With thanks to volunteer Graham Osborne for his report and photos.
It was raining steadily as I arrived at Pulborough Brooks on Easter Sunday. By the time I set out on the wetland trail the rain had almost stopped, but the Nightingales were not performing for me. I did not hear any song until I reached Fattengates Courtyard, and I was listening to a second bird singing out of sight a bit further along the trail when I was joined by fellow Hides and Trails volunteer Martin. Shortly after this a regular visitor Paul met us on his way back to the Visitor Centre. He told us that he had found a Green-winged Teal viewable from Nettley’s Hide. Martin and I headed straight to Nettley’s Hide, to join some other visitors. After a few minutes of searching among a number of Eurasian Teal we located the Green-winged Teal, and I was able to get a few distant photos.
I stayed in Nettley’s Hide for the rest of the morning, helping a number of visitors get scoped views of the G-w Teal as well as a Little Ringed Plover. At one point a Carrion Crow could be seen quite close to the hide tearing apart a large fish.
At lunchtime I left Martin in Nettley’s Hide and made my way to Adder Alley where a group of visitors were gathered, hoping to get a view of a Nightingale that had been singing but was silent when I arrived. It started to sing shortly after I got there, but it stayed out of sight while it competed vocally with a nearby Common Whitethroat and a more distant Sedge Warbler. A pair of Chiffchaffs darted around nearby, apparently nest building, one of them appearing on at least two occasions holding a feather in its bill.
Giving up on getting a view of the Nightingale I continued on to Winpenny Hide, from where three Greenshank
and a Ruff were showing well in the middle distance.
A couple of Goldfinches flew in to land in front of the hide.
After a while the Ruff flew off, and this prompted me to move on to West Mead Hide to check if it had relocated there. Shortly after I got there a visitor asked me to identify a wader that had just walked into view at the end of one of the islands, and it was indeed the same Ruff. Also to be seen were numerous feeding Sand Martins, as well as one or two Swallows and House Martins. Unfortunately, although I managed to get some reasonable flight shots, after my return to the Visitor Centre my camera suffered a severe malfunction, resulting in the deletion of all the photos from one of my memory cards! Oh well, there is always next week.