A recent sightings report from volunteer Gary.

At a beautiful sunny Pulborough Brooks today (Tuesday) – from West Mead hide, two stonechat, two chiffchaff and one blackcap along with teal and close views of glossy green lapwing in the sunshine. The trees at Redstart Corner held my first two fieldfare of the Autumn and another chiffchaff. The fence line near Winpenny was still holding a female redstart and by its frequent…

A report on Friday's sightings from volunteer Phil:

Setting out on the trail in the morning revealed a most astonishing sight. All of the taller plants between the hedgerows down the zigzag path, and some of the hedgerow shrubs were covered in spider’s webs. I had seen nothing of these the week before but surely all these webs could not have just suddenly appeared in a huge web building orgy? The answer of course…

I took a brief walk on the heath this afternoon seeking out new fungi to label for our festival of fungi trail. 

There's some fabulous green elf cup - both the stained wood and the tiny green cups, beautiful amethyst deceivers and lilac bonnets.  There are also some less attractive specimens - the aptly named ugly milkcap and the brown rollrim. 

Following a tip off from Jim I took a look around the timber stacking…

A recent sightings update from volunteer Gary

Surprisingly I didn't get wet at Pulborough Brooks today. On the north brooks, wigeon numbers have increased dramatically from last week and will soon be the most numerous duck present although teal are giving them a run for their money.

Mallard, pintail, gadwall and shoveler making up the also rans. Six snipe, one dunlin and perhaps 200 lapwing the only waders on visible…

Recent sightings and photos - Friday 2nd October from volunteer Phil

On first arriving at Nettley’s Hide in the morning the first impression was of large number of geese moving in and taking over.   I estimated there to be about 300 Canada geese and 100+ greylags. Then I became aware of my first wigeon of the autumn with good numbers visible – perhaps 100 with some teal and a few mallard mixed in. I scanned for any…

Thank you to Margot for her sightings update and photos:

"There is a fascination with looking at nature in sufficient detail to accurately identify the species & the behaviour taking place. A highlight for me over the last week of Indian Summer was a couple of mating Field Grasshoppers on a path on the heath. It was not until I returned to the Visitor Centre to examine the photo of a single Field Grasshopper that I realised…

We're currently preparing for what we hope will be a busy weekend on Saturday 10 & Sunday 11 October. 

Not only do we have our binocular and telescope weekend running with expert help on hand and a great range of equipment to try, but on the Saturday we'll be joined by Mike Dilger! For anyone who isn't familiar with Mike, he is a British ecologist, ornithologist and television presenter who best is known…

If you have hungry birds visiting your garden then you'll be pleased to learn that from 1st October - 20 October we'll be offering a 20% discount on our 12.75 kg sacks of bird feed (with the exception of the premium peanuts).

Out on the reserve at the moment we're seeing large flocks of goldfinches, including many juveniles who have not yet developed those distinctive red and black facial markings. 

To…

Tuesday's wildlife sightings from volunteer Gary...

"At Pulborough Brooks another cracking day but with a chill wind, just like a supermarket freezer section at the hanger, but a Mediterranean beach when you were out of the wind.

The day started well with bullfinch, blackcap and whitethroat eating blackberries and sunning themselves on the zigzag, and 30+ meadow pipits in the long grass and posing on the deer…

We are definitely in the Autumn now. The swifts have gone and the swallows and house martins are massing over the reserve ready to follow. Others like this spotted flycatcher, typically posed on an open perch ready to grab insects in mid air, is feeding up to fuel its journey to south of the Sahara.

But probably the record for the 'furthest travelled' went to three non avian visitors from Australia last week who were…

A recent sightings update from volunteer Gary.

A very wet and windy day at Pulborough Brooks, although to start with it looked promising as we walked down to Westmead with the occasional bullfinch, blackcap, chiffchaff and whitethroat popping up. Shoveler, teal and mallard were contentedly sleeping, so we left them to it. A spotted flycatcher was busy behind adder alley along with some assorted warblers, but before we…

Just letting anyone who is planning a visit on Tuesday 06 October know that the visitor centre (shop and café) will be shutting at 3 pm.  This will allow our staff and volunteers to carry out a stock take.

Before 3 pm, the shop and cafe will be open as normal with lunches available in the café from 12 noon til 2.30 pm. The toilets will be accessible until 5 pm as normal and the car par and nature trails open too…

Firstly, thank you to everyone who came along to our National Moth Night event last weekend - it was great to see so much enthusiasm for our night creatures!

We began by taking a closer look at the moths we had caught over the previous night - and a very fine selection we had too - including a splendid Clifden nonpareil (also known as a blue underwing). 

This large moth is  a pretty rare migrant species, thought to…

"Since childhood I have loved watching the gigantic and almost Jurassic, Emperor Dragonflies zip over the waters of my local rivers, the Arun and Rother, protecting their territories from invaders or watching in awe at the silence and grace of Little Egrets as they gaze across the rippling water looking for any slight movements that could mean lunch! If you are like me and love your local rivers and want to get involved…

Tuesday's sightings from volunteer Gary.

At a windy Pulborough Brooks today, lots of work going on, mainly to improve viewing from Netleys hide, so most birds had moved farther away. About eighty lapwing, seven dunlin, one green sandpiper and one little stint (briefly) made up the wader count, and the wildfowl consisted of mallard, teal, shoveler, gadwall together with literally hundreds of canada and greylag geese…

Pulborough Brooks Recent Sightings Friday 11^th September from volunteer Phil

Patience is rewarded ...

..especially when it comes to wildlife watching.   Arriving in West Mead hide in warm sunshine everything seemed to be still in that quiet summer phase with just a few mallard to be seen out on the water.   The management works that usually take place at this time of the year were evident as the vegetation on the islands…

Bright blue sky welcomed me to Pulborough brooks this morning but the wind was still a little cool. The arable field in front of the visitor centre is awash with colour from seed bearing flowers and looks fantastic. This should be a great food resource for winter finches – oh no, did I mention the W word!

Every elderberry bush seemed to contain one or more blackcaps giving themselves away with a repeated hard …

Here is Tuesday's report from volunteer Gary.

At Pulborough Brooks today the expected waders were in short supply, just a single green and common sandpiper, but the raptors made up for it. The first was a red kite slowly making its way over the south brooks this was closely followed by a peregrine carrying some hapless prey item. A sparrowhawk then scattered some wood pigeons as it cruised a hedgeline looking for…

Around a quarter of all our mammal species are bats and they are fascinating creatures!

Find out why bats are so brilliant and try to track some down on the reserve with the help of our friendly leaders and our bat detectors!

Laurie, who will be running this great event, helps out at a Sussex bat rescue hospital and she will be bringing along one of the residents to give you a unique opportunity to get up close and personal…

Gary reports on his day out in the rain!

At Pulborough Brooks today before the rain – several parasol mushrooms are pushing skywards through the grass near the pond at the bottom of the zigzag path. Also, two very active spotted flycatchers, a whitethroat and a male and female redstart were on show behind West Mead hide; a little further on at the appropriately named redstart corner, yes you've guessed it – three more…

Well not many of us do if it is pouring rain! And so started the day when I stood in for Sarah, one of our regular volunteer guides, who was taking a well deserved break after working all weekend at Bird Fair 2015.

The North Brooks yielded teal, mallard and lapwing plus a large flock of canada geese and a few greylag. A single green sandpiper and two little ringed plover formed their own group and in amongst the geese…

Gary's report from a Tuesday at Pulborough Brooks

"At a grey and overcast Pulborough Brooks today the most notable feature was the number of canada geese on view from the Hanger; I got to 550 when wave after wave of even more came in from the South Brooks. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a thousand of them. They seemed to be attracted to the new mud created by the digger which is ditch clearing and re-profiling…

A rather dull but warm day at Pulborough Brooks today with the occasional light rain shower, but the birds didn’t seem to mind. Near west mead a very purposeful hobby flew low overhead straight down the valley and as we approached adder alley a mixed flock consisting of mainly whitethroats and chiffchaff entertained us for a while. At the hanger the ditch clearing mechanical digger was in full swing but the four green…

"Visitors often ask, somewhat apologetically, whether they will be able to see much if they cannot go far from the Visitor Centre. I have the same problem, as I do not go far during my lunch break; so that I know the answer is a very definite yes, you will probably see plenty.

The pond outside the Visitor Centre is a good spot for watching underwater species, such as newt eft, or young newt. It is also usually a relaxing…

Laurie and I are just about recovering from out two night Big Wild Sleepout extravaganza...

Over the weekend 75 visitors camped with us in the wildlife explorer meadow and met all sorts of night creatures out on the nature reserve.

We began with an evening pond dip finding water stick insects, backswimmers, mayfly, caddis fly, damselfly and dragonfly larvae amongst other goodies. At the moment there seems to be an…