Today I escaped the office and joined the Thursday morning Wildlife Walk About; our regular guided walk around the reserve. There is still a March chill in the air, making it feel a little less like spring in the shade, but quite pleasant in the sheltered sunshine. Despite the chill, there has been a big arrival of chiffchaff to the reserve in the past week or so, with these 'little brown jobs' singing their name loudly from trees and bushes all the way around the trails. Our little party was treated to a concert performance as we walked the Wetland Trail, with dunnock, robin, skylark, great tit, greenfinch, goldfinch and linnet all taking part in the singing at one stage or other.
Beautiful views of a great spotted woodpecker delighted more novice members of the group, providing great oportunity to see identification features, and a streaky meadow pipit showed well, in close view at West Mead Hide. A dark speck against the clouds high over Adder Alley, released a flowing trickle of song; a skylark making the most of a little sunshine. There was not quite enough of that sunshine unfortunately to coax any adders out of hiding, but I am sure as the weather improves again after this cooler snap, they will be showing again soon.
The brooks themselves are looking good now that the water levels are improving. There is a lot of fencing and repair work to be done after the winter flooding, but as the water retreats to the ditches and pools, Lapwings are have decided it is time to display and start nesting in their preferred fields where the reed growth is not too dense. Hopefully other waders will not be long behind them.
An exciting sighting of the day was a quick glimpse of a house martin accompanied by two sand martins, very high and distant across the North Brooks/Pulborough village, spotted by my fellow walk leader John as he scanned the skyline. This will be the first reported on the reserve for this year – a real sign of spring!
In non-bird related news, the reserve is rapidly greening, with hawthorn leaves and many other trees following the now fading blackthorn flowers. Soon the hedgerows will be white once again with hawthorn flowers; I spotted some buds today. in places along the damp edges to the paths and hedgerows, particularly between Winpenny Hide and Adder Alley, a pretty and dainty pink flower has just come into bloom. This is the ‘lady’s smock’, also known as ‘milkmaids’ or ‘cuckoo flower’, a favourite food plant of the caterpillar of the orange tip butterfly; another lovely spring species to watch out for that should be emerging over the next couple of weeks!
Image credits: Dunnock, by Ray Kennedy : North Brooks & Spring Growth, by Sophie-May Lewis