Cacophony of spring singing
Recent Sightings
Sunday
Buzzards displaying on Offham Hangar: they fly high then fold wings and plummet then fly up again. The male chased another pair away.
Four Mediterranean gull on islands near Sand Martin hide. Two had full breeding plumage with displaying going on, wing slightly up, puffed out chest walking around.
Monday
Sounds of spring – A cacophony rising on the reserve, the cries of black-headed gull mixed with the singing of robins, dunnocks, song thrush, Cetti’s warbler, great tits (teacher, teacher)
Spring behaviours: Goldfinches in hedgerows scouting nesting sites. Longtailed tits collecting spider webs at the building window to help construct their ball shaped nest giving them strength and flexibility.
At the hides Monday:
Ramsar Hide
- Pintail pair
- Pair of oystercatcher on wet grassland opposite Ramsar hide. 6 teal
- Five Lapwings, males taking to the air for display flights
- Many gulls passing through the reserve: black-headed, Mediterranean gull, common gull, herring gulls – some black-headed gulls will remain and breed on site.
Lapwing hide
- On the way to the hide I spot a pair of pochard on channels of the reedbeds of Wetland Discovery
- Greylag geese and Canada geese are now in pairs for the season.
- Five lapwing – a pair to the left of the hide, a pair to the right, when another displaying male shows up for a few tumbling display flights. On Sunday spotted a lapwing beating on a snipe, lapwing don’t like other waders in their territory
- Searching the edge of reed and sedge through binoculars I spot 3 snipe
- On pond across from the hide 4 gadwall, 2 teal, a water rail
Sand Martin Hide
- Black-headed gulls,
- shelducks
- lapwing displaying
- Overhead 4 male pochard chasing a female flying round in circles finally landing on the water’s near the Scrape Hide
- Med gull flying over
Scrape Hide
- 8 male pochard two female but males only chasing the one female.
- 4 tufted ducks
- A pair of shoveler ducks
- 2 shelduck
- 10 gadwall
- A little grebe
Reedbed hide
- On long path to the Reedbed boardwalk a blue tit is perched on scrub singing territory, likely using a nest box on Wetland Secrets building or in a dormouse nest box.
- Barely hear a reed bunting singing in all the cacophony of gulls and other song.
- See a blue tit near nest box #7.
- 3 male & 1 female mandarin ducks on tussock – these tree nesters will likely to use the nearby owl box hidden on the back of the tree
- Great tit singing in carr woodland section
- Whirligig beetles rippling the surface of the water having emerged from hibernation last week
- Ladysmock leaves and a few flower spikes visible.
Woodland Loop area
- Dunnock and robin singing
- A female and male great tit both emerge from the PGW nest box near the feeders
- Great spotted woodpecker flees the feeders
- Long tailed tit is on the peanut feeders with blue tits nearby.
- Inside the waterfalls Pen is a greyt wagtail
- Pen opposite a water rail is on the muddy edge.
Arun Riverlife Lagoon
- A swat of yellow colts foot in flower
- 8 tufted ducks
- 2 lapwing
- 2 snipe on edge
- 1 pochard
- Lots of black-headed gulls
