RSPB Mersehead Recent Sightings 8^th – 14^th September 2018

What an exciting time of year! Summer is just gripping on and yet change is happening. It’s one of the reasons I love this reserve so much, as it is never quiet but bustling with wildlife (you just need to know where to look).

The first arrivals of geese have begun, though no barnacle geese yet. The next couple of weeks could see the first of these…

RSPB Mersehead Recent Sightings 1^st – 7^th September 2018

September has arrived and signs of autumn are appearing. The nights are noticeably drawing in, the leaves are turning golden and birds are flocking together. In September, we start conducting the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) again after a break during the breeding season. This monitoring scheme for non-breeding waterbirds in the UK aims to assess the size of…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 25^th- 31^st August 2018

There’s been a definite chill in the air this week; summer may finally be on its way out. This is an exciting time of year for wildlife watching though. Lots of species, especially birds, are starting to move as they leave their breeding grounds and begin their journey to the area where they will spend the winter months. A mixture of adult and juvenile Swallows…

RSPB Mersehead Recent Sightings 18th - 24th August 2018

Mersehead is so full of wildlife that even while out working in a tractor there are interesting discoveries to be made! This week our Assistant Warden Lana found a Water Ladybird (a.k.a. 19-Spot Ladybird) getting a free ride on hers. Ladybirds are a sub-species of the beetle family (Coleoptera), for which there are two defining characteristics: hard forewings covering…

RSPB Mersehead Recent Sightings 11^th – 17^th August 2018

With the drought finally coming to an end at Mersehead we been experiencing sudden, sharp and heavy downpours throughout the week. The vegetation has immediately sprung back into life and the reserve has returned to emerald rather than parched brown. The Butterfly Meadow is full of Common Knapweed which is now being to set seed. This is a fantastic food source…

RSPB Mersehead Recent Sightings 4th - 10th August 2018

Residential Volunteering: Highlights

After 1 month as a residential volunteer at Mersehead, I have not only learned a multitude of new skills and got to have so many valuable experiences, but I have seen more wildlife than I ever could have imagined! On my first day exploring the reserve I soon came across a group of juvenile stonechats, several common toadlets…

RSPB Mersehead recent sightings 28^th July – 3^rd August

It’s been a changeable week weather- wise here at Mersehead. Sunny skies have been mixed with dreich spells and heavy bouts of rain. To counter the grey spells we’ve been experiencing and to remind us that summer is still well and truly here, our wild bird cover has really come alive and is currently a mass of bright yellow sunflowers, mustard, linseed, white…

RSPB Mersehead Recent Sightings 21^st – 27^th July 2018

We were joined by the Kirkcudbrightshire vice-county plant recorder this week and searched the merse for the presence of the regionally scarce species listed on the reserve. The extremely beautiful metallic blue Sea Holly can only be found on a handful of sites along the Dumfries & Galloway coast and was very popular with the Six-spot Burnt Moth this week…

RSPB Mersehead Recent Sightings 14th - 20th July 2018

It’s hard to imagine in this hot July weather, but work is already in progress here at Mersehead to prepare for autumn and the arrival of wintering bird populations. Hay has been baled, and grazing cattle are helping to control invasive species in the grassland, wetland and salt marsh areas of the reserve. This helps to ensure suitable nesting sites for waders, and…

Mersehead Recent Sightings Blog 7^th-13^th July

It’s been another hot and sunny week again here at Mersehead. Despite the slightly parched looking fields, on closer inspection there is still plenty of colour about in the form of wildflowers and butterflies.  Arguably the most striking plant out at the moment is Rosebay Willowherb, growing up to 120cm in height with a tall spike of bright pink flowers, this species…

RSPB Mersehead Recent Sightings 30^th June – 6^th July 2018

With this fantastic dry spell of weather, it’s a perfect time to get out and explore for butterflies and day-flying moths on the reserve. Plenty of small whites, meadow browns and ringlets have been fluttering back and forth along trail verges. “Thousands” (at least, according to one visitor) of six-spot burnet moths, as well as common…

RSPB Mersehead Recent Sightings 23rd - 29th June 2018

Here’s what’s been happening in a scorching hot week here at Mersehead…

Last week we reported that some of our house martins had been forcibly evicted from their nests by house sparrows. This proved to be very temporary accommodation for the sparrows however, as we arrived on Monday morning to find one of the nests shattered and its remains on…

RSPB Mersehead Recent Sightings 16^th – 22^nd June 2018

Heavy rain over the weekend encouraged the Natterjack Toads to return to Pool A where we found 6 new spawn strings this week. The Natterjack toad has a prolonged breeding season running from late March to early July depending on weather conditions. With over 2,000 toadlets emerged from the pool in the dune slack and tadpoles in the ditch, we currently have all…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 9^th- 15^th June

Here at Mersehead it’s been a week of two halves, with Storm Hector disrupting the sunny and warm conditions we’ve all become used to. We recorded a total of 15mm of rain overnight on Wednesday, which was much needed by the wildlife across the reserve.  Strong winds prevailed overnight and during the best part of Thursday, although thankfully the damage was minimal…

This week has seen much activity at the Mersehead office, and not just inside! The air has been alive with House Martins for the last few days, who have been busily building nests on the walls of the Sulwath Centre. The nests are built of mud mixed with grass, and lined with plant fibres. House Martins are colonial nesters, so it remains to be seen how many nests there will be in total, but it could be five or more.

Recent sightings 26th May - 1st June

We have experienced yet another week of glorious sunshine and high temperatures. The fine weather has been assisting the birds and wildlife as they look for food to feed their broods.  Over the week we have seen the arrival of more house martins, watching them dart back and forth, listening to them chattering away, as they get to work collecting mud to construct their nests.

House…

Hello everybody

As from today we will be part of the Dumfries and Galloway refill scheme. As part of our first stages in reducing the use of plastics we will not be selling plastic bottled water anymore. Please read the detail of the scheme here-  https://www.refill.org.uk/refill-scheme/refill-dumfries-galloway/

We will however be providing free water to all - jugs of water will be on hand as well as glasses and stainless…

Yet again, it’s been another beautifully sunny week here at Mersehead and as usual there’s a lot going on around the reserve. Most of our Lapwings are now with chicks, with just a few pairs still sitting on eggs. Lapwing chicks are precocial, meaning that they are born ready to go! After drying off after hatching, a chick is able to feed itself straight…

RSPB Mersehead Recent Sightings 12^th – 18^th May

It has been a glorious sunny week at Mersehead with temperatures reaching as high as 20^oC. Butterflies can be seen in every direction with Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Orange-tip and Green Veined White all present in large numbers. On Saturday a Speckled Wood was spotted along the path to Meida Hide. In Scotland, the Speckled Wood is mainly confined to the far west…

RSPB Mersehead Recent Sightings 5th - 11th May 2018

The weekend finally saw some warm sunny weather at Mersehead, drawing lots of visitors to the reserve on Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday. Inevitably, this was not to last, with cooler temperatures returning later in the week.

An exciting discovery this week was the first Lapwing chicks of the season, all being well the first of many. Many of the lapwing nests are…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 31^st - 4^th May

The week started in glorious fashion on Monday which allowed us to get out and complete our weekly butterfly survey. The usual suspects were about for this time of year with 12 Green-Veined Whites, 2 Orange-Tips, and 7 Small Tortoiseshells recorded. 

On Sunday and again on Wednesday a female Marsh Harrier has been spotted over the reedbed with the bird on Sunday being chased…

Mersehead recent sightings 21st - 27th April

A great start to the week with wall to wall sunshine on Saturday, our yellowhammers were in full voice all day, perching on the gorse bushes of Rainbow Lane. We were spoilt on Saturday evening, where we were entertained by an otter, for over half an hour, swimming and catching fish in the water directly in front of Meida hide.  Our Natterjack Toad choir was also in full swing…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 14^th – 20^th April

Wednesday saw us out completing the first Natterjack Toad adult population survey of the year. Natterjack toads are nocturnal so as dusk approached we headed down to the sand dunes and waited for the light to fade and the distinctive call of the male toads to begin. At each pool, we scanned the water and the surrounding area with a torch looking for the tiny glint of…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 7th - 13th April

The Natterjack Toads have emerged from hibernation! With mild temperatures at the beginning of the week we had high hopes that they might emerge and we weren’t disappointed!  Natterjacks need a constant air temperature of 7 degrees or more overnight to come out, so with this being the case on Monday night, we headed out at dusk to try our luck. On our approach to one…

Recent Sightings Week 31st March to 6th April 2018

With another chilly weekend and persistent wind and rain throughout Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we recorded 36mm of rainfall over the 3 days. Around 8pm on Wednesday evening the skies cleared and we awoke on Thursday morning to a thin layer of ice covering the wetlands and flooded areas on the reserve.  However, without a cloud in the sky, it was business as usual…