Thanks to volunteer Phil for his report and photos
Recent Sightings Friday 26 February – In the right place at the right time…..
…..or not as the case may be. Despite a bright start at Hails View, picking out a dunlin amongst several hundred lapwing, it seemed for most of the time to be one of those days when I was never in the right place. I spent much of the morning stationed at The Hanger and Nettleys Hide rueing my luck as reports came in from various visitors and colleagues of things I seemed destined not see. These included bullfinch, goldcrest green and great spotted woodpecker, song thrush, fieldfare, kestrel, ruff, several more dunlin, and the Fattengates firecrest.
My sense of disappointment was slightly lifted when colleague Clive pointed out a red kite and 2 buzzards having a spat and soon afterwards they were joined by 2 more buzzards and were all to be seen apparently peacefully circling on a thermal above the North Brooks.
All the usual wintering ducks were still present and the coots that have been with us for a while were still to be seen but there was no sign of the usual juvenile peregrine. The only item of additional interest was provided by a rather strange looking cormorant with a large patch of white round the back of its neck
Fortunately the arrival of my eagle-eyed colleague John proved to be the catalyst for more things to appear. First he found the peregrine on a fence post half hidden behind a bush – surely I’d surveyed that post earlier. Then he and one of the visitors between them produced several gadwall, a tufted duck pair and just 3 black tailed godwits – seemingly the only ones left out the 1000+ birds of a few weeks ago. A snipe appeared by the fence to the west of the hide. My luck being out, the water rail seen many times outside Nettley’s recently was staying hidden, with only the usual wren and a strangely lethargic canada goose to be seen in the wet area just to the left of the hide.
In the early afternoon a pair of stonechats suddenly appeared by the channel to the right of the hide, my first for a few weeks, but even this only briefly lifted my rather flat mood and I decided to move on.
At Winpenny Hide things started to improve. I found several visitors admiring a splendid male marsh harrier quartering the South Brooks. Having sighted this bird, almost immediately a juvenile peregrine appeared hunting in the same area and sometimes getting in the harrier’s way. Good views were to be had for several minutes before both birds moved away round to the North Brooks – almost as if they were working together.
The afternoon already seemed brighter than the morning despite the gathering clouds in the sky, but then one of the visitors told me of seeing a short eared owl by the riverbank near Pulborough village and I wondered how I could I have missed this when I’d surveyed the area several times?
A few minutes later she called out that the “owl was back”, pointing to an area well to the left of the hide. This surprised me greatly as it hasn’t been the normal hunting place for the owls but sure enough one could be seen quartering the meadow to the South of West Mead pool. However it soon became apparent that this was far too pale for a normal short-eared owl and as it wheeled towards us the unmistakable face of a barn owl appeared. Here was cause for great excitement as barn owls have only very rarely been seen here since the very wet winter and floods of 2013-14 caused them a lot of problems. It was too far away to take a really effective photo but I’ve included one here in which you can just make out the owl hovering and about to drop on some unsuspecting prey.
At West Mead it turned out that no-one had seen the owl from there – a shame as it would have been much closer. I couldn’t find it again but instead a great spotted woodpecker gave a good view of what it does best – i.e pecking wood - but this time on the ground.
Snipe have been showing well at West Mead recently and I was able to indulge in my favourite pastime of showing visitors a close up view in my scope.
As if to emphasise my change of luck at the top of the zigzag path on my way back to the Visitor Centre someone pointed out a kestrel in a tree and I finally found my only bullfinch of the day – a female.
In the café it seemed that the barn owl sighting had done wonders for the exceptionally tasty lemon drizzle cake and I decided to pay a late afternoon visit to Hail’s View just in case the owl had moved round there from West Mead. There was no sign of it but I did spot my only green woodpecker of the day in the gathering gloom on the ash tree in front of the viewpoint.
I returned home in high spirits reflecting that the raptor sightings were a great reminder of how Pulborough Brooks is capable of conjuring up magical moments when you least expect them.