Thanks to volunteer Phil for his update and photos.

Summer is often seen as the quiet season for birdwatchers but in fact there is so much to enjoy for people prepared to wait and observe.  Everywhere there are signs of new life of various sorts.

On Thursday I conducted my last lapwing survey of the spring monitoring season and found a good crop of fledged or nearly fledged youngsters on the South Brooks, distinguished…

A Brimstone butterfly enjoying a red campion - photo by volunteer Anne.

This year's National Meadows Day is promising to be the biggest yet, with up to 100 events taking place across England, Scotland, N. Ireland and Wales in celebration of ancient wildflower meadows and their wildlife.

We’ll be taking part here at Pulborough Brooks nature reserve, holding a ‘Wild in the Meadow’ bioblitz on Saturday 2 July, searching…

Very excited when I came in this morning to find some lovely hawkmoths in our moth trap - a perfect result for national moth night!

We recorded around 50 different species of moth including 5 types of hawkmoth from last night's survey - can't wait to show them to my guests at this evening's night-time safari event!

The ones featured above are a lime hawkmoth and two poplar hawkmoths.

Recent Sightings  Friday 27^th May  - thanks to volunteer Phil for his update and photos

With warm sunshine and only a light breeze all day everything seemed set fair for one of those wonderfully varied and days that we sometimes have at this time of year.  This is one of my favourite times on the reserve as various colourful insects and flowers start to become prominent alongside the birdsong and young birds

An early walk…

Thanks to volunteer Phil for his report.  Phil helps us to monitor the breeding lapwings as well a being one of our regular 'hides & trails' volunteers.

The lapwing is one of the iconic species of Pulborough  -  this beautiful bird appears on much of our signage and sometimes heads up our web pages. 

And yet the report from Anna and Gary on the Breeding Bird Survey only mentioned lapwings as lunch for our…

Volunteers Gary & Andy and I were out and about early on Tuesday morning to complete our breeding bird surveys around the nature trail, on the wooded heath and at Rackham Woods.  As we wander around the trails we're looking and listening out for all the birds, marking out their locations and possible territories on maps. We follow the same route at least 3 times through the breeding season, hoping that we'll move from…

I have started to notice a pattern...

Bank holiday Mondays seem to be doomed to disappointing weather; Storm Katie on Easter Monday and a rather gloomy start for May Day bank holiday. But it's not all doom and gloom - we have also been visited by some rather exciting birds who perhaps also feel they have a long weekend and will go exploring on the bank holiday. Easter Monday saw the arrival of the American Wigeon and…

Thanks to Gary for his report and photos from Tuesday.

As soon as I opened the car door in the car park I could hear a nightingale singing, and on the trail proper, at least five could be heard at various places, including a ridiculously tame one on adder alley that was more intent on feeding than worrying about people – so much for them being skulking!

Also on adder alley was a mating ball of grass snakes.…

Recent Sightings Friday 15^th April – Singing in the rain - thanks to volunteer Phil for his sightings update.

This turned out to be an unseasonably wet and cold day which just became worse as the day wore on.  After the sunshine earlier in the week I’d had high hopes of admiring the blossom on the blackthorn bushes particularly down the zigzag path.    The blossom was indeed out and well worth seeing on a sunny…

One of our Pulborough Brooks nightingales - photo from Mike Beck.

Our most celebrated songsters, the nightingales, have arrived! Today, one was singing beautifully at the top of the zig zag path today, and 'adder alley' is once again proving to be a popular spot.

One of our most eagerly anticipated arrivals each spring, this wonderful bird makes the journey from Africa, south of the Sahara, to Pulborough Brooks…

Recent Sightings – Friday 8^th April   'Downsizing for Spring and Summer' - thanks to volunteer Phil for his report and photos

I returned on Friday from a holiday on the beautiful Isle of Mull where I’d been watching the UK’s largest birds of prey, white tailed and golden eagles.  What a contrast as I stepped out from the Visitor Centre to be greeted by lots of birdsong from our returning spring…

Linnet by Chris Prince

Whilst you might not think there is a great deal of farmland at Pulborough Brooks, we’re managing the wet grassland as a traditional grazed flood meadow which makes it suitable for a range of farmland birds such as lapwings, skylarks and meadow pipits.

Over the past couple of years we have also been managing Upperton’s Field to support farmland birds, especially finches and buntings. Many…

 Recent Sightings Monday 14^th and Friday 18^th March– Spring in the air, or is it? Thanks to volunteer Phil for his update

 I was up very early on Monday morning for the monthly Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS). I had the good fortune to accompany one of our wardens out on the “wilds” of the South Brooks in glorious sunshine with the overnight chill being rapidly banished by the sun.

It soon became clear that…

Great news. The presence of Little whirlpool ram’s horn snail Anisus vorticulus means that the Arun Valley has now been given protection under European Law as a Special Area of Conservation. (Find out what we are doing to defend these laws).

The Arun Valley SAC (which covers both Pulbrough Brooks and Amberley Wildlbrooks) is one of only 3 SAC sites in the UK that have been designated for this species.

The Lesser…

Just a quick message to let you know that our shop will be shutting at 3 pm next Tuesday ( 22 March) for end of year stock take. The cafe will remain open until 4.30 pm as normal.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Thanks to Gary for his report from Tuesday 08 March

The first bird of the day was a bit of a surprise. As we were chatting in the visitor centre by the window, a red-legged partridge flew across the field just beyond the pond; this is the first time I have seen one here for ages. I assume it had been feeding with the pheasants and stock doves in the arable field. A peregrine could be made out zooming across the south…

Thanks to volunteer Phil for his report and photos

Recent Sightings Friday 26 February – In the right place at the right time…..

…..or not as the case may be.   Despite a bright start at Hails View, picking out a dunlin amongst several hundred lapwing, it seemed for most of the time to be one of those days when I was never in the right place. I spent much of the morning stationed at The Hanger and 

Thanks to volunteer John for his report from Friday.

It was a morning of glorious sunshine and freezing temperatures. When I left the house it registered minus one and by the time I reached the reserve it was zero. But with the sun shining it felt a lot more and the car park was alive with birds singing in the trees. Chaffinches chupped and greenfinches wheezed and the mournful sounding robin was there to greet me…

Thank you to Gary for his  report and photos.

What a beautiful sparkling day to return to Pulborough after a month away, and to welcome me back a male bullfinch in the trees next to the visitor centre positively glowed in the sunshine.

Nettleys hide looked a good bet to start the day, and so it was. A water rail was squealing from the rushes and luckily it decided to root around in full view in the small pool on the…

First signs of the changing seasons?   Recent Sightings 12 February from volunteer Phil.

Another wet day and another morning dash to Nettley’s Hide to escape the rain. On the way however I stopped briefly to admire bullfinches at the top of the zigzag path – they seem to be quite prominent around the reserve just now.

Bullfinch by Anne

Also on the field to the right of Green Lane a large flock of redwings…

Thanks to volunteer Phil for his report and photos  - Friday 29^th January

This was to prove a difficult day for birding as the southern flank of Storm Gertrude hit with a vengeance bringing low cloud, heavy drizzle, high winds and poor visibility. West Mead and Winpenny Hides were most affected as they were facing the south westerly wind, and birding was very difficult from there. However I drew the long straw with my…

Thanks to volunteer Phil for this report and photos

Brown Hairstreaks – Looking Forward to Summer. Thursday 28^th January

This might seem a strange subject for January but nevertheless very topical.  

The brown hairstreak is a scarce butterfly and we are fortunate to have a colony on the reserve. The adult insects fly in late summer up to the end of September and are hard to spot as they prefer to feed on aphid…

Here's Friday's report and photos, courtesy of volunteer Phil...

A damp walk to Nettleys Hide in the morning led to being trapped there by heavy rain for several hours.  Despite this the water level in the North Brooks had dropped considerably during the cold dry spell but even with the warmer temperature there was still some ice on the water’s edge.  There was plenty of bird activity to keep me occupied…

Monday morning saw a brave team of staff and volunteers (not me I’m sorry to say) heading out whilst still dark and very cold to perform our monthly Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS). WeBS is a national scheme where wetlands throughout the country are surveyed once a month and the resulting species counts used to monitor population trends amongst our wetland birds.

This Monday, amongst the hundreds of wigeon, teal, pintail…

Thanks to volunteer John for his update and to Phil for the accompanying photos.

No it's not quite the TV series but if this cold snap continues we could have even more snipe showing really well when they are driven out on view as the water freezes. Just as what happened almost a week to date last year captured in Phil's excellent photograph.

'Our' short eared owls continue to thrill with up to three hunting…