Following on from the first of my weekly wildlife challenges last week, there has certainly been a significant arrival of fieldfare with several hundred being reported in groups of varying sizes around the reserve yesterday. I had lovely views of a group of 30 or so perched in the hedgerow close to West Mead hide, before they took off with a flash of silvery underwings and chack -chack- chack calls.
In front of West Mead hide our wardens and volunteer work party have been 'experimenting' to create some pools and surface water close to the hide. The hope is that we can draw in some of the ducks and waders that bit closer to the hide so you can get even better views of them. The mallard and teal already seem to be responding, but I'm hopeful that the sneaky snipe will find this nice boggy, tussocky area and make full use of it in weeks to come.
Just as a little taster...here's a photo of a snipe taken by one of our volunteers Chris:
A fabulous day for birds of prey yesterday with the marsh harrier and peregrine regularly creating chaos on both the South and North Brooks. The lapwing, wigeon and teal are a great warning system for us up at the centre - if we see clouds of birds suddenly whirling around it's time to pick up the binoculars and see who is disturbing them - and we've had some wonderful views of the marsh harrier particularly with the sun shining and highlighting its pale/golden head.
We've also had a couple of woodcock sightings over the past week. Best seen as it is getting dark - but not so dark that you can't see - these beautiful birds leave their daytime roosts in the wooded heath and head out to feed in the wetland areas. The car park is a good a place as any to see one.
The arrival of woodcock also signals the arrival of other birds, leading me to this week's wildlife challenge - the goldcrest or 'woodcock pilot'.
The goldcrest is a titchy bird with a yellow mohican! You can find them here at any time of year but over winter we often see them in greater numbers. Despite it’s tiny size (it weighs about the same as a 20 pence piece) some goldcrests migrate, crossing the North Sea, and often arrive with an influx of winter thrushes and woodcock.
Legend has it that this cheeky little bird hitches a ride in the woodcock’s plumage, emerging from their feathers on reaching dry land – hence a common name for the goldcrest was ‘woodcock pilot’. (I’m picturing this every time I see a goldcrest now, aviator goggles included!)
Here at Pulborough Brooks the best spot to see them (and hear their squeaky little calls) is in the patches of conifers on the heath or down in Fattengates courtyard. At this time of year they will also fraternise with the noisy parties of tits who roam the woodland searching for food.
They can look a little sad (see the photo from Chris below) with a slightly downturned mouth, but I like them best when you find a couple of them having a bit of an 'altercation' - their crests are raised and splay out and you get such a splash of the incredible flame-like colours.
So your challenge this week is to find a goldcrest, and if you can to photograph it. I've never managed the latter - they never seem to stay still (fungi is so much easier!)
And don't forget that if you are out and about here or anywhere in the South Downs National Park this week with a camera you can enter our South Downs Futurescape Photo Competition. Take a look at the competition details on our South Downs Futurescape web page: http://www.rspb.org.uk/futurescapes/southdowns/photo-competition.aspx
Let me know how you get along...