Thank you to volunteer Graham for his report and photographs.
The weather forecast suggested that there would be rain showers at Pulborough Brooks on Sunday. However, I am pleased to say that my raincoat stayed unused in my rucksack as the weather remained fine all day.
Soon after setting out on the Wetland Trail I diverted for a short while to the meadow by the yurt. The colourful display provided by the Meadow Cranesbill
was supplemented by the presence of a good selection of invertebrates, including an Ant Damselbug nymph on an Oxeye Daisy,
a Sphaerophoria sp. hoverfly
and a female Long-winged Conehead nymph.
I made my way towards West Mead, but before reaching the hide I came across a group of visitors who were using spotting scopes to view one of our resident White-tailed Eagles that was sitting in a distant tree to the south. One of our regular Sunday visitors, Mark, also spotted a Hobby perched on a nearer branch, but it flew off shortly afterwards. Having enabled a couple of younger visitors to view the eagle through my scope set at a low level, I moved into West Mead Hide. Almost as soon as I entered I spotted a low flying Hobby that quickly passed to the south of the hide, giving a fleeting view to a small number of visitors. Soon after this the eagle left its perch and flew off to the west. It was some distance away when it was joined in the air by the other White-tailed Eagle, and the two of them were subjected to some harassment by a Common Buzzard before they flew off to the north.
Closer to the hide most of the aerial action was provided by Black-headed Gulls, including a locally-bred juvenile
and an adult chasing off a juvenile Grey Heron.
I moved on to Redstart Corner where a visitor kindly pointed out a Peacock butterfly posing conveniently for a colourful portrait.
On the grasses by the pond a Brown Argus presented another attractive target.
At the near edge of the pond there was a single small spike of Yellow Loosestrife. While I was there a male Yellow Loosestrife Bee made a number of brief visits to the flowers, and occasionally perched on a leaf.
A visit to the Ditch Dipping Ponds provided views of a good range of Damselflies, including both Red-eyed species. I was still there when Anna radioed to let me know that regular visitor Mike had found a Wasp Spider on Adder Alley. Fortunately, while I was unsuccessfully trying to track this down, Mike himself returned and quickly pointed it out to me. Mike noted that since he had originally found it it had captured and wrapped up some unfortunate prey.
I eventually reached Hanger View, where I stayed long enough to find some waders (Avocets, Black-tailed Godwits, Greenshank and Little Ringed Plovers) to show to a few visitors before heading back to the Visitor Centre.