Recent Sighting 1st to 20th June

Pagham Harbour Local Nature Reserve Recent Sighting 1st to 20th June

Pagham Harbour and Medmerry requires membership for participation - click to join

21 Jun 2016

After a brief attempt of summer in the early part of the month the weather has turned much more autumn like over the last week or so.

Stormy weather at Medmerry

Breeding season is in full swing with a very busy Black Headed Gull colony now established on Tern Island with the various tern species intermingled with them. Many of the nests are now hatching with lots of young gulls now visible around the edges of the colony with a few even taking there first flights. The comings and goings of the terns also indicate that they are starting to hatch in the last week. A long side the terns a number of Ringed Plover and Oystercatcher are present as well.

Black Headed Gull Chick

Ringed Plover

Little Tern

Many of the other birds around the birds are also in the full throws of breeding and although on the face of it the reserve may seem quiet there is plenty of activity in the bushes from the various species of warbler. The same is true regarding the reedbeds but with a little patience a reed warbler may be seen singing from the reeds or a secretive juvenile Little Grebe may be spotted. Even the Roe Deer have young!

Reed Warbler

Little Grebe Juv

Roe Deer and fawn

The majority of the birds have left the harbour but a few waders sporting their summer plumage can be still observed on a rising tide. Out of ferry field there is an indication that a few waders are returning with Little Ringed Plover and Green Sandpiper recorded in the last week. These were joined over last weekend by a Cattle Egret.

Dunlin

Cattle Egret on Ferry

As the summer temperatures rise in the evening the number of moths species increase around the reserve. This year it may have been noticeable that a large number of small moths are disturbed in the grass. These are likely to be Diamond Backed Moths, these are an immigrant species to the UK and over the last few weeks millions have been recorded around the country, with nearly a 1000 recorded in two month traps at the reserve on 8^th June.

Diamond Backed Moth

A moth trap was opened for national moth night on the 11^th and produced nearly 90 species and proved to all that attended moths are beautiful and not just brown and uninteresting.