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 have some success with some others from Winpenny Hide.
A red kite made a brief fly past,
and a female stonechat posed for a few portraits.
A grey heron was keeping a close eye on a nearby ditch, and it eventually made a successful strike. It’s prey appears to me to be a young water vole.
The final image is of a small wasp nest that one of our younger visitors spotted on the inside of the roof of Winpenny Hide.
Here's the rest of the weekend's sightings:
And then there is some fungi news from me (Anna)...
The fungi trail is still up and running around the woodland heathland trail with plenty to see. The section of the trail that explores Black Wood is getting a little boggy in places so walking boots or wellingtons are recommended if you want to discover the rosy bonnets, burgundydrop bonnets and yellow stagshorn that has popped up in the wood.
My favourite fungal find of the weekend was the splendidly-named 'jellybaby'. This yellow jellybaby-shaped mushroom is sadly inedible. It's also out on the wetland trail rather than on my fungi trail route but can easily be found as you approach the wooded area at the bottom of the zig zag path. This is what you are looking out for:
If you're keen to explore the fungi trail then it will be continuing until the end of this week so do pop over to see us soon!