Broadwater Warren

Bird song is picking up now and newly-arrived migrants such as blackcaps and willow warblers appreciated the spell of warm weather over the weekend. The first cuckoo of the year was heard on the reserve on 7 April and the beautiful song of the woodlark can be heard over the heaths across the reserve. Also on the heaths the Dartford warblers are active although you need patience and a keen eye to spot them. We are now…

I don't suppose anyone has come up with a title like that before! It's been an interesting week for wildlife sightings on the reserve. Dartford warblers have been seen quite frequently on the heaths on either side of the main track leading from the car park. Yesterday a group of 4 was spotted. Dartfords are usually seen flying just above the heather and often in the company of Stonechats that will be flitting from perch…

I heard my first Chiffchaff of the spring singing on the reserve this morning and later in the day saw my first Brimstone butterfly of the year. The Brimstone was a sulphur-yellow male flying along a ride where some trees were felled late last year to allow more light in and a scrubby edge to develop. The reserve is a good place to see Brimstones because there is quite a lot of alder buckthorn, the foodplant of its caterpillars…

Flocks of Lesser Redpoll are often seen at Broadwater in the autumn/winter where they like to feed on birch and alder seeds. Today I came across the biggest flock I've ever seen, some on the ground foraging for fallen seeds and others up in the birch trees. There were probably about 200 and so many that they made a "whoosh" as they all took off when they spotted me. If you'd like to know more about Lesser Redpoll have…

On 29 January local ecologist Graeme Lyons did a survey of spiders on the reserve and was very excited by what he found. Results included Rhysodromus histrio, a large spider on mature heaths, known in Sussex only from West Sussex heaths and Ashdown Forest (photo below). And even better, Centromerus cavernarum, a new species for Graeme and for East Sussex (which was last recorded in the far west of West Sussex in 1998…

On 31 January one of our volunteer wardens, Kevin Hyde, and a visiting birder saw a Goshawk in a woodland clearing on the edge of the Western Heath. It's a first for the reserve and takes the number of bird species seen on or flying over the reserve to 108. A great end to the month. 

Woodlark nest on the ground in the heaths at Broadwater and are one of the first birds of the year to set up territories. Our first Woodlark of the year was heard singing on the Western Heath at the weekend and again today. You can read more about the Woodlark here https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/woodlark and listen to its beautiful song.

Barry Richardson and Stephen Hall sent in this picture of a beautiful Grass Snake today from their Reptile Surveying at Broadwater Warren. 
Check out what the RSPB has to say on snakes in the UK; 

https://rspb.org.uk/our-work/rspb-news/rspb-news-stories/the-uks-six-reptiles-and-where-to-see-them/

Barry Richardson and Stephen Hall reported this beautiful grass snake at Broadwater Warren on their Reptile Surveying yesterday. 

The Purple Emperor is probably the UK's most impressive butterfly. The well-known butterfly expert Matthew Oates wrote a book on his passion for the Emperor entitled "His Imperial Majesty: A Natural History of the Purple Emperor" and sightings of Purple Emperors at Broadwater are very rare. We were really excited, therefore, to hear from regular visitor Gillian Snowdon that she had seen a male Purple Emperor near the…

Sightings of Mother and Calf by Volunteer Leslie Cox

"When I got to the crossroads I looked up the path and saw the female looking away from me and into the scrub. I stood quite still after aiming the camera when the fawn appeared from the scrub. It then had a quick suckle before moving off behind the mother into the scrub the other side of the path.

I count myself as being very lucky of being in the right place…

Despite the poor dragonfly weather we saw quite a lot on Saturday but only one new species for the year.

Species 2023 – year total 12 (All Time Site total 28). New species for the year is; Southern Hawker

• Beautiful Demoiselle
• Azure Damselfly
• Blue-tailed Damselfly
• Large Red Damselfly
• Southern Hawker
• Emperor Dragonfly
• Hairy Dragonfly
• Golden-ringed Dragonfly
• Downy Emerald
• Broad-bodied Chaser
• Four Spotted Chaser
• Common…

Many thanks to our volunteers for helping with this year's Nightjar surveys at Broadwater and Tudeley; approximately 35 different people participated across the 4 surveys, which was an excellent turnout!  I've scrutinised and compared the maps from each survey, as well as speaking to several of you for further clarification, and have determined results as follows for number of churring males:

Broadwater - 14

Nice to see 3 species of orchid today in an area on the western side of the reserve that we have been managing for wild flowers. Common Spotted, Pyramidal and Bee Orchids were all in bloom.

We had a fabulous day out last Saturday at The Crowhurst Country Fair.  Our Fore Wood volunteers did us proud, answering some tricky wildlife and forest management questions.  Our youngest volunteer George was a great help guiding the children with their forest school crafts and we raised a little money for the RSPB pin badge scheme. 

Another good set of results on an extremely hot day! We saw 8 species in total with 2 new species for this year.

Species 2023 – year total 9 (All Time Site total 28). New species for the year in red/new species for the site in green:

• Beautiful Demoiselle
• Azure Damselfly
• Blue-tailed Damselfly
• Large Red Damselfly
• Emperor Dragonfly
• Hairy Dragonfly
• Golden-ringed Dragonfly
• Downy Emerald
• Broad-bodied Chaser
• Four Spotted…

Broadwater Warren is one of the very best RSPB reserves in the country for damselflies and dragonflies with 28 species so far recorded, thanks mainly to the efforts of our two dragonfly surveyors Sam and Rob. They carried out their first survey of 2023 on 27 May and recorded 9 species - 

• Beautiful Demoiselle
• Azure Damselfly
• Blue-tailed Damselfly
• Large Red Damselfly
• Hairy Dragonfly
• Downy Emerald
• Broad-bodied Chaser
• Four…

Nightjars have arrived back on the reserve from overwintering in Sub-Saharan Africa. This morning one was heard churring near the car park at 4.30am before we set off on our Dawn Chorus Walk. Another was recorded flying over the Western Heath.

Red List Species at Broadwater Warren

We have been hearing the call of a male and female Cuckoo this week at Broadwater Warren.  The Cuckoo is a top-priority red list species, so it’s a wonderful noise to hear while on the reserve.

Fleeting Visitors

Cuckoos are summer visitors and are only in the UK for about six weeks before returning to Africa.  The female Cuckoo will find a suitable bird’s nest and replace one…

We have had a good show of Dartford Warbler this Month with a few sightings near the old WW shooting butts.  Male song has clearly been heard on a few occasions as well as clear sightings. 
Wood Lark have been heard towards the goat enclosure since early March with 5 spotted during one survey.
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker’s drumming also heard near the decoy pond. 
Thanks to our surveyor Trevor Manship. 

This afternoon I saw my first woodlark of 2023 on the western heath. Unfortunately not singing its beautiful song. On 3 April our volunteer reptile survey team recorded 15 slowworm, 1 common lizard and 2 female adders (see attached photo of one of the adders). 

Despite the sun it was only just warm enough today to do our first butterfly survey of the year for the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. We recorded 9 Brimstone and 5 Peacock across the reserve. There were a lot more wood ants about, the warm weather having woken them up. 

Fire and Brimstone?

Well, just Brimstone this morning, thankfully. Today, we have seen a fantastic display of bright yellow wings brightening up the muddy woodland.

Did you know

The word Brimstone means sulphur and describes the striking male butterfly's acid yellow and green wings. Females are often mistaken for cabbage whites as they are a much paler creamy colour.

The original butterfly

Historians believe…

I know what you are thinking.

You must be wondering why we have been chopping down trees.

The big answer? 

Heathland. Did you know that in the last 150 years the UK has lost 85% of its heathlands? 

At Broadwater Warren we are restoring the heathland to its original beauty, and with careful land management, we can restore the heather and encourage back the ground-nesting birds that so desperately need it.  

Our ponies…

With only a few days till the equinox, we welcome the start of spring and the first calls of Woodlark at Broadwater Warren.  We need to catch up on compiling our nature survey's this year due to the cold and wet weather, but we will update the blog with sightings of birds, reptiles, and dormice at Broadwater Warren.  Our Konik ponies, however, are very happy, especially when they see our hard working wardens bringing…