We're getting ready for our Wild Winter open weekend which is taking place this weekend - Saturday 30 November & Sunday 1 December.  The weather is certainly suitably wild today - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will become bright and clear by the weekend!

But never mind the weather...the wildlife here at the moment is fantastic! By the end of our morning team 'huddle' we'd seen large numbers of ducks…

Recent Sightings Friday 1^st November – A Sandpiper Identification Challenge - thanks to volunteer Phil for his report and sightings

On this day West Mead provided a wonderful opportunity to study one of the more unusual wading birds that turns up occasionally at Pulborough Brooks.   A wood sandpiper was feeding around the pool margins and stayed all morning giving close views.

This is a species I’ve only seen a…

I hope that some of you have been to the nature reserve over the last month and enjoyed the fungi trail that we have set up around the wooded heath.

Since marmite on toast is my breakfast of choice, I've always been a fan of fungi - yeast is a magical thing!  And as I've learnt more about it, I've found it even more fascinating...such wonderful shapes & colours and amazing names.

But as well as providing…

Thanks to volunteer Phil for his report and photos.

This is the view from Nettey’s Hide taken a few days ago on one of those sunshine and showery days. 

However there is much more to be seen here than rainbows..

One of the comments we sometimes receive from visitors is that on the brooks you are often viewing wildlife at a considerable distance. Unfortunately building hides and access paths in the middle of a floodplain…

Whilst my previous blog post focused on the habitat management work at the reserve I thought that an update on the wildlife sightings was long overdue, so here's an overview of what's been seen over the past week or so.

As the water levels have been rising, the number of ducks has been increasing with good numbers of wigeon and teal now on site and a few shoveler and pintail in amongst them.

Teal are currently…

After an incredibly dry summer left many of our pools dried out, I can now report that we are well and truly a wetland again with recent rain having filled up all of the pools and ditches on the brooks.

We're still trying to finish off some of the habitat management work having to balance the desire to get the work done with the risk that we might get the tractor stuck! We'd still like to continue rotavating the edges…

The last week or so has seen a steady stream of migrating birds stopping off at the nature reserve to rest and refuel - treating us like a service station on their long southwards journey.

I was out and about yesterday morning leading a 'Birding for Beginners' session, introducing migration and some of the birds that we see here at this time of year. At the new (and as of yet un-named) viewpoint above Jupp's View we were…

All of us will have a particular moment or sign which signals the transition from summer to autumn.  For some it will be the swallows leaving our shores heading south, for others the first fairy-tale fly agaric toadstool popping up. Some may watch for the ripening of fruit and thinking of sloe gin or blackberry jelly. But for many it will be the changing colour, the transition from green to golden that announces the arrival…

Recent sightings Friday 16 August   Water vole toilets and the beginning of redstart season - thanks to volunteer Phil for his report and photos.

Visitors to the Wetland Discovery Zone through the small gate off Adder Alley may have noticed some small wooden platforms on the water surface in the ditches. These have been installed in the hope that they will be used by water voles which I now learn tend to leave their droppings…

Recent Sightings 5^th August – an update on Painted Ladies - from volunteer Phil.

Anyone reading my article from last month will be interested to know that in the last few days a fresh brood of painted lady butterflies seems to have emerged on the reserve.   This specimen was seen on 5^th August on the path between West Mead and Redstart Corner.  

This is a perfect area for painted ladies to lay eggs because there are…

On Saturday 3 August, we will be closing the car park at 5 pm.  There will be no access to the car park after 5 pm on Saturday and all cars must be off site by 6 pm.

The car park will re-open on Sunday morning at 8.30 am.

This closure is taking place as we have a special Big Wild Sleepout event that is being held at the reserve.

Thank you for your cooperation

We're now taking bookings for our ‘Inspired by nature’ workshop day; a combination of activities designed to get you closer to nature and behind the scenes at the reserve but also to explore your creative side with a choice of workshops. 

In the morning, you’ll have the opportunity to get closer to nature, with the chance to use special equipment and get ‘behind the scenes’ as our expert team takes you on…

Today's Pulborough Diary comes from Paula, our Visitor Experience Officer.

During a busy morning in the office I managed grab 10 minutes to myself and went for quick walk.

I didn’t have time to get to the wetland trail to spot the water voles or to check the Little ringed plover so I thought I would enjoy a peaceful moment with the wild flowers growing in abundance on the Zig Zag path.

As I wondered past the…

Recent Sightings Late June and July - The Amazing Painted Lady - a report and photos from volunteer Phil.

While walking between Canterbury and Dover on the North Downs Way on 21st June I started to become aware of several very faded painted lady butterflies in some large wildflower meadows crossed by the path. The following day while exploring some of the fortifications at Dover several more faded painted ladies could…

I’m pleased to announce that we now have a colony of White-letter hairstreaks on the reserve. Our first confirmed record on the reserve was from last year (photographed by regular visitor Matt), but this year we’ve seen several of them around the Elm trees at the top of the zig zag. We saw several on 30 June 2019 around the Elms near the minibeast mansion, including two males who were spiralling upwards in a territorial…

A brief lunchtime wander on the heathland proved to be delightful with many insects enjoying the warm weather and the bare sandy patches that have been created around the heath.  After being bombarded with bits of pine cone by a squirrel who was munching happily at the top of one of the pines, I wandered down the heathland zig zags where every bare patch of sand was covered in small volcano-like mounds of sand. Our wasps…

Thanks to volunteer Phil for his report and photos.

Recent Sightings – Tuesday 4^th and Friday 7^th June – Operation Redshank

In recent years careful management of the reserve has resulted in a greater number of redshanks breeding on the site.  However it is usually difficult to observe their behaviour and judge their success as they tuck their nests away in secretive locations such as dense grass or rush.

Within…

I just wanted to share these lovely photos taken by one of our volunteers, Graham Osborne. Graham can often be found out and about chatting to visitors and showing them some of our lovely wildlife on a Sunday.

One of the lovely redshank chicks at West Mead

Water voles have been showing well at Redstart corner pond and can also be seen on our Wetland Discovery trail which has re-opened for the summer. We've put out some…

Thanks to volunteer Phil for his entertaining report on his 'Hides & Trails' duties...

Birdwatching en francais

In these Brexit benighted times it was great on a recent Hides and Trails session to be able to welcome 4 international visitors from Europe to Pulborough Brooks.

I was sitting in Little Hanger Hide enjoying a quiet lunch and watching a pair of whitethroats going in an out of the bramble bush at…

A lovely morning for my third breeding bird survey today (albeit a little chilly at 6 am!).  My 'patch' is the wooded heathland part of the nature reserve so I spent a good 3 hours this morning exploring the area and mapping out all of the birds that I could see and hear.

Let's start by saying it is a good job that I am fond of wrens - I think there are more wrens in this area than all of the other birds put together…

Inspired by Nature wildlife drawing workshop with Emily Summers - Saturday 15 June

Spend a day learning how to capture on paper the colours, textures and movement of wildlife in this workshop led by Emily Summers, artist behind Miss Magpie Wildlife Art. You’ll be shown basic drawing techniques that can be applied to any subject, and have the opportunity to work on a detailed piece inspired by the wildlife here at Pulborough…

Recent Sightings - late April to early May – Wader season and the Seven Whistlers - thanks to volunteer Phil for his update and photos.

Since my return from my annual Scottish holiday 3 weeks ago I’ve seen several interesting waders dropping in to the reserve on the Spring migration. These include greenshank, green sandpiper, common sandpiper, avocet, black tailed godwit and there have been reports of wood sandpiper…

Over the next two days (Thursday 9 & Friday 10 May) we'll be playing host to Matt Sewell who will be our 'artist in residence' as part of the Horsham District Year of Culture 2019.

Come along and see Matt in action creating two murals depicting two of our most iconic species here at Pulborough Brooks - the nightingale and the lapwing.

I'll be really excited to see them taking shape....

Artist, illustrator…

Just a very quick post to celebrate the arrival of our first nightingale of the year. Reports of a male singing briefly around Hanger View/Little Hanger hide - he'll be warming up ready for our Night-time safari and Dawn Chorus events later this week.  Feeling delighted (and a little relieved)!

Thanks to volunteer Phil for his report and photos...

There seems to be a debate every year about whether Spring starts on 1^st March or the equinox around the 21^st.  On either measure we have now arrived in Spring. Happily, our wildlife cares nothing about our human debates and just gets on with what it does best at this time of year.

On Friday in warm sunshine I was much cheered by my first sighting of orange tip butterflies…