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Helping Create the Best Habitat for Barnacle Geese!
Mon, 16th May 2022Our young people in Dumfries braved the rain today and did their part to create the best habitat for Mersehead RSPB Nature Reserve’s barnacle geese.
We joined Colin at Mersehead Nature Reserve which is situated on the north shore of the Solway coast. This reserve is an extensive wetland and salt marsh area, a haven for breeding waders, wintering waterfowl and year-round bird and wildlife-watching. This visit was a part of our accredited environment course, supported by the Holywood Trust, so our young people planned lots of questions for Colin about his work on the nature reserve and the environment.
Mersehead is home to large numbers of barnacle geese which migrate to the reserve each autumn. To help Colin make the reserve the best habitat for the geese our young people helped remove Ragwort from the fields so the RSPB is able to take crops of hay from the field and create nutrient-rich short sward! We did some good work in pairs and removed lots of ragwort from the fields and when the rain really started to come down we took shelter in the bird hide and learnt about the 150 species of birds at the reserve.
We had a great morning, despite the weather, and look forward to volunteering at Mersehead again when the sun is shining.
