Thanks to Site Manager Julianne Evans for her report
A couple of days of rain have meant that the vegetation has suddenly shot up all over the site, particularly rush on the wet grassland. Controlling rush is really important because otherwise it would dominate the site and make it unsuitable for breeding waders. Each year, we try to mow the whole area of wet grassland at both Pulborough and Amberley as part of our rush control. This is already underway, because otherwise we wouldn’t fit it all in before the ground gets too wet in the autumn for a tractor to be out there, but we always check the fields we work on thoroughly first for any breeding birds.
Before long, we will also be surveying all our ditches to see how clogged up they are and prioritise which ones will need de-silting this autumn. This is another management technique for maintaining the conservation interest in the ditches as well on the fields. We have around 17km of ditches at Pulborough and even more at Amberley, so this is no small task.
Finally, we are continuing with the repairs to our fences and gateways following the deep winter flooding. The latter hardly seems possible now as the site has dried out significantly during this long spell of fine weather!
The good news is that it looks like our breeding waders have had a more productive breeding season than last year, including the first four avocets fledged. Crossed fingers they will return again next year.
THIS WEEK'S WILDLIFE SIGHTINGS
Birds: House sparrow, Dunnock, Chiffchaff, Whitethroat, Blackcap, Blackbird, Robin, Curlew, Grey heron, Avocet (2 adults and 4 well grown chicks), Cormorant, Mute swan, Lapwing, Coot, Woodpigeon, Jay, Magpie, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Herring gull, Buzzard, Little ringed plover, Widgeon, Long tail tit;
Butterflies: Meadow Brown, Small Copper, Large Skipper, Small Skipper, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Large White, Small Heath;
Large Skipper (Phil Thornton)
Dragonflies: Emperor, Four-spotted Chaser, Azure Damselfly, Blue-tailed Damselfly;
Emperor dragonfly (Phil Thornton)
Other wildlife: Water vole, Grassnake;