Mersehead Recent Sightings 23^rd – 29^th September

The water level out on the wetlands has been building up over the last week and we are seeing a significant increase in the number of wildfowl seen from the hides. Three species of goose are present with 92 Canada Geese and 42 Greylag Geese recorded. Pink-footed Goose numbers are continuing to raise with a peak count of 990 recorded so far. No sign yet though, of…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 16^th – 22^nd September

Changeable weather conditions have persisted throughout this week from heavy and drizzle rain to gleams of sunshine and breath-taking sunsets. The atmosphere couldn’t be more cheerful on the reserve with the arrival of many ducks, geese and waders in our wetlands and to welcome very soon (hopefully) our much loved flocks of Barnacles geese.

Sunset from the…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 9th - 15th September

Although we have experienced a few showers and gentle breezes, we have been spoilt this week with some beautiful days, heavy early morning dews complimented with bright sunrises and a distinct change in temperature, autumn has definitely arrived.  The changing colours around the reserve, and the surrounding hills are stunning.

After completing the cutting of vegetation &…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 2^nd- 8^th September

It’s been a dreich week here at Merseahead but between breaks in the rain there’s been a lot going on.  Our Wetland Bird Surveys started this week which saw us over at Kirkconnell, our saltmarsh (or Merse as it’s known in Scotland) on the bank of the river Nith just outside of Dumfries, and Mersehead, where we have incorporated our 79ha of new land for the first…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 26^th August - 1^st September

September has arrived and signs of autumn are appearing. The nights are noticeably drawing in, the woodland is 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 species…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 19th - 25th August

Most of the week has been cloudy but the spectacularly warm and dry weather has embraced us. Everyone has welcomed this heat with joy, swallows couldn’t stop chattering about it, more than 250 were recorded in the Telegraphs Lines around the visitor centre and the Bruaich hide. Their loud chats attracted other flocks of starlings and finches, making these lines a truly…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 12th - 18th August

An eventful morning was had looking out from the visitor centre window on Saturday morning.  The first sighting of the morning was of a peregrine falcon, although at a distance, through the telescope we could clearly see and distinguish its unmistakable grey hood, as it sat at the top of one of the taller trees down rainbow lane.  Soon after, as our eyes focused back on what…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 5^th – 11^th August

Each year we manage areas of wild bird cover for the benefit of farmland birds of conservation concern. Wild bird seed mixtures are particularly important in areas where traditional food sources, such as weedy stubbles, are no longer available in the agricultural environment. A biennial crop also has the added benefit of providing seed throughout the spring of the second…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 29th July – 4^th August

 Although the rainy and windy weather has kept some of our wildlife cosily hidden for most of the week, this condition has been favourable for the Natterjack’s pools as the water levels have increased giving them more freedom to move from one pool to the other and escape easily from any predators. Therefore, on Wednesday we conducted our regular Natterjack Toad count…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 22nd - 28th July

Another lovely warm week, even though we experienced some wind & heavy rainfall mid-week.  Making the most of the sunshine we completed our weekly butterfly transect on Monday, where we saw red admiral, peacock, meadow brown, ringlet and an abundance, in fact 272, green veined whites. With most species of butterfly, females will only mate when they first emerge; hence we…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 15^th- 21^st July

On a beautifully sunny Tuesday we carried out our weekly butterfly transect.  Temperatures need to be over 13 degrees with a minimum of cloud cover and it was definitely that!  The star butterfly was green-veined white, with the majority (over 100) being seen in one of our wildflower-rich, wet grassland fields.  Other butterflies of note were sightings of a small copper, common…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 8^th - 14^th July

A new plant for July is Perennial Sow-thistle which can be seen growing in abundance on Rainbow Lane and along the merse path to the beach. Red Admiral, Meadow Brown and Ringlet are the most commonly seen butterflies along this section of the visitor trail. Sneezewort, used in the middle ages as a cure for toothache and cold symptoms, is growing in the wet grassland at Preston…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 1st - 7th July

After a damp start to the week, our visitor center garden seems busier than ever, a feeding frenzy, with plenty of immature goldfinch, green finch, chaffinch, sparrow all taking their turn on the feeders among the adult birds. Not forgetting our ever popular yellowhammers. Our resident pheasant with her five offspring also comes by most days to feed on the left over’s. 

Mersehead Recent Sightings 17^th- 22^nd June

This week saw us finish the last of our breeding bird surveys for the season.  We finished with lapwing productivity, which looks at how many chicks survive to fledging age compared to how many nests we’ve counted.  The figure is expressed as the number of chicks fledged per pair.   Last year we recorded 30 pairs of lapwing with an incredible 45 chicks fledged, giving a productivity…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 10^th – 16^th June

With prevailing wet and windy weather preventing planned survey work being completed last week, we were up bright and early for a 5:30am start on Wednesday to survey Kirkconnell Merse in the third and final breeding wader survey. This last survey proved to be the best so far for displaying Curlew with their distinctive bubbling song vibrating across the merse. The Eurasian…

After two weeks of living and breathing the beauty of Mersehead reserve, it’s going to be hard to leave.

Arriving at the reserve on a sunny Saturday afternoon, I was immediately struck by how calm and peaceful the area is. After spending the weekend settling in and exploring the site, I knew I was right! These two weeks have been the perfect time to relax and soak in the atmosphere, whilst at the same time always…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 3^rd-9^th June

What a difference a week makes! With last week characterised by warm, dry weather, this week has seen wet and windy weather prevail.   We had hoped to finish off our breeding wader and skylark surveys but it will have to wait until next week! 

Wet and windy!  Photo credit: L.Blakely

Despite the unfavourable conditions there is still plenty of activity out on the reserve.  Between…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 27th May - 2nd June

Another mainly dry week at Mersehead, we have begun to conduct our last round of Surveys.  Whilst completing our 4^th visit to the south section of our Kirkconnell reserve, territory mapping skylark & meadow pipit, a busy morning was had with activity in all areas.  We also were given a treat of not only a marsh harrier soaring over head, but also a peregrine falcon perched…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 20^th – 26^th May

After a warm week here, we are seeing lots of new life appear around the reserve. Our pair of mute swan can be seen out on the wetlands with their 3 cygnets, we have canada geese with goslings, good numbers of mallard ducklings, and of course we are spotting more & more lapwing chicks which is so encouraging to see. The house martins are extremely busy around the…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 13^th – 19^th May

Last week's blog reflected on the lack of rain and with no rain falling since 16th April we certainly needed rain; the wetlands have been drying up and the natterjack pools losing water far too quickly. Well, we wanted rain and we got quite a lot this week, a total of 44.5mm to be exact. The wetlands have filled up so efficiently we are now in the position of having slightly…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 6^th – 12^th May

Despite enjoying the glorious weather we can’t help but wonder when we’ll see some rain; our wetlands could do with some water! Luckily (for us at least) rain is forecast for the early part of next week.  The reserve is really bursting with life at the moment, with birds singing from every corner of the reserve.  Walk along the hedgerows and you can hear a host…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 29th April - 5th May

We have experienced another glorious week of sunshine here at Mersehead, although a strong breeze has kept everything on their toes (or wings). Our co-ordinated barnacle goose count on Wednesday morning, across Mersehead & West Preston drew a blank, therefore we concluded that all our winter migrants had taken their chance and begun their 2000 mile journey back to their…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 22nd - 28th April

One of our earliest returning migrants, the first wheatear was reported to the Visitor Centre quite a few weeks ago. However, they have not been a regular sighting around the reserve until this week when suddenly they have appeared all over the reserve. The first grasshopper warbler of the year was heard singing away from the reedbed on Millbank Merse this morning whilst another…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 15^th- 21^st April

It’s been a busy week here at Mersehead with more surveys being carried out, fields being ploughed in preparation for new crops to be sown, and more species arriving from far afield and coming out of hibernation.

We’ve had the moth trap out again and although it didn’t produce such a spectacular species as the Emperor we had last week, we had one dominant species in…

Mersehead Recent Sightings 8^th – 14^th April

The dust and cobwebs have been brushed off the moth trap after spending the winter months on a shelf in the shed. At Mersehead we use a Robinson trap to catch moths at night; the moths fly towards the light and spiral down towards the source of the light and are deflected into the box.  Moths which fly into the trap are further contained by the eggboxes placed within…