With thanks to volunteer Graham for his report and photos.
As a consequence of the high winds at Pulborough Brooks on Sunday I initially helped Anna in carrying out a safety check of the wetland trail. After we had covered most of the trail and met up at Hanger View I stayed at the viewpoint to survey the birdlife on the North Brooks while Anna went down to Nettley’s Hide to complete the safety check. I could see a number of Black-tailed Godwits in small groups, and I also spotted a couple of Ruff. Having been joined briefly by only one visitor in half an hour I left Hanger View to relocate at Nettley’s Hide, from where Anna had reported that a visitor had seen a Kingfisher earlier in the morning. There were several visitors already in the hide, and they said that a Kingfisher had visited before I arrived. Most of the other birds were keeping their distance, but a charm of 30+ Goldfinches flew in to a nearby Alder.
From time to time some of the Black-tailed Godwits would take to the air to provide a brief aerial display. On at least one occasion they were joined by one of the Ruff I had seen earlier (bottom right).
After a while a male Kingfisher made the first of several visits, and over the next hour or so I joined a regular visitor (Mike) in getting some very acceptable close range shots of it on various perches between dives into the ditch.
At one point a group of Fallow Deer came fairly close to the hide,
and some Pintail flew by in formation before landing on the water.
A visitor spotted a Marsh Harrier in flight, and this provided a fairly good view, although it was just a bit too distant for a photo. I decided to stay in Nettley’s Hide into the afternoon as the North Brooks was clearly the most sheltered part of the reserve whilst the strong southerly winds continued to blow. There was a reasonably steady flow of visitors in and out of the hide, and one couple had only just arrived when I spotted a juvenile Peregrine on a fence post. I shared some satisfying views of it through my scope before it took off and flew towards the northeast corner of the reserve before turning south and then circling back to flash past at close range in front of the hide. I managed to get a few shots of it, and I was pleased with the results as the light was now fading.
As I had not visited any of the other hides during the morning I decided to drop in to West Mead Hide for a short while on my way back to the Visitor Centre. On entering the (empty) hide I could see a number of ducks of various species sheltering from the wind with their heads tucked in on the lee side of the islands. As I had hoped I then spotted a Little Grebe, probably the same bird I had seen here over the previous few weeks. Unlike the ducks the grebe was swimming around, occasionally diving for food, and apparently oblivious to the stormy weather.
After a very satisfying day at Pulborough Brooks I returned to the Visitor Centre, feeling somewhat windblown but relieved that it had not rained at all the whole day.