Thanks to volunteer Phil for his sightings report and his photos.
Classical music lovers may recognise the allusion in my title to Frederick Delius’ music entitled “On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring”. The sound of the cuckoo is of course very evocative but is not representative of the arrival of our first migrant birds. I always think the arrival of the chiffchaff signals the wave of summer visitors to come.
I spent most of Monday in this area of Sussex for the monthly WeBS count and then an afternoon walk on the South Downs with no sound of the distinctive “chiff chaff” call, but on Friday it was everywhere around the reserve. So we can assume now that the spring migration is well under way.
Chiffchaff by Chris Prince
Of course we will probably be sufficiently bored with the repetitive chiffchaff within a week or so and it will cease to be evocative, so I am now looking forward to hearing the distinctive cuckoo in a few weeks’ time, along with our other summer warblers and nightingales.
In fact there had been another important migrant spotted a few days earlier on the North Brooks, this being a male garganey. Only small numbers of these ducks migrate to the UK from their winter quarters in Africa. The RSPB website suggests a maximum number of only about 90 pairs visit the UK each year. However Pulborough Brooks seems to be one of their favoured sites. I have never personally seen one here but, despite the fact that they are rather secretive, there were several sightings last summer and it is possible that they breed on the reserve.
Garganey - Chris & Juliet Moore
Another regular spring and summer visitor is the little ringed plover which may breed on the site. Three plovers were seen in the far distance on the North Brooks but they were so far away that even with my scope at maximum zoom I couldn’t be completely sure which type of ringed plover they were. The consensus was that these were mostly likely little ringed plovers. The larger ringed plovers do turn up here very occasionally but are much more likely to be seen on the coast. This photo of a little ringed plover was taken at West Mead 2 years ago. Note the yellow ring round the eye, which is absent in the ringed plover and therefore a good way to distinguish the species if it is close enough to observe.
Another notable sighting was red kite seen several times during the day in various parts of the reserve. There have been several sightings recently. There is a good population of these birds on the South Downs a few miles away and it may be that the kites are increasing in number and being forced to spread further afield to find new territories. This photo was taken on the Downs at The Burgh recently.
Lapwing display is continuing and our wardens and volunteers were busy erecting an extended temporary electric fence to protect a prime nesting area on the South Brooks. When this is finished in a few days time another fence is due to be installed around West Mead. These fences will be removed once the spring breeding season is over, thereby removing any further opportunity for predators such as foxes to work out means of how to get over or under them.
A pair of peregrines have been seen a lot at West Mead recently but there was no sign of them. It is possible that they have moved away to breed but they may have simply been disturbed by the nearby fencing works. Instead a single peregrine was to be seen in the afternoon perching on the usual willow tree, which appeared to have been deserted in recent weeks, and then flying out to disturb the ducks on the North Brooks. In this photo however the ducks seem remarkably undisturbed despite the peregrine watching from a fence post nearby.
We still have all the usual wintering wildfowl species present but numbers are gradually dropping.
Out on the heathland in the morning there was much drumming to be heard from great spotted woodpeckers, but they were keeping out of sight. Also the characteristic green woodpecker “yaffle” could be heard all over the reserve and I finally managed to spot one from the Hanger in the afternoon.
A water vole reassuringly put in a brief appearance in front of Nettley’s Hide in the afternoon, but there was no sign of last Friday’s common toads.
A flock of meadow pipits could be seen in the field behind Winpenny Hide. This seems to be a favourite spot, but it is advisable to look carefully for movement in the grass as they can almost completely disappear. This bird however conveniently perched on a fence post.
There were signs of a number of long tailed tits nesting around the reserve. This one was seen prominently behind West Mead recently.
Finally arriving back at the Visitor Centre in the afternoon a dunnock was singing loudly in the hedge by the path, possibly that same bird I’d photographed in the brambles just a few feet away in the morning.