Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a fan of an early morning.  So at 5 to 6 in the morning - an hour late - I fell out of bed, donned my beloved bobble hat and peddled up the road to the Media hide to join in this week’s Bird Ringing survey.

(Robin, Photo Credit Jennifer McDougall)

 Along the woodland walk and the reed beds just beyond a large string of nets had been erected. They were tied up to trees…

Mersehead is full of secret spots and great hideaways where you can relax, take a breath and really get close to the wildlife. Today we’re discussing a not so secret one; we’re taking a closer look at the Bird Feeders in the Visitor Centre garden!

In the back of the visitors centre, beyond the windows is a perfect example of a paradise for nature. Flanked by two deadwood trees it’s a flourish of different…

When I first heard the term “waders” I pictured an odd variety of birds that spent their time trudging through sludgy river banks and reed filled ponds. Turns out they’re a mixed bunch including the dancing Lapwings, shy Shelduck and the downright ridiculous looking Curlew. 

 The term wading bird describes a range of species in all different sizes, shapes and colours but share several physical characteristics…

Ignore the drizzle and the drab because spring is truly in the air! The Lapwing chicks, our new favourite little bundles of fluff have come out to play!

Though this wee fella seems to be doing more snoozing then play!- Photo credit Eric Neilson

The first three were spotted – finally! - late last week and since then we’re now up to a grand total of 9 Lapwing chicks at Mersehead. There’s sure to be more hiding away…

The Natterjack toads are back! After a long, comfy snooze in the sand dunes where they hibernate throughout the winter they returned to making a racket all through the night, announcing their arrival with a firm chorus of croaking!

Why have they returned? Well it’s the season of love for the Natterjack toads that will spend the next few months spawning on Mersehead’s designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI…

It’s that time of year when many birds are starting to arrive in the UK, from Southern Europe and Africa, to set up home while those wintering here are thinking about heading north to Greenland, Iceland and Northern Europe. For the next few weeks there will be an interesting mix of migrants, with Wheatears feeding alongside Barnacle Geese, and Swallows and Martins feeding over wintering wildfowl.

Whooper Swans…

Coot:: Photo credit - Gavin Chambers

Two coots have recently been spotted on the water out from the Meida hide. These small water birds may not seem the most likely creatures to get excited about, however coots have not been recorded here at Mersehead in the last few years. Coots are common throughout most of the UK and often seen on large bodies of open water. Slightly bigger than a moorhen, they are extremely territorial…

As we enter into a new season with all the changes that come with it, such as species that have been hibernating over winter slowly awakening, winter visitors preparing to move northwards , early summer migrants eagerly awaited, spring flowers beginning to blossom and longer days full of more and more sunshine (fingers crossed), this is one of my favourite times of the year.

Here at Mersehead we have already been witnessing…

Sightings this week include the usual mixture of blackbird, coal tit, great tit, blue tit, chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch, dunnock, yellowhammer, tree sparrow, house sparrow and pheasant on or around the feeders at the Visitor centre. There has also been plenty of yellowhammer, tits and finches in the hedgerows and around 50 each of linnet, twite, skylark and reed bunting were recorded earlier in the week as part of…

Many different people have different ideas of when spring begins. For some it can be seeing the first buds appearing on trees, the first flowers to bloom, the first frog spawn appearing in ponds, hearing woodpeckers drumming on trees, the first butterfly or bee to be seen on the wing. For others it's seeing the first warblers return, hearing a cuckoo calling, seeing hares boxing in a field or the smell of wild garlic…

With slowly increasing day length and improving weather one of our residential volunteers decided to take full advantage by getting down to the shore before dawn to watch the geese take to the skies and move from the safety of the mudflats to their grazing sites inland.

He was immediately rewarded by the sight and sound of a pair of tawny owls calling to each other from around the farm buildings prior to 7am.

Around…

The recent cold weather resulting in frozen ground and in some areas a covering of snow has made it more difficult for a lot of birds to find food to eat and water to drink whilst also requiring extra energy just to stay warm.

This makes it that bit more important to keep feeders topped up at this time of year and have accessible water for birds to drink from.

The feeders just outside the Visitor Centre here at Mersehead…

At the start of the week there were mutterings that Spring was slowly starting to arrive, with snowdrops popping through, catkins appearing and birds stretching their vocal chords. However, as most will have noticed, the cold weather returned midweek with the first real snowfall of the winter for the area. This produced the aptly named Snow Bunting on the 29^th flying along the beach and landing somewhere on the reserve…

Any visitors to the hides at Mersehead over the last few days will have noticed the wetland is more of an ice sheet at the moment. With the vast majority of the open water covered with a layer of ice the ducks have largely been forced in to the only open bit of water which is located out from the Meida hide. This has made is easier to see large numbers of pintail, teal, shoveler and a few wigeon, mallard and gadwall.…

In the last week we seem to have been constantly battered by storms, peaking on Thursday (15^th). Heavy rain and hailstorms have caused water levels to rise considerably meaning the access road has been flooded and several fields are now saturated. Thankfully we have not witnessed the same scenes as last January when tidal surges caused major flooding and destroyed a lot of the sand dunes.

It’s not been the nicest of…

Welcome to 2015 and our first blog of the year!

I returned to Mersehead on the 3^rd after some time off over Christmas and New Year and was eager to check my camera trap which had been left out over the festive period. To my 'otter' delight (forgive the dodgy pun) I discovered the clips below.

http://youtu.be/t8fdtwDn4hE

After being away for even just a short while, it was good to return to the reserve. There…

2014 started with some major highs! High winds, high rainfall and some of the highest tides of the year all combining together to create some of the highest levels of flooding seen here at Mersehead in many a year. But despite all this, the team pulled on their wellies and got to work sorting fences, ditches, signage and tracks to get the reserve back in operation as quickly as possible.

There was however some damage…

It may be a bit on the breezy side today but that ain’t keeping the birds away!

Large flocks of over 200 lapwing continue to be seen from the hides along with over 300 teal, 200+ pintail, 80+ wigeon, 70+ shoveler, occasional flocks of up to 40 curlew, and adding to the variety, a few mallard, tufted duck, goldeneye, little grebe, various gulls including a great black-backed, buzzard, hen harrier (male and ringtail…

The weather has undoubtedly taken on a more wintery feel and after a reasonably dry and mild autumn the chillier weather is bringing more birds to the feeders at the visitor centre. over 20 tree sparrows and 10 yellowhammers are frequently seen from the comfort of the visitor centre along with dunnock, blackbird, great tit, coal tit, blue tit, chaffinch, greenfinch, robin, pied wagtail plus sightings of a sparrowhawk…

It has been another fantastic week here at RSPB Mersehead, with clouds of geese frequently filling the sky, aerobatic flocks of lapwing, hoards of dabbling and diving ducks on the expanses of open water and busily twittering and flitting flocks of finches, tits and buntings in the fields and hedgerows.

Main highlights however have to be the recent footage caught on film of an otter, sightings of a single Lapland bunting…

Mersehead

Regular followers of our Facebook page will be aware of the solitary scaup that has been hanging around outside the Meida hide as well as a recently found green-winged teal.

Green-winged teal are the North American equivalent of our native teal and can be identified by the vertical rather than horizontal white stripe as seen below.

Green-winged teal (centre) with Eurasian teal at Mersehead in Feb 2014

As autumn draws to a close and winter creeps ever closer there is still plenty of colour to be seen around the reserve. Sunrise at this time of year can be particularly stunning, mixtures of fiery reds, glowing oranges and mellow yellows reflecting off low sweeping clouds can make the sky seem alive.

Sunrise at Mersehead

And of course it is around sunrise the reserve comes to life. Starlings sweep from the reed beds…

Having spent the summer working at RSPB Lake Vyrnwy I decided to come back to Mersehead for my second winter as a residential volunteer. Arriving in mid-October I found a wetland covered in wildfowl and fields littered with Barnacle Geese. I spent my first few hours on the reserve sitting in the Bruaich Hide as the sun went down, listening to the amazing variety of wetland bird sounds. The surprise of the evening was…

Here are the recent sightings from Mersehead

Bruaich Hide- whooper swan, snipe, shoveler, curlew, wigeon, black headed gull, herring gull, little grebe, grey wagtail, green sandpiper, pochard, redshank

Meida Hide- wigeon, teal, pintail, mallard, shoveler, mute swan, hen harrier, kingfisher, grey heron, pink footed geese, bar tailed godwit, tufted duck, water rail

Visitor Centre- barnacle geese, chaffinch, greenfinch…

Here are the recent sightings from Mersehead

Bruaich Hide- hen harrier, gadwall, ruff, wigeon, pintail, shoveler, pied wagtail, kingfisher, greenfinch, starling, canada geese, whooper swan and peregrine

Meida Hide- little grebe, lapwing, greylag geese, shelduck, wigeon, pintail, teal, ringed plover, sparrowhawk, dunlin, shoveler, pink footed geese, whooper swan

Visitor Centre- barnacle geese, chaffinch, greenfinch…