Volunteers Gary & Andy and I were out and about early on Tuesday morning to complete our breeding bird surveys around the nature trail, on the wooded heath and at Rackham Woods. As we wander around the trails we're looking and listening out for all the birds, marking out their locations and possible territories on maps. We follow the same route at least 3 times through the breeding season, hoping that we'll move from singing and displaying birds in the earlier surveys, to signs of nesting and successful breeding as spring progresses. I took the wooded heath patch and was delighted to find spotted flycatcher and redstart, as well as plenty of vocal wrens!
Here is Gary's report from the nature trail...
What a fantastic morning for the Breeding Bird Survey at Pulborough Brooks today. Sunny, light wind and cool but slowly warming up as it clouded over as the day went on. As the season wears on, the nightingales are singing less often now, but very nice to see newly fledged green woodpecker, tree creepers, starlings and long-tailed tits. Most of the usual warblers were in good voice including common and lesser whitethroat, blackcap, garden, chiffchaff, sedge and willow. Bullfinch, chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch and linnet were also fairly obliging. Two cuckoos could be heard but remained out of sight.
With the survey route completed, I decided to have a look on the heathland and was rewarded with a singing redstart, the best place to see it without disturbance is on the south side of the tumuli near the two benches. The heathland ponds have newly emerged broad-bodied chasers and red damsel flies looking beautiful as their wings glint in the sunshine.
Later, joining some fellow volunteers for lunch in the picnic site, a female beautiful demoiselle damselfly and several butterflies including green veined white and small copper distracted us from our sandwiches.
Our lunch concluded, a spell at the hanger produced the usual peregrine digesting its own lapwing lunch (shame, but that’s nature for you), a low hunting hobby and a little ringed plover.
Also reported but not seen by me was a tawny owl and spotted flycatcher.
I'm going to hijack Gary's report again to add a few more butterfly records. I was very excited to spot a green hairstreak butterfly perched on the bramble along the heathland zig zags - my first record of this species in the 10 years I've been volunteering and working here.