A very uncommon crane - volunteer Phil recounts a day with an unusual but welcome addition to his sightings list.

On Friday 12 November I arrived on a damp and dismal morning and, with a strong south westerly blowing, and resolved to seek shelter from the rain and wind in Nettley’s Hide until the weather faired up. First however I dropped by the Hanger for a brief check on the presence of a peregrine in the willow tree…

Thanks to volunteer Rob King for his article.

There has been much excitement recently at RSPB Pulborough Brooks due to a spate of sightings of a rarely seen woodpecker; the lesser spotted woodpecker.

There are three native woodpecker species in the UK. Let’s meet them.

The green woodpecker is a large, predominantly green, bird which often betrays its presence by a “yaffle” – a laugh-like call. They are frequently…

Thank you to volunteer John for his report:

This lovely sunny day brought out the birds and the birders at Pulborough. Ted and I met so many people there it was like the old pre-covid days.

Our first survey of the newly ploughed field and the brooks revealed little except a lone mistle thrush on the top of the big oak which was briefly joined by a redwing. Into West Mead hide and the water levels have gone down in the…

 
 
(Credit Aardman/Netflix).  

We’re delighted to be partnering with Netflix and Aardman on Robin Robin, a half-hour, stop-motion, festive story for the whole family, about a young robin trying to fit in. It’s debuting on Netflix on 24 November – get the date in your diary! 

To celebrate, we’re inviting you to join exclusive Robin Robin-themed adventure trails right here at Pulborough Brooks this Christmas season…

Notice of temporary hide closure - Sunday 21 November 11am - 12.30pm.

West Mead hide will be closed for a couple of hours whilst it is in use on a reserve event. All other hides and viewpoints remain open.

Our wetlands are at their best in the winter months - teeming with ducks, geese and wading birds. We're offering special 'hire a guide' events to help you enjoy the wonderful winter wetlands.

We're offering a 'dawn of the ducks' experience and a 'birding for beginners' workshop as 'hire a guide' events so you'll have a dedicated guide and private use of one of the hides. This means that you'll be in a small…

Thanks to volunteer Graham for his wildlife highlights and photos...

Some fine weather, a good selection of birds and plenty of visitors resulted in yet another very satisfying Sunday at Pulborough Brooks. 

Sightings of three (or more?) marsh harriers and at least three peregrines on the South Brooks were the highlights of the day. Although I was not able to obtain satisfactory photos of either of these two species I did…

Thanks to volunteer Phil for his sightings report and photos.

There was plenty of interest on the reserve.   A bank vole was feeding on some seed I put out on the logs at Fattengates courtyard at the request of a lady who had popped in hoping to find one.

I was pleased to see the new diggings at West Mead and Winpenny were looking very good, now with plenty of water and starting to green up.    There wasn’t much bird life…

Highlights from today's wildlife sightings list are a merlin and a marsh harrier. The number of ducks, wigeon, teal, pintail and shoveler is increasing daily as they arrive to enjoy our wetlands (which are now very wet).

Here's the sightings list from today (and yesterday):

Meanwhile, out on the wooded heath the rain has done a good job at prompting some marvellous mushrooms to pop up amongst the leaf litter…

Thanks to volunteer Phil for this report and for all his hard work surveying dragonflies & damselflies at our Arun Valley reserves this year.

I first became aware of willow emerald damselflies about 7 years ago when some naturalist friends were considering a trip to East Anglia to find this relatively new species for the UK which had spread from Europe, maybe as a result of climate change.   A little research established…

Secrets of the Heath: Wonders of Wiggonholt

Saturday 21 August 2021, 11am-4pm

Wiggonholt Heath, RSPB Pulborough Brooks nature reserve

Join Heathlands Reunited and RSPB Pulborough Brooks for an exciting day exploring the heathland at Wiggonholt.

Follow the heathland superheroes trail, go on a bug hunt, discover heathland history, listen to a tale or two, create your own heathland critter, meet a reptile, and have a Stone…

Many of you who visit us in the summer months will enjoy the butterflies and dragonflies that you can see around the nature trail, but how many of you have been on a bee hunt?

Start off in the car park and look for the volcano-like mounds of sandy soil on the banked edges…these are the nests of Pantaloon bees (Dasypoda hirtipes). Pantaloon bees get their name from the females’ oversized orange pollen brushes on…

Redshank chick by Graham Osborne

As our regular visitors will know, for the past 5 years or so we have spent a significant amount of time each spring putting up temporary anti-predator fences on the South Brooks.  This followed on from nest monitoring studies which showed a high level of nest predation and that the majority of nest predation was mammalian (primarily fox, occasionally badger). Our wardens set up a 2 km…

The British Dragonfly Society certainly picked a good week for 'Dragonfly Week' this year with lots of dragonflies and damselflies emerging, perching and hunting around the ponds and ditches on the reserve.  

We can also announce a new species for Pulborough Brooks - a Southern Migrant Hawker dragonfly, found and photographed by Graham who is one of our volunteers.

Southern migrant hawker by Graham Osborne

This…

Gatekeeper butterfly - photo by Gareth Hughes

Welcome back! As restrictions have eased further in England, we’re excited to continue to have many of our facilities OPEN for your visit! Here’s a summary of what’s available  

Open daily, dawn til dusk:

• Car park
• Nature reserve trails 
•  Hides - all 4 of our hides are now open

 Open daily 10 am – 4 pm 

• Outdoor, staffed Welcome Point 
• Toilets 
• Café - take…

We have a busy few months ahead out on the wet grassland with two significant projects being delivered on top of the annual habitat management work.   Whilst this work is being undertaken there will inevitably be some disturbance so we thought you’d like to know what we’re up to…

Our first project the ‘wetland enhancement’ project will kick off next week and has been designed to improve the wet grassland…

I'm not going to write much this morning but will simply let you indulge in this lovely series of photos from our volunteer Graham Osborne...

Enjoy 

Avocet chasing off redshank

Avocet chasing off mallard

And this is why the avocet is being rather over-protective!

Our avocet pair have 3 chicks who are getting bolder as they explore West Mead pool, but who do still retreat for cover and warmth.

Joining the West…

Would you or someone you know like to be a warden at Pulborough Brooks nature reserve?

The RSPB team in Sussex are seeking a dynamic, resourceful and motivated warden to join a reserves team managing four natures reserves totalling over 500 hectares of nature reserves in the South Downs National Park, including Pulborough Brooks, one of the most visited RSPB reserves in the UK. These diverse nature reserves comprise of…

We'll be closing our car park and nature trails at 7 pm on the evenings when we are holding night-time safari events. This is to ensure that numbers are limited to those who have booked places and so that social distancing can be maintained at our key viewpoints. 

If you are visiting the reserve on these dates please make sure that you are off site by 7 pm as the gate will be closed to all visitors other than event…

Four-spotted chaser dragonfly by Graham Osborne

Much of the four-spotted chaser’s life is spent hidden in the murky depths of the heathland pond. Around four weeks the after the female has laid her eggs the larvae hatch taking a minimum of two years in larval form to complete their development. The larvae are ambush predators, covered in numerous hair-like structures which trap debris, they are well camouflaged hiding…

I am delighted to report that we've had a great year for nightingales on the reserve with at least 10 males singing around the nature trails.

Our first nightingale was reported very early on 4 April ( I usually predict they will arrive between the 10th and the 12th) but there was very little singing for the first couple of weeks.  Perhaps the males who had arrived first realised that the females would be unlikely to…

An introduction to one of our prettiest spring flowers – Greater Stitchwort

This pretty starry white springtime flower growing to calf height is often found thriving alongside red campion and bluebells on our woodland floors and grass verges.

Greater Stitchwort by Chris Prince

The plant’s name ‘Stitchwort’ refers to it ability to cure the pain associated with runners stitch. However there are many more documented…