Whilst away on my holidays, I still managed my to keep an eye on the goings on at Pagham Harbour and Medmerry thanks to the world-wide-web and smartphones. So you can imagine my frustration when the day after I had flown out of Gatwick, I read that a fabulous summer plumaged spotted redshank had turned up on the Ferry Pool. Each day I would ‘check-in’ with the internet and each day it teased me with people’s reports of how well it was showing as if to taunt me on purpose. Would it just pass through? Would it stay just long enough? I’d been lucky enough to catch the red-necked phalarope and terek sandpiper, and of course the Hudsonian whimbrel seems to have definitely unpacked its bags and settled in for the time being, but was this one going to get away?
So first day back I arrived early and promptly marched off to the Ferry Pool hardly noticing the blackcap serenading me as I walked past. A scan around the pool... avocets, the shelduck teenagers doing what teenagers do (eat and sleep!), redshank, and yes! There it was standing out from the local redshank in it’s much darker plumage. Despite seeing them before, it was a first for seeing it in it’s attractive summer uniform and a great start to the day.
Arriving back at the Visitor Centre it suddenly struck me how tidy it looked, having not seen it since the students from Chichester College had finished. They have done a great job and hopefully will be able to put the work on their CV’s and talk about it in future interviews.
At the end of the day I popped down to Church Norton to put up a couple of posters in the hide and was delighted not to get thrown about by potholes driving into the car park, now the resurfacing has been completed thanks to the very kind donations of Friends of Pagham Harbour and Sussex Ornithological Society.
Trevor, one of our volunteers, has continued my education of Pagham Harbours seasonal plants this week, with centaury, selfheal and meadowsweet - all of which I have learned, have been used as medicinal herbs throughout the ages. I was particularly taken by meadowsweet which I imagined being a slightly haughty character also being known as ‘Queen of the meadow’ and a favourite of the druids!
Whilst admiring the different plants along the path opposite the dipping pond I noticed the ragwort emerging in numbers and the ravenous cinnabar caterpillars taking advantage of this fact.
This month our summer events programme starts with ‘A walk on the wild side’ on Saturday 11th at 10am - a gentle stroll around part of the reserve appreciating our some of the residents we’re giving a home to.
This is followed by the first in a series of historic walks, ‘A walk in the past’. On Saturday 18th and Tuesday 21st, Friends of Pagham Harbour’s Bill Martin will transporting us back through the ages of steam, the World War, flood and industrial revolution.
And throughout the summer holidays we are getting ‘Crafty with nature’, arts and crafts with Jan every Tuesday, and ‘Pond dipping’ every Thursday morning.
Full details of the summer programme are available on the website http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/seenature/reserves/guide/p/paghamharbour/events.aspx or from the Visitor Centre.