Thanks to volunteer Phil for his report and photos - Recent Sightings Friday 10 February
This was a day of unremitting gloom and drizzle with a significant wind chill to add to a general raw feel.
With black tailed godwit numbers possibly on the increase (c200 reported on Tuesday 7th), I struggled to find any in poor visibility. It was barely possible to see Pulborough Church tower which is always a bad sign. Eventually one of my colleagues spotted some godwits in flight, possibly spooked by a peregrine flypast quite close to Nettley’s Hide, but they soon disappeared into the mist.
So it was a day for looking for interest closer at hand. Happily the ditch in front of the hide provided just that. As I arrived the first thing I noticed was a water vole, my first sighting here, swimming across the ditch to the left and only visible for a few seconds. Happily, an hour later it reappeared and swam along the ditch towards the hide staying out in the open water just long enough for this photograph.
Its good to see this once common animal of the British countryside, which has declined dramatically since the 1970s, hanging on here.
Sometime later I found myself observing a small group of Canada geese near Winpenny Hide.
As these are common birds they don’t usually spark my interest but, with little else of note to see, I started observing them. You will see from the photo that one bird is standing upright and for the whole of 15 minutes feeding on the grass one bird, but not always the same one, was always standing in this position on top of a small mound of earth. I had the distinct impression that it was acting as a lookout for the others. I have no idea whether this was just my imagination or not, but it struck me as an interesting possible example of the geese co-operating in a small family unit.
Elsewhere on the reserve the only sightings of note were several bullfinches, a peregrine in the trees to the left of West Mead (as per last week), and a marsh harrier on the North Brooks. A snipe appeared in the patch of short brown of reeds in front and a little to the left of Nettleys Hide where a group had been visible last week. More shelducks were present and once again there was a good number of pintails.