Return of the Rain While Breeding Season Preparation

RSPB Mersehead Blog 9^th – 15^th March 2024

Last week the weather promised us spring, but alas it was a false promise, as this week saw a return to some wet, windy, truly wild days at Mersehead.  The weather, coupled with some very high tides along the Solway meant that much of our reserve team’s work this week was focussed on repairs and maintenance in preparation for the breeding season.

Barnacle Geese

As we move towards the end of the season for our wintering Svalbardian visitors I am happy to now report that the numbers of Barnacle Geese (Branta leucopsis) across the Solway stand at approximately 40,500 overwintering birds.

For those of you who have not yet had the chance to visit, the good news is that there is still time to have a gander at the geese over the Easter holidays as they will still be here for a few weeks.

If you are looking to visit over the Easter period, please check out some of the events we will be running over this period – details can be found below or on our facebook site.

Preparation is the Key to Success

In last week’s blog we discussed how the Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) are beginning to display at Mersehead and when and what to look out for as a visitor.  In anticipation of the Lapwing beginning to breed, much of our reserve team’s work this week has focussed on ensuring another successful breeding season at Mersehead. 

As part of this preparation, our team have been hard at work checking and repairing our anti-predator fence so that it remains in tip-top working order.  Since its installation, successful breeding Lapwing pairs at Mersehead have increased markedly, so ensuring it is in great shape for the breeding season is of high importance. 

To aid our survey efforts, the tops of selected fence posts were painted so that we can triangulate and locate lapwing nest sites without disturbing these sensitive, ground nesting birds.  Across the breeding season, each nest site will be carefully monitored, with clutch size and clutch success a focus. 

Example of a fence post with a white marker. Photo Credit: Freya Sanders

As well as the anti-predator fence, we have a network of carefully positioned trail cameras in place which support our understanding of the species present and potential weak areas along the anti-predator fence.  As a team we are regularly reviewing and monitoring footage and this will increase across the breeding season.

A trail camera recording species inside the predator fence. Photo Credit: Freya Sanders

Our reserve staff also began conducting thermal imaging surveys this week with a specific focus on understanding the movements of our most likely predators at Mersehead, Badger and Fox.

With any hope the preparation we are putting in now will help aid another successful Lapwing breeding season at Mersehead.

Picnicing and Gardening

When it rains like it has done the past week, we can’t have a picnic, but we can prepare to have a picnic!  Several days of wet weather gave us the perfect opportunity to bring in our picnic benches and paint them in anticipation of sunnier spring days!

Our Assistant Warden Freya hard at work. Photo Credit: Nick Bone

A small respite in the rain presented a perfect opportunity to finish some tasks in the Sulwath Garden area of the reserve.  A lot of effort, work and planning has been going into planning the Sulwath Garden so that in the coming months it takes shape and hopefully provide an idea of what is possible in your own garden. 

A good example of a relatively easy and simple feature to add to your own garden is a dead hedge.  Dead hedges offer an easy manageable space for your cuttings while also providing a range of habitats for different species, from small mammals such as hedgehogs to various bird species which can both nest within and use outlying branches as perches. 

We completed our own dead hedge this week.  It was fairly simple to construct and now that it is in place we hope to be able to add more cuttings to it as the current one’s rot down.

Dead hedge in the Sulwath Garden.  Photo Credit: Nick Bone

If you would like to create your own dead hedge then simple instructions can be found by clicking here.

Tuesday Volunteer Party

Unfortunately, the combination of some truly atrocious weather and an incredibly high tide meant that our regular Tuesday work party was postponed this week.  I would however like to extend a warm thank you to one of our regular volunteers, Lewis, who has decided to return to his passion of the high seas and the rowing of a small boat.  It is a sailor’s life for thee.  Across our winter season, Lewis has often regaled us with his stories across a lifetime spent volunteering in nature conservation.

‘No man is an island, so why am I called Lewis.’ Photo Credit: Frances Gilgunn

Thank you, Lewis, and the whole reserve team at Mersehead wish you the best of luck!

Nick Bone, Trainee Warden

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.