Cuckoo calling in the reedbed
On Tuesday our Wardens heard a cuckoo calling from the back of reedbed along the Mill stream. Our boat drivers saw a cuckoo on the Wetland Discovery area at the end of the day. The cold and dry weather is impacting some wildlife onsite, especially lapwing and other waders. They probe the mud for invertabrates and mud is scarce at the moment. Unlike other years butterflies and damselflies are very few and only emerging on very sunny days.
Recent wildlife sightings:
Wed 5 May
Lapwing hide: 4 lapwing -1 on nest and one pair, 5 tufted ducks, 1 grey heron., 1 shoveler.
Scrape hide: 3 Canada geese, 8 mallards, 1 shelduck, 1 reed warbler, 1 wren, 1 Cetti’s warbler.
Sand martin hide: 1 oystercatcher, 9 tufted dcks, 2 gadwall, 20 sand martins, 6 house martins, 1 pochard.
Wildlife Garden: 1 linnet.
Old Tundra pen: 2 reed buntings, 1 song thrush.
Ramsar hide: 2 lapwing, 1 shelduck, 1 swallow, 3 pochard.
Wetand discovery: 2 pochards, 3 tufted duck
Tuesday 4 May
Arun Riverlife lagoon: 1 male lapwing
Lapwing hide: 3 lapwing – male and one female sitting. One male was mobbing a heron.
Ramsar and Sand martin hide: 2 lapwings – pair, 2 oystercatchers – a pair on the island in front of the Sand martin hide, 9 males & 5 female tufted ducks, 1 female pochard, 7 male & 2 female mallards, 3 male gadwall, 16 adult Canada geese and 3 goslings, 2 cackling geese, 12 greylag geese and 6 goslings, 92 black-headed gulls, 8 swallows, 1 coot, 1 moorhen, 70 common gulls, 1 lesser black-backed gull.
Scrape hide 1 male lapwing, four swallows.
Reedbed: 1 male cuckoo singing back of reedbed along the Mill stream.
Mon 3 May
Arun Riverlife: 1 male pochard, 2 grey wagtails, 1 male lapwing, 7 black-headed gulls nesting on gravel island.
Lapwing hide: 2 pairs of lapwing with one female nest sitting and one male mobbing a crow, 22 adults greylag geese with 7 goslings, 8 Canada geese with 6 goslings, 4 male mallards and one female, 4 pairs o tufted ducks, 1 male gadwall, 1 oystercatcher flying over
Ramsar and Sand martin hides: 6 swallows, 20 sand martins, 10 house martins, pair of oystercatchers on island in front of the hide, pair of lapwing with male displaying.
Pelican Cove/ Coast Creek: pair of oystercatcher nesting on island in front of aviary.
Sun 2 May
Sand Martin hide: 5 sand martins, 3 common sand pipers on front left island.
Scrape hide: 15 house martins.
Arun Riverlife lagoon: 20 house martins, 2 male and one female pochard, 2 kingfshers in and out of hole #5.
Wetlands Discovery: pair of greylag geese with 3 goslings, 7 adults Canada geese and 7 goslings. 4 male and one female tufted ducks, 7 mallards, 1 chiffchaff, 2 sede warblers, 1 reed warbler, 2 pochards.
Lapwing hide: one male lapwing.
Ramsar ide: 1 male lapwing, 1 oystercatcher.
Sand martin hide: 10 house martins.
Sat 1 May
Arun Riverlife: 2 greylag geese, 1 moorhen, 1 pochard, 2 lapwing, 3 female and 5 male tufted ducks, 1 shelduck, 1 mallard, 2 Canada, Black-headed-gulls 16.
Ramsar & Sand martin hides: pair of lapwing, pair of oystercatcher one roof and on island, 1 pochard, 17 sand martins.
Lapwing hide: 2 female lapwing
Scrape hide: 1 female lapwing, 1 male pochard.
