Surely it must be spring soon...after all we've had our first swallow sighting of the year!
Everything at Pulborough Brooks is rather squelchy at the moment, and today's rainfall has certainly not improved the situation. Nevertheless, some of our wildlife seems determined to get started...
Chiffchaffs have now arrived in force and can be heard chiff-chaffing all the way around the trail - the challenge is to find a spot where one cannot be heard! Proud male dunnocks are perched up on top of the brambles singing and lapwings have been displaying and calling over the wetlands.
We're hoping for an influx of spring birds later this week with improving weather and southerly winds...blackcaps, more swallows, and then perhaps even a nightingale or two.
The number of winter wildfowl is starting to dwindle so look instead for redshank, little ringed plover and the great white egret who has been showing well over the past week or so.
Photo by Chris Prince.
On days when there is some warmth and sunshine, adders can be seen basking and we've been making good progress on our 'adder ID gallery'. Visitors have been getting good views of two individuals on adder alley one of whom (AA1) has been nicknamed 'Big Al' and we've managed to track back and find photos of him from 2008 when he was already an adult. The second individual (AA3) has been nicknamed 'spot' owing to the black dot in one of the white scales on the side of his head. He was first seen in 2017 whilst still a juvenile:
'Spot' in May 2017 - Photo by Graham Osborne
'Spot' in March 2018 by Gareth Hughes
And then perhaps a couple of 'firsts' for the reserve today; visitor Matt reported an Iceland gull (I can't recall us having a record of this bird before) and volunteer Rob found an amphibious leech on the zig zag path. Apparently these leeches live out of water (although they return to water to breed) and feed on earthworms. A quite impressive beast although I can't imagine that it is going to bring in hordes of visitors to the reserve!