It looks set to be a successful year for our breeding waders with plenty of 'bundles of joy' being seen out on the reserve, particularly from West Mead and Winpenny hides - look for both lapwing and redshank chicks around the edges of the pools. We've been working hard to manage the habitat on site to keep it in tip top condition for these special birds and also to protect them from predators and disturbance - nesting on the ground can be tough!
One of our colleagues is conducting research on our South Downs lapwings so has colour-ringed a few of the lapwing chicks - this will help us track their movements and see whether they tend to return to the same site or range further afield. It will be fascinating to find out more as his studies progress.
Although the nightingales are no longer at the peak of the performance season they are being seen around the trail and the lack of singing hopefully indicates that they have paired up and are now raising chicks. Blackcaps are still singing beautifully and several lesser whitethroats have started singing again - a great help if you're trying to track them down as they tend to hide in the bushes.
Red kite, buzzard, kestrel and sparrowhawk are all regulars, but my favourite raptor at this time of year must be the hobby - on the warm days you can watch them hunting for dragonflies over the ditches and the river - our newly opened seasonal trail - the wetland discovery trail - is a great place to watch them and to admire the dragonflies and damselflies. Out around the ditches yesterday we saw azure, blue-tailed and large red damselfly, banded demoiselle, 4- spotted chaser, broad bodied chaser, hairy hawker and emperor dragonflies.
Banded demoiselle - Gareth Hughes
There is always a chance that something different will drop in or fly over - so always keep your eyes and ears open. We had a great start to June with an osprey, spoonbill and drake garganey all being seen on Friday 1 June.
Out on the heathland, the dragonflies are also great around Black Pond with many four-spotted chasers but also a downy emerald dragonfly. Our first heathland night-time safari last night was excellent for bats with common & soprano pipistrelles flitting around the trees and the larger serotine bats hunting out in the open as it got a little darker. We also found a churring nightjar (churring from around 9.30 pm). The central section of the heath is still closed to minimise disturbance to our ground nesting birds but you could hear the nightjar from the tumulus (sit on the benches that face south) or head down to Black pond and look and listen from there.