Recent Sightings Friday 4^th November – Thanks to volunteer Phil for his report and sightings

After a fine start to the day, the Indian summer and very dry weather seemed to come to an abrupt end around 11.30 am on Friday. By this time I’d arrived at the Hanger to survey the army of geese out on the North Brooks but it then started spotting with rain.  Half an hour later in gathering gloom the rain set in and…

Thank you to Gary for his report and photos from last week.

After a promising sunny start, it soon deteriorated into another dull, cold and misty day at Pulborough Brooks. The arable field in front of the visitor centre is certainly doing its job with plenty of finches, including a flock of 10+ reed bunting enjoying the seeds. About 50 linnets are also commuting between the field and the south brooks. Nervous redwing…

A guest blog from 11 year old Lauren who visited this week with her Grandfather and our volunteer Phil.  Thanks to Phil for sending it in, his introduction and for the accompanying photos.

At Pulborough Brooks we are always very keen to encourage our young visitors as they will be the future of nature conservation.   Last  week I was asked by one of my old friends if I could give him a guided tour of the reserve.  He had…

Thanks to Gary for his report and photos.

What very odd weather at Pulborough Brooks today – rain, mist, sunshine, murk, cloud, but with one notable absentee – wind, which made it seem very quiet and eerie at times.

Things were off to a good start as I unloaded the car with a large flock of fieldfare ack-acking as they flew over the car park, and nervous flocks of redwing exploded from the bushes down the…

If you're popping in to see us soon, do be sure to scan the fence posts from West Mead hide - this beautiful little owl has been seen here on a few occasions over the past week or so.

Thanks to volunteer Graham for the photo (taken yesterday 23/10/2016)

And this little owl was not the only beauty seen yesterday - the first short-eared owl of the season was spotted too. 

Thanks to volunteer Gary for his report and photos from Tuesday 11 October

What a beautiful sparkling autumn day at Pulborough Brooks. As usual I kept my mobile to hand to try to keep a visual record of my sightings (of the things that keep still long enough!) I decided to try Hale’s View first, but apart from the grunting male fallow deer and several stonechat there was little to see apart from the magnificent fungi…

Recent Sightings 5^th and 7^th October – Winds of Change - Thanks to volunteer Phil for his report and photos

Driving to Pulborough down the M23 on Wednesday to help with a guided fungi walk I couldn’t help noticing the planes taking off from Gatwick across the motorway as this is not the usual direction.   It told of an easterly wind and emerging from the car  there was indeed a strong easterly detectable in…

Thanks to volunteer Gary for his report and photos

A beautiful sunny morning at Pulborough Brooks had more than a hint of autumn about it, and as I walked down the zigzag robins seemed to be ticking from every bush, and in the arable field goldfinches, meadow pipits and a small flock of linnets added to the autumn theme. West Mead was quiet due to the lack of water, but several stonechats could be made out and buzzards…

Popular children’s presenter, Naomi Wilkinson, will be visiting RSPB Pulborough Brooks on Sunday 2 October, to help local children get even closer to nature.

One lucky RSPB member will be treated to a personalised tour of the reserve with Naomi, presenter of CBBC’s Naomi’s Nightmares of Nature. Charlotte, aged 7, entered the Wild Walk with Wilkinson competition in the charity’s Bird Life magazine and won the opportunity…

Thank you to volunteer Phil for his report and photos!

Recent Sightings Friday 16^th September – The Resident Peregrine 

Another autumnal Friday after overnight storms, saw a Northerly wind providing a chill factor particularly to the North Brooks, in complete contrast to the heatwave of earlier in the week.

Nevertheless the Hanger provided excellent views of the resident peregrine which on this occasion chose…

Thanks to Gary and Andy for leading our event on Tuesday and for their report.

What a nice group of people joined the Birding for Beginners morning at Pulborough Brooks today. Luckily the first birds to show themselves were a huge twittering mass of perhaps 200 goldfinches at the bottom of the zigzag, but as the focus for the day was migrants, a spotted flycatcher behind West Mead was an appropriate find.

Spotted…

Thanks to volunteer Phil for his update - and his dedication.  Glad that you finally found your elusive butterfly!

Anyone reading my article from 26 August will know about my search for the elusive brown hairstreak butterfly.  On Friday, after 3 late summers of searching, I finally caught up with one on a day that had started very cloudy and drizzly and I’d written off as a non-butterfly day.

Rounding the corner…

Thanks to volunteer Gary for his report and photos from this week's rounds...

A cloudy but dry start after a very warm and humid night, but still t-shirt weather.  There was a large ‘charm’ of about 70 goldfinch on the way to West Mead but otherwise it was fairly quiet.  Unfortunately The cattle were still some way off, but a flock of at least 30 yellow wagtails could be made out walking between their feet…

Thanks to volunteer Phil for his sightings report and photos.

My colleague Gary reported earlier in the week about autumn arriving on what was actually a beautiful warm late summer’s day.  This was of course from a bird migration point of view but seemed incongruous regarding the weather.  Today the weather proved decidedly autumnal and I quickly abandoned any ideas about resuming my search for the elusive brown…

Thanks to Gary for his report and photos from Tuesday.

Would you believe it, another hot and sunny day at Pulborough Brooks.

First stop was West Mead to see if the little stint was present from the day before, but alas not. However, as compensation a greenshank was walking around in the diminishing pool of water and a party of four stonechat moved back and forth on the thistles. Further out, a pale buzzard and at least…

Thanks to volunteer Phil for his report and photos.

It pays to have a great deal of patience when it comes to wildlife watching and this day provided another good example.  After nearly a month away I returned to normal Friday duties with a mission to try to find one our iconic summer species, the brown hairstreak butterfly which is nationally very scarce and something I’ve not seen before in adult form. 

In January…

Thanks to volunteer Gary for his report and photo.

Green sandpiper at Winpenny Hide.

Another hot and sunny day at Pulborough Brooks. First stop was west mead and as I walked into the empty hide something flew very close to the windows and landed out of site to the left. I dashed down to the end and there it was; a juvenile cuckoo sitting on a fence post. It then moved further away but I managed to get someone else…

A lovely weekend of wildlife watching on the nature reserve. Visitors have been reporting a lovely mixture of birds, butterflies, dragonflies and reptiles around the trails.  

It seems that autumn is on its way as far as the birds are concerned with wheatear, whinchat and spotted flycatcher all putting in an appearance of the weekend. There's also been a nice selection of waders over the last few days - little stint …

I'm delighted to report that I just spotted a very lovely leaf cutter bee (Megachile centuncularis) making very good use of the urban bee nester that we put out earlier in the year in our courtyard garden.

These bees cut neat semicircles from leaves with their large jaws and use them to make sausage shaped nest cells - in this case using the specially designed bamboo tubes for support. This is the female who has…

This week's sighting report from Gary comes in the form of photos!

Green sandpiper

Common blue

Painted lady

Purple hairstreak

Brown hairstreak

And here's some extras from the last few days:

Wood sandpiper, marsh harrier, spotted flycatcher, yellow wagtail, peregrine, hobby, lesser whitethroat, white stork (Sunday).

Ruddy darter, black darter, brown hawker dragonflies - take a look around black…

Bringing you a recent sightings update based on the photos that have been sent in by visitors and volunteers!

Firstly, the birds...

Green sandpiper by Gareth Hughes

Little ringed plover by Gary Trew

Peregrine by Gary Trew.

West Mead hide has been particularly good over the past few days with green sandpiper, greenshank, dunlin and little ringed plover showing very well. Out on the heathland, by black pond we…

If you have visited over the past couple of weeks you may have seen some changes around the nature trail, and if you're planning on visiting over the next month you're likely to see plenty of activity too.  So, I thought it would be worth a bit of an update. 

You will have probably noticed several very large muddy puddles around the wetland trail over the past few months. Well these 'puddles' have now been clay…

Thanks to volunteer Gary for his report and photos.

The bright sunny morning soon deteriorated into rain, a quick look at Hails View produced two greenshank and two little-ringed plover, a flock of about fifty lapwing and a sparrowhawk but little else.  However, the ponds on the heath had several emperor dragonflies, four-spotted chasers and lots of azure damselflies. Walking through the woodland I had the curious site…

At last some sunshine - perfectly timed for my dragonfly and damselfly workshop on Monday.

At 11 am, 15 or so of our wonderful volunteers arrived to learn about these fascinating species. With Pulborough Brooks being the joint top RSPB nature reserve for its Odonata (dragons & damsels) with 26 species we had plenty to talk about and a lot to learn!

These fantastic creatures (well their ancestors at least) have been…

It won't be long now til our Big Wild Sleepout events and I'm getting excited!

We have some fantastic evening and overnight activities planned for the weekend of 29 & 30 July - including moth trapping, bat detecting, pond dipping, star gazing and mouse hunting.

Having set a moth trap for our Meadow bioblitz at the weekend, I know that there are some beautiful moths (like this poplar hawkmoth) on the reserve…