Although a little late in the year, it would seem spring has definitely sprung! This spell of beautiful, warm weather we’ve been experiencing has caused an eruption of green on the reserve, with fresh vegetation sprouting everywhere you turn. While this does make watching the birds quite tricky, happily there are plenty of other creatures that have been keeping us occupied here at Pulborough.
On a trip out on to the heath earlier in the week, Anna encountered fearsome tigers! Don’t worry – I’m not talking about the stripy variety but the 6-legged, green variety. Green tiger beetles are one of our heathland specialists, equipped with long legs that allow them to hunt at super speed and a ferocious set of jaws for hunting their prey. Look for them on bare, sandy patches of ground when the sun is out; their glimmering emerald bodies will give them away.
During a stroll round the reserve on Thursday evening, I saw my first lapwing chicks of the year from West Mead hide. The adult birds were objecting to a family of Egyptian geese being so close and were causing all sorts of commotion, swooping, diving and pee-weeting at the geese and goslings, so I didn’t have to look far to find the chicks. I only located two at the time but we’ve had reports of up to seven chicks being seen from the hide this week, which would suggest the electric fence is doing its job of keeping out ground predators.
(Anne Harwood - taken in 2016)
On Tuesday, there was a flurry of excitement over the radio when one of our volunteers reported a weasel transporting her babies in her mouth across the pig run. Helen Wiggins sent us this ‘action shot’ on Twitter, which is a remarkably good photo considering how fast weasels can move! Judging from that pink, hairless skin, the babies look as if they are still quite new.
(Helen Wiggins)
Speaking of babies, our tawny owl chicks appear to have fledged. We obviously don’t know this for certain but we haven’t had a confirmed sighting since Wednesday, and it will have been two weeks this Saturday since they were first seen ‘branching’, which usually happens around the 4-week mark, so this is the time we would expect them to be taking their first flights. With the trees now in leaf, it’s much harder to see anything perched on the branches but it seems most likely that the chicks would have moved on with their mother, who will be busy teaching them to fly and hunt. We will continue to keep the seasonal path by West Mead roped-off unless manned by an RSPB staff member, until we can be certain there is no longer a risk of disturbance to these wonderful birds.
There are now plenty of dragonflies and damselflies emerging and patrolling the ponds and paths. Species include hairy dragonfly, four-spotted chaser, large red damselfly, broad-bodied chaser and azure damselfly. It’s worth checking the pond in Fattengates when you visit as we have seen a few chaser dragonfly nymphs lurking in there. You’ll notice our wardens have recently put some tall vegetation in this pond, giving the nymphs somewhere to attach to when they are eventually ready to emerge.
Azure damselfly (Gary Trew)
Four-spotted chaser (Graham Osborne - taken in 2017)
Other sightings across the reserve include greenshank, redshank, avocets, water vole, dunlin and hobby.