Thank you to volunteer Phil for this brilliant report praising the importance of ivy!
Any reader who visited on Friday will probably be expecting something entirely different about a very unusual bird sighting. However I make no apology for giving pride of place to one of my favourite features of the reserve. This is the ivy bush at the far end of Fattengates Courtyard to the left of the locked gate. For me this represents the best of Pulborough Brooks, ie the way that the reserve changes throughout the year highlighting different wildlife. For people wanting to know about the unusual sighting please carry on reading.
Ivy bushes are a wonderful resource for various types of wildlife. The fruit is eaten by small birds in spring. The caterpillars of various moth species eat the leaves. In September the greenish flower umbels appear and are an extremely rich source of nectar for hoverflies, bees, butterflies and, where present, hornets. As a result on Friday the Fattengates bush, in a sunny, sheltered spot, untouched by the slightly autumnal breeze, was buzzing with all of these types of insect and presented a delightful spectacle.
The hornets often seem the most interesting as they are larger, not so often seen, and, with their bright yellow abdomens, stand out more than other wasp and bee like insects. On Friday they were being a little coy in the shade between the leaves.
Many hoverflies could be seen on the flowers.
With over 200 species in the UK identifying these is not so easy if, like me, you are not an expert. However, my research suggests that right hand insect in the photo is actually an ivy bee (colletes hederae). This is a solitary bee, ie one that does not form social groups like the honeybee, that burrows into sand or loose earth to lay its eggs and is especially fond of the ivy nectar. It is a relative newcomer to the UK having only arrived in 2001.
The left-hand insect I think is a female eristalis arbustorum, a common hoverfly species.
Another prominent large hoverfly had very similar bright colouring to the hornets and this was rather easier to identify as a volucella inanis
There were also several red admiral butterflies on the bush, as there were in many other parts of the reserve. This one on the heathland perched on a visitor’s rucksack providing a very colourful scene.
Another sheltered sunny spot loved by butterflies is on the path down to Nettley’s Hide, just before the hairpin bend, with bramble bushes on the left and a grassy bank to the right. The brambles just like the ivy are a wonderful food resource for insects. Early in the summer the flowers provide a lot of nectar, but now butterflies love to feed on the ripe berries. Here a red admiral can be seen doing exactly that if you look carefully at its proboscis.
Red admirals are a migrant species and numbers increase in May and June as a result. These incomers then breed in the UK, with a new brood emerging from mid-August through to early October and most of the butterflies we are seeing now will be from this brood.
There were also several freshly emerged commas around the same bush and these can also be seen in various parts of the reserve. The 2nd brood for this species appears around August and September and some will hibernate over winter and appear in March next year.
There are still many dragonflies on the wing, most notably southern hawkers and common darters. I was hoping to find migrant hawkers, a late flying species peaking in September, but was unsuccessful. Reassuringly a colleague mentioned that he had been able to photograph one here a few days ago. The larger southern hawkers have a more general blue and green appearance which can still be seen in flight, whereas the migrant hawkers have more brown colouring mixed in so are not as easy to work out unless you see them perched in bushes.
On last Monday’s monthly Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) I had estimated there to be about 800 Canada Geese on the South Brooks. On Friday most seemed to be feeding on the North Brooks and presented quite a spectacle when disturbed by one of local graziers monitoring the cattle.
Not to be completely outdone 300+ greylags were also observed on the WeBS count.
Other notable sightings were 2 groups of snipe feeding quite openly on the North Brooks, along with several lapwing, 2 dunlin and a solitary black tailed godwit. Hobbies put on some excellent dragonfly hawking performances on both North and South Brooks. Buzzards and kestrels seemed to be everywhere. A sparrowhawk circled above the South Brooks and a marsh harrier and a raven were seen on the North Brooks. Smaller migrants seen included swallow, house and sand martins, wheatear, whinchat and I briefly sighted a redstart in an unusual place on thistles at West Mead. Yellow wagtails were also seen flying over the car park just before the WeBS count started early on Monday.
On Friday, arriving at The Hanger at about 12.15, I was immediately greeted by the sight of 2 very large white and black birds flying from the south, which then proceeded to circle around for a few minutes before drifting away to the east. They were easily identified as white storks but appear to have lost several feathers as if they were part way through moulting.
Anyone closely following the Sussex Ornithological Society (SOS) website will have noted several sightings of white storks in Sussex in recent weeks, including 2 reports from here in early August while I was away. At time of writing the most recent SOS report is from nearby Amberley, also on Friday 15th, so it seems likely that these will be the same birds.
The storks are described on the SOS website as being of questionable origin and my photos are too distant to determine if either has been ringed. The Knepp Estate, a few miles from Pulborough is currently running a white stork reintroduction programme with birds being bred from storks imported from Poland. Their website notes that one of the parent birds, which have their wings clipped, has “rewilded” itself and has a blue left leg ring. I have no evidence that the storks seen on Friday are escapees from Knepp.
The Knepp website also suggests that white storks were once a breeding bird in Britain, citing in evidence that the derivations of several place names, including the nearby Storrington, appear to refer to the presence of storks long ago. Records show that a few white storks come over from Europe each year, although there are no wild UK breeding records. They are well known as breeding birds in Eastern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula, and for their huge nests of sticks on trees and buildings which can be several feet high.
Whatever the origin of Friday’s storks I would recommend simply enjoying these magnificent birds if you are lucky enough to see them. So to finish, this photo of a white stork in prime condition was taken last November in the more normal location of the Algarve coastal flats.