to fly for periods, so will stay hidden in the hedgerow.  So, it’s not necessarily that the birds aren’t there, but just that they aren’t making their presence known.

There have still been plenty of opportunities to spot young birds making their first forays into the big wide world.  A juvenile Peregrine Falcon (identified by brownish overall appearance) has been seen on more than one occasion this week, either down on the mud flats or over the wetlands.  The last of the Barn Owl chicks is still (very vocally) demanding to be fed every evening, and both its parents and rooky siblings can be spotted regularly at dusk either hunting or taking test flights over the Information Centre and Salt Marsh.  Young Starlings have been descending mob handed on the bird feeders, but can also be seen practising their mumuration moves, as they explode from the Sea-club Rush down on the shore.  Juvenile Pheasants have also been seen scampering after the adult birds, who will obviously be teaching them how to run out in front of moving vehicles and bring on heart attacks by exploding from vegetation just before being trodden on.

Juvenile Peregrine Falcon. Photo Credit: Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com)

The warm, sunny weather has provided plenty for budding entomologists and botanists.  A stunning Gold-ringed Dragonfly was seen on the main track, and this week’s butterfly count once again yielded large numbers of Ringlet and Meadow Brown, as well as Common Blue, Large Skipper and a rather faded Painted Lady. 

Painted Lady butterfly. Photo Credit: P. Radford

Different species of moth can be found depending on the habitat type, so we decided this week to see if there was anything hiding elsewhere on the reserve that we do not find when the trap is put out in the Sulwath Garden.  Using a small generator, the moth trap was placed in one of the fields adjacent to the sand dunes.  Although we didn’t get anything we hadn’t seen before on this occasion, we recorded 43 different species including the stunning Buff Arches and Garden Tiger shown below.  As the trap was emptied on Tuesday morning, it was also nice to be able to share our findings with our work party volunteers.

Buff Arches and Garden Tiger. Photo credit: P. Radford

With the new Wildflower Meadow in full summer swing, Claire and I strode confidently amongst the plants thinking that, with our wildflower keys in hand, identifying the glorious array of flowers should be a doddle.  We couldn’t have been more wrong!  A wildlife key is a bit like those “Choose your own adventure” books, but rather than deciding whether to enter the haunted house or run straight home for your tea (always the most sensible choice), you work through key characteristics, flipping to the relevant pages in the book until you arrive at the eureka moment where the plant you are looking at is staring back at you from the book.  However, it turns out you need to know a fair amount about plant anatomy and terminology (flowers in loose forked cymes?) before you will have any chance of navigating through the book. “It’s got blue flowers and hairy leaves” won’t get you very fa.  Whilst the book will need a bit more studying before it can be fully put to use, we did manage to identify quite a few flowers using the more basic method of recalling the name of a flower we’d heard of, and finding it using the index in the hope that we had guessed correctly.  The flowers we identified in this way included Hare’s-foot Clover, Black Medick, Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Common Stork’s-bill, Yarrow, Red Bartsia, Tufted Vetch, Oxeye Daisy, Corn Marigold and Ragwort (which we are of course very familiar with).

A selection of plants from the wildflower meadow, including Tufted Vetch, Yarrow, Oxeye Daisy and Ragwort. Photo credit: P. Radford

When not deliberating over plant names, much of the week has been dedicated to preparing areas of the reserve for grazing.  Strimming of the Anti-predator fence reached a timely conclusion, as we need the energiser to be working at its best so it can also power the Salt Marsh compartments, which will be home to the Aberdeen Angus herd in the next few days.  Volunteers were busy on Tuesday putting out some stripe wire on the Wetland in front of the Bruaich Hide, which is one of the last of a long list of tasks to get this area ready for the Belted Galloways to move into.  This is the first time for a number of years that this area will be grazed, and will hopefully lead to significant improvements in the condition and variety of the sward, and invertebrate biomass.

Fence before and after strimming. Photo credit: P. Radford

Are you done yet? Volunteers putting up temporary fence as Belties look on. Photo credit: P. Radford

Another process which is a real team effort at Mersehead is haymaking.  Our volunteers make a huge contribution by pulling ragwort and dock, and more recently preparing the old pole shed for storage of the bales.  When the hay grasses have grown and started to set seed, we then need the weather forecast to be sunshine and warmth for ideally around a week, so that the hay can be cut and turned daily until it is thoroughly dried.  Once dry it can be baled and removed from the field for storage.  Preventing there being any moisture in the bales is vital to avoid them going mouldy.  Without the efforts of all those involved, we wouldn’t be able to produce the quality final product that we are so proud to provide to many in the local community.

Preparing the pole shed for hay. Photo credit: P. Radford

Turning hay with a hay bob.  Cut hay on left and turned on right. Photo credit: C J E Farrell and P. Radford

At the start of the week, Claire got an unexpected surprise when she put her foot into her wellie only to discover that a Common Toad was already wearing it!  It soon became apparent that this amphibian stowaway must have entered overnight on Thursday, when the boot was left outside on its side to dry.  The following day Claire and Sam would be off to the Mull of Galloway to help with some sea bird monitoring and bracken bashing, and our warty friend had obviously seen it’s opportunity to escape Mersehead -where all it hears about is Natterjack Toads – and resettle somewhere with no chance of bumping into its yellow striped cousin.  I think the two photos below perfectly capture the moments when it emerged expecting to see cliffs and a lighthouse, only to then realise it was still in the Sulwath Garden.

"I've made it to the Mull of......hang on a minute!" Photo credit: C J E Farrell

Possibly only just more unexpected than a toad in a wellie, was a mole being spotted out near the reedbeds.  The frequently appearing large mounds of earth around the gardens and fields suggests that we have a healthy population of these expert diggers on the reserve, but it’s rare to be able to report a sighting of one.

Paul Radford, Assistant Warden

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Upcoming events:

*Holiday Cottages - Planning your 2022 holidays? Discover the breath-taking scenery, wildlife, cultural and history of Dumfries & Galloway whilst staying in one of the Mersehead cosy semi-detached holiday cottages – Barnacle and Shelduck – located in the heart of reserve.

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