Amongst the winter highlights at the reserve are the elegant long-legged and long-beaked black-tailed godwits; wading birds who probe the mud of the pools and meadows in search of food. They will have travelled from their breeding grounds in Iceland, making a stop-off in East Anglia, before they begin to disperse to their favoured wintering spots. Some head south to the coasts and estuaries of France or down to Portugal, but many choose Sussex (and in neighbouring Hampshire). They will find food in the harbours of Pagham, Chichester and Langstone and the marshes at Farlington. These are the traditional wintering areas for this species where they can find plenty of energy-rich food to sustain them through the colder months.
Photo: Gareth Hughes
When I first came to Pulborough Brooks as a volunteer (some 16 years ago) a black-tailed godwit was a rare sighting worthy of a swift walk to the Hanger viewpoint to admire it. Now they have become more frequent visitors and in the winter before last we saw record numbers in excess of one thousand birds. Although less rare these days they are no less worthy of a lunchtime walk to see them – in their large numbers they are quite a spectacle – a squabbling mass of busy birds, whose white underparts catch the light beautifully as the flock takes flight.
Photo: Phil Thornton
Icelandic black-tailed godwits are doing rather well, and as their breeding success has improved, so we are seeing more of them here. Now they have discovered Pulborough Brooks and Amberley Wildbrooks they return here each winter often swapping between the inland sites and the coast depending on the levels of flood water or on the winds and waves.
But how do we know so much about their movements? Well it’s thanks to the rather ingenious project whose researchers have placed coloured rings on the legs of the godwits (either whist they are chicks in their nest or when they are trapped as adults). Each combination of coloured rings is unique which enables individual birds to be identified, tracked and their story revealed.
Photo: David Andrews
Each winter we see several colour-ringed birds here in the Arun Valley and by ‘reading’ the rings and reporting them to the project we are able to learn their history – how old they are, where they spend their time and whether they have visited us before. One colour-ringed bird returned to us almost every winter for a decade – he was usually here for Christmas!
Another incredible aspect of the private life of black-tailed godwits that has been revealed by this work is that males and females often spend their winters apart, even in different countries, yet still manage to coordinate their arrival in Iceland each spring. Males and females of a pair (they tend to pair for life) will somehow reach the marshes of Iceland simultaneously, find one another and get down to the serious business of nesting and raising young. But woe betide the male if he gets the timing a little wrong and keeps his lady waiting – she’ll allow him a day but if he has still not arrived she’ll find a different mate for the year – a punishment for his tardiness. The following spring, if he’s learnt from his mistakes and arrives on time, all will be forgiven and the pair will make up!
I have been fond of wildlife from a young age but it is uncovering the stories of individual birds and unravelling the mysteries of migration that I find most fascinating of all. I’d like to hope that this has sparked an interest in you too - read more tales of the black-tailed godwit here