Gary reports on his day out in the rain!
At Pulborough Brooks today before the rain – several parasol mushrooms are pushing skywards through the grass near the pond at the bottom of the zigzag path. Also, two very active spotted flycatchers, a whitethroat and a male and female redstart were on show behind West Mead hide; a little further on at the appropriately named redstart corner, yes you've guessed it – three more redstarts and a willow warbler. Before diverting into Winpenny hide to avoid the rain, there were two more redstarts along the hedge line behind adder alley. The driving rain made the viewing difficult from the hide, but two snipe were briefly seen in flight before we decided to brave the rain and make a dash to Nettleys.
Redstart - taken through scope with phone.
At Nettleys at least four common sandpipers and two green sandpipers were visible through the grey blur of rain. With nothing better to do we stuck it out, and thankfully it paid off with a good view of a whinchat and some yellow wagtails, including a cracking proper yellow one. With the extra water, wildfowl numbers are rising with perhaps 50 teal among the mallard, plus a single shoveler. The rain had driven down many hirundines with perhaps as many as 300; at one point I counted 72 house martins next to one another on the fence wires. To finish, a rather grey looking tatty buzzard flew past which summed up the weather rather well I thought, but not the quality of the birds.