Thanks to volunteer Gary for his regular Tuesday report...
A cold blustery wind, but I will put up with that for a look at the sun at last. A truly sparkling morning, but unfortunately the current batch of high tides had held up the rain water and was overtopping the banks of the Arun and was filling up the brooks. All hides were accessible but this may change.
Bullfinches once again looked so bright and clean in the morning sunshine (notice I said “morning sunshine”, because you can guess what's coming!) And some sleepy lapwing, wigeon and shelduck on the island in front of West Mead positively glowed. Winpenny was the crowd puller today with a short-eared owl sitting preening on the riverbank and a snipe in the drainage channel. Both were literally on show all day. A ruff made a brief visit just for variety. Many visitors left with a smile on their face.
With a darkening sky we made our way to Nettleys, passing some showy redwing and fieldfare, arriving just in time for a downpour. The juvenile peregrine swept back into its adopted tree to sit out the shower after being set upon by some lapwing as it tried to land on an island – wimp! The deepening water with less available grass means lots of pintail and shoveler, but fewer wigeon, teal and no black-tailed godwits at all. A flyover sparrowhawk and three buzzards appeared as soon as it stopped raining, and some long-tailed tits and goldcrests were showing well, but once again I missed the firecrest. News of a great white egret had us walk back to Nettleys, but it had flown by the time we got there, but there was some compensation in the form of a marsh harrier traveling up the river at warp speed with the wind behind it.
Interesting fact – if the juvenile peregrine survives the winter, it could be coming back to its tree for the next 11 – 15 years; what a nice thought.
Visitor Gareth Hughes managed to take some lovely photos of some of the ducks before the sky darkened!