Thanks to volunteer Phil for his update and photos.
Summer is often seen as the quiet season for birdwatchers but in fact there is so much to enjoy for people prepared to wait and observe. Everywhere there are signs of new life of various sorts.
On Thursday I conducted my last lapwing survey of the spring monitoring season and found a good crop of fledged or nearly fledged youngsters on the South Brooks, distinguished by their stubby crests and slightly underdeveloped plumage.
There were also 2 redshank families each with 2 youngsters distinguished by their orange coloured legs. After recent years when redshanks seemed to have deserted Pulborough as a breeding site this was good news indeed.
Doing these surveys I am privileged to have permission to walk across the brooks to the river bank where I found my first marbled white butterfly of the year, observed several freshly emerged small tortoiseshells and found a mating pair of banded demoiselle damselflies. Skylarks were to be seen frequently emerging from the rushes and a snipe flew rapidly away disturbed by my presence.
Back on Friday for Hides and Trails one of staff in the shop asked me what had occupied the nest boxes outside the Visitor Centre door. She pointed out the cheeping and the yellow gapes that kept appearing at the nest box hole
These are house sparrows of which we have a good population around the Centre despite their national decline in recent years – more of them later.
On the other side of the Centre by the pond a moorhen was to be seen with 3 chicks, mostly feeding for themselves but maybe not entirely.
Going down the zigzag path I was struck by the large numbers of meadow brown butterflies that had emerged since I went on holiday. These are common butterflies of grassland and hedgerows but add a sense of life and movement to the vegetation.
I also discovered a large skipper – less common but also to be found in the same sort of areas
At Fattengates there was much blackcap and garden warbler song but no birds to be seen.
At West Mead hide a kestrel hovered over the brooks and a little later a marsh harrier appeared before descending to make a kill. In the field behind the hide goldfinches were twittering and greenfinches “teez”ing. Then I started to catch snippets of conversation on the radio between the Visitor Centre and one of our wardens who was out on the South Brooks. From this I learned that a pair of barn owls has occupied a nest box on an oak tree west of Hail’s View. It is just about visible from the viewpoint about 300 yards away. The owls may have been forced to hunt in the daytime having lost the opportunity for overnight hunting with the recent wet weather. With wings that are not waterproofed wet weather can badly disrupt their hunting patterns.
All around the reserve various flowers are emerging. Most noticeable are the ragwort on which cinnabar moths will be laying eggs and in a few weeks we will be seeing the striped caterpillars that feed on these plants.
Also lots of thistles are emerging which provide a great nectar source for various insects.
At Hanger View some rather empty looking pools proved to be anything but. Four green sandpipers were to be seen on the water’s edge and then no less than 10 little ringed plovers could be seen half blending into the mud.
At Jupps View a hobby appeared briefly displaying its red “trousers” before I returned to the Visitor Centre.
Sitting outside with tea on the terrace I was mobbed by house sparrows cheekily trying to nip in and steal crumbs of cake – some of them succeeded. There is something rather appealing about these lively little birds, a few of which appeared to be rather fluffy youngsters
I took an end of day to stroll down to Hail’s View to see if the lapwings and redshank from Thursday were to be seen but they all appeared to be in hiding – maybe behind the tall rushes. However to my surprise a group of 6 black tailed godwits were feeding right in the middle of the main pool. We are so used to seeing large numbers of these birds in different plumage during autumn and winter that it makes a nice change to see the lovely red colour they develop on their breasts in summer.
A quiet day maybe but much to enjoy.