We're welcoming volunteer Phil back to our blog with his report from – Friday 21st September
Back on Hides and Trails duty after an absence of several weeks a number of conversations with visitors started with the comment “its very quiet today”. And perhaps to the untrained eye that’s what it seemed. And yet at the end of the day I recounted many interesting tales of what I’d seen to staff back at the Visitor Centre. So what follows is a synopsis of my day and I will leave readers to decide whether it really was quiet.
There was not so much to be seen down the Zigzags but I dropped into Fattengates to examine my favourite ivy bush at the end of the courtyard. Sure enough it was teeming with hoverflies, ivy bees and hornets in the bright sunshine.
Nearby one of our pale fronted buzzards took off from one of the oak trees.
From West Mead I spotted a marsh harrier out near the sluice gates by the riverbank. Then about 20 minutes later I spotted it again in a little nearer the hide but then realised that the visitor sitting next to me was describing a different one nearby. And only 5 minutes later I saw 3 marsh harriers in one view back near the sluice gate. I don’t recall seeing more than 2 before at Pulborough so this was a record for me. Discussing this sighting with a colleague a little later it seemed possible that at the same time a 4th harrier was out on the North Brooks.
Looking through my scope for signs of yellow wagtails around the distant cattle I could only find starlings, but I also spotted an smallish unusual looking bird on a post. I couldn’t be absolutely sure of this bird as the strong wind was causing some disturbance to the viewing conditions, and yet it bore a passing resemblance to a ring ouzel. I can’t really count this sighting, but it’s not unusual to see these blackbirds of the uplands on top of the South Downs at this time of year, so one dropping by for a rest from the strong wind isn’t such a silly idea.
I failed to find any redstarts at Redstart Corner and reflected that the strong wind might well be keeping the smaller birds down. However, as compensation I found the pond there absolutely teeming with dragonflies. I counted 6 pairs of common darters flying in tandem with females repeatedly dipping their abdomens into the pond to lay eggs, and felt sure there were several more just out sight behind the emergent vegetation. Migrant hawkers were whizzing and hovering everywhere.
Just behind Winpenny the grassy verge by the path junction was brightened up by a few small copper and common blue butterflies.
Arriving at the Hanger one gentlemen asked my opinion on the identity of several small birds to be seen on the bushes in front of the viewpoint. These proved to be a lively flock of linnets. A short while later the same gentleman asked about a bird seen in his scope perched on one of the hawthorns at the bottom of the slope and I immediately recognised a spotted flycatcher.
Scanning for waders here revealed 3 snipe, 3 green sandpipers and, more unusually, 3 ringed plovers. We are quite used to seeing little ringed plovers in spring and summer but the larger ringed plovers tend to be seen more on the coast. Later a scan down at Jupps View revealed 11 snipe feeding quite openly.
On the way down to Jupps two newly emerged red admirals were perching on the sheltered bramble bush looking truly spectacular in the sunshine. And before that I’d been able to admire at close hand a migrant hawker perched in a blackthorn bush just to the left of the path.
There were many more geese on the site since my last visit – several hundred now, mainly Canada Geese but a fair number of greylags. The numbers of mallards on the North Brooks had dropped a little since the exceptional numbers recorded in the August WeBS Count but there were still plenty to be seen. A few wigeon in eclipse plumage and maybe 100 lapwings could be found giving a little foretaste of the winter spectacles to come.
And finally throughout the whole day there were plenty of hirundines whizzing around feeding up for the long journey back to Africa. seemingly unconcerned about the wind. House martins were particularly prominent, but a few swallows and sand martins were mixed in too.
Apart from the ringed plovers, none of the species I saw was exactly unusual for the time of year, but they made for a lovely mix of wildlife sightings.