February update

It feels as though February has only just begun, but the shortest month is drawing already to an end. It has been a busy month and the team have been working hard to complete habitat management tasks on the Reserve. In the dunes on the Snook we have been tackling scrub – hand pulling and cutting hawthorn to maintain duneland habitats for flora and fauna. Larger hawthorn shrubs are kept due to their importance for passerine birds. We have also been continuing to remove sheep droppings from the grazed dune slacks, in order to create nutrient-poor habitats in which orchids will thrive.

It feels like spring is already upon us. The mild weather has seen amphibians emerge - on the wet slack near the Snook we spotted a large Common Frog with golden rimmed eyes and a palpitating throat. Fluttering skylarks are singing in the dunes. At the Lough, Mallards are pairing up. These distinctive birds are early breeders amongst ducks.

We tested people’s duck knowledge at a ‘Love Birds’ event last week, challenging children and adults alike to pair up images of some of the Reserve’s duck species. Mallards and Eider provided no difficulties, Teal and Shoveller baffled some, whilst the brightly coloured Shelduck surprised those who believed all female ducks to be brown and subdued in colour. The event launched our year’s events programme which seeks to engage the interest of locals and visitors alike in our natural world and the spectacular wildlife and habitats of the Reserve. Events range from rocky shore rambles to recycling events, from beach cleans to bird watches.

Eider Duck © JJD

We have been continuing non-native species monitoring and removal, moving from the terrestrial to the marine environment. We have been surveying the Reserve’s rocky shore, a fascinating and diverse habitat which is currently under threat from small alien invaders, who hitched lifts on ships from the southern hemisphere. These aliens are Orange-Tipped Sea Squirt, small creatures resembling Werther’s Originals or small lumps of orange-tinted jelly. They live on the bottom of rocks and compete with other sessile (non-moving) species for space, a valuable commodity on the rocky shore, and for food. Monitoring and removal of the species is ongoing.

We are busy too preparing for shorebird season – it is not so long until the end of April, when the rare Little Terns will return to breed on Northumberland’s sandy beaches. Charismatic Ringed Plover are already starting to establish breeding territories across the Reserve.

Peak counts of birds on the Reserve include 1000 Bar-tailed Godwits on the high tide roost at St. Cuthbert’s Island, 223 Pintail on Fenham Flats and 1000 light-bellied Brent geese south of Fenham Flats on the 17^th Feb, 6500 Pink-footed geese on the Reserve on the 1^st and 950 Barnacle geese recorded during a low-tide count on the 10^th February.

Bar-tailed Godwit © JJD

Goswick beach clean

Yesterday, a team of eight volunteers took to Goswick for a litter pick, cleaning the area north of the Golf Club car park towards Cheswick Black Rocks. The beach was generally clean, but the team still managed to fill three bags of litter which they removed from the beach. No fishing line was found on this particular beach clean.

The group discovered a dead harbour porpoise decomposing on the beach. There were fortunately no signs to indicate that this was from anything other than natural causes. Its carcass will provide food for birds such as crows and gulls, and flies drawn to feed on it will become food for species such as starlings and rock pipits. Once washed back into the sea, its remains will be eaten by crustaceans and fish.

The event was coordinated by Reserve and Coast Care volunteer Andy Pigg, leading a team of Coast Care volunteers. Coast Care are one of the Reserve's partner organisations; a fantastic local initiative that supports volunteers to care for the beautiful Northumberland coast. Four volunteers joined the group for the first time. Our thanks to all of the volunteers who put time and energy into helping to keep the beaches on the Reserve beautiful for people and safe for wildlife.

Interested in helping with future beach cleans? See our social media and events page for updates, or the Coast Care blog for their list of activities in the region.

Dame Allan's John Muir Challenge

Last week, a hardy group of students completing the John Muir Award were challenged to explore and conserve a natural environment. 16 pupils from Dame Allan’s School in Newcastle braved the icy wind to study the winkling activities around St. Cuthbert’s Island. The data the students collected will contribute to future management plans of the rocky shore around the Reserve. 

People taking periwinkles off the shore to sell or use as bait is an increasingly popular activity, and often a huge amount of biomass is being removed in one episode. The effect it is having on the wider ecosystem requires further study.

The students were tasked with investigating patterns in the distribution, abundance and size of three marine snails; Common Periwinkle, Rough Periwinkle and Dog Whelk. The profile of the rocky shore surrounding St. Cuthbert’s Island allows for quite a sheltered environment, which periwinkles prefer rather than large waves crashing against the rocks. Because of this, we would expect them to be more abundant on the mid shore. We also would expect smaller individuals to be more abundant as winkle pickers are more likely to take the larger ones. 

The data collected showed a higher abundance of all three species at the mid shore compared to the lower shore.

There was no significant difference in the lengths of the two periwinkle species on the different shore heights, however the length found at both locations was relatively small. The average length of a Common Periwinkle is 2.7cm, compared to the 1.4cm average found on the mid shore. This could suggest that larger individuals are being removed and the population is not having enough time to recover between episodes of winkling, bringing the average size of this population down.  

After leaving the shore at mid-day, the students headed out to Sandham Bay on a much-needed walk to thaw freezing fingers and toes! They were in search of a small but mighty threat to the wildlife in both in the marine and terrestrial environment… Nurdles. 

These are tiny pieces of plastic that end up in the sea which attract harmful and toxic chemicals. Like other plastics they are being mistaken for food and are consumed by animals such as fish and birds, being absorbed into their tissue and hence passed on to anything that may then eat it… whether that be animals higher up the food chain or humans. This is known as bioaccumulation and can cause all sorts of health problems. 

Upon arriving on Sandham Bay, the beach appeared relatively clean, however on closer inspection, small pieces of plastic were found tangled in washed up seaweed. Ghost fishing gear, from three large lobster pots to well-camouflaged bundles of fishing line, yet again made up a large proportion of the litter collected. The students did a great job cleaning the beach, with three large bags of rubbish safely removed. 

The students had a great day and returned to Newcastle with a better understanding of the work done on the Reserve to protect the species living there. They also appreciated the dangers plastic poses to the natural environment, from the obvious threat of entanglement in rope and plastic bags, to the bioaccumulation of small and microplastics up the food chain.

For more information on Nurdles, see www.nurdlehunt.org.uk.

Volunteer update: The final Low Tide Count

On a calm and sunny day I did the last of my winter Low Tide Counts at Lindisfarne. It was quite a change from the gales in November, the loose dog scaring off the birds in December and the pilgrims doing likewise in January. My tetrads were astride the Pilgrims Way poles and just off St. Cuthbert's Island.

Today was the most interesting in terms of bird sightings for me. My first Long-tailed Ducks with eight, and close by three Slavonian Grebe and one Black-necked Grebe in the channel by the Island.

Around seven hundred golden plover sat on the nearby rocky platform. Dunlin, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Grey Plover and Oystercatcher and Shelduck were scattered across the flats but it was the two and a half thousand Knot that caught the eye, especially when something disturbed them and they all lifted.

Today felt like Spring instead of Winter!

Richard Poyer

Shelduck © JJD

Selected peak bird counts: January 2019

Geese and swans:

6000 Pinks flighted off the Goswick roost mid-month; 1303 Light-bellied Brent; 1000 Barnacle; 41 Whooper

Image ©  JJD

Ducks: 

1900 Wigeon; 1200 Shelduck; 226 Pintail; 5 Long-tailed duck; 1 Black Scoter

Image ©  JJD

Waders: 

3005 Golden Plover; 1018 Grey Plover; 2000 Dunlin; 750 Curlew

970 Lapwing and 2900 Golden Plover recorded during our WeBS count at Budle Bay on the 20^th 

Image ©  JJD

The current cold snap means that birds, like us, require more energy to keep warm, and in these wintry conditions they often find it harder to find food. They are particularly vulnerable to disturbance when it is cold - each flight expends a great deal of energy. Repeated disturbance can cause death from starvation or exhaustion. Please keep your distance when birds are roosting or feeding, and keep dogs on a lead on the Reserve at all times.