Here's Friday's report and photos, courtesy of volunteer Phil...
A damp walk to Nettleys Hide in the morning led to being trapped there by heavy rain for several hours. Despite this the water level in the North Brooks had dropped considerably during the cold dry spell but even with the warmer temperature there was still some ice on the water’s edge. There was plenty of bird activity to keep me occupied.
200+ black tailed godwits were feeding near the hide, and scattered across the North Brooks there were many wigeon and teal and several shoveler, pintail and mallard and lapwings. However the numbers were small compared with those on the 18th when a WeBS count at Amberley Wildbrooks estimated over 3000 wigeon and 1000 teal. Even with the lower water not as suited to diving there were still a few coot pottering around along with the usual moorhens. However the water rail which had been seen several times near the hide in the last week or so did not show. The tree to left on the far side of the Brooks held 9 cormorants.
Eventually an unusually solitary long tailed tit emerged from the woodland fringe to perch on the rushes closely followed by 3 goldcrests, a wren and a dunnock A little later a pair of blue tits provided some entertainment swinging on reed stems and by craning my neck it was just possible to pick up a treecreeper in the oak to the left of the hide.
A commotion amongst the godwits alerted me to a peregrine flying fast and low across the Brooks making a beeline for the famous willow where it duly perched on its favourite branch. A little while later I suddenly became aware of a godwit murmuration and it became clear that all along there had been 2 large groups which then coalesced in mid-air. I estimated that the combined group would have had 400-500 birds. I couldn’t be sure what had put them up, the only other bird of note just then being a grey heron flying purposely across to the bank near the willow which seemed an unlikely candidate.
Eventually the rain eased and I made my way round to The Hanger where I was able to photograph the peregrine still in the willow.
At Little Hanger hide the visibility was much improved and this allowed me to spot a short-eared owl patrolling the river bank near Pulborough village.
At Winpenny Hide with sunshine starting to break through I found a stonechat near enough photograph and then proceeded to Redstart Corner.
Here a brief glimpse of a redwing flying left put me onto a kestrel sitting on a post beside the path which then moved to a nearby tree.
At West Mead I located a dunlin amongst the lapwings and then returned to base spotting a more typical party of long tailed tits at the bottom of the zig-zag path. Finally arriving back at the Visitor Centre a buzzard could be seen sitting prominently on a fence post to the left of Upperton’s Field.