Fledglings!
The first brood of kingfishers are fledging – last Sunday Reserve Manager Suzi Lanaway saw one youngster with the tell-tale white tip on its bill out of the nest on perch 3 calling for food from its parents. Since then the male has been seen clearing nest hole 5 again, likely getting ready for brood two.
The oystercatcher pair near Ramsar hide had three chicks, confirmed by the sighting off a third for a few days. Previously we confirmed two and thought we had seen a hird but took a few days to see them all at the same time! On Tuesday morning we spotted the parents mobbing crow – hoping the chicks are okay.
The pair of pochard duckling are looking really sturdy and much older on Pelican Cove. While on the Scrape hide a pair of tufted ducklings seem to raising themselves, no adult has been spotted with them.
The swirls of sand martins at the Sand Martin hide is amazing this year now that the colony is really underway. (See the lovely shot above by WWT Member Alec Pelling). Tiny martin fledglings are poking their heads of the holes on the fet wing of the hide – four in one hole all looking out together. You mustn’t miss it!
Tuesday 4 June
Ramsar and Sand martin hide: 2 adults oystercatchers mobbing crows, 44 gadwall (34 male, 10 female), 1 pochard, 9 mallard, c40 sand martins, 2 mute swans, 6 coots, 8 tufted ducks, 4 shelduck, 2 cormorants, 25 black-headed gulls, 2 carrion crows.
Scrape hide: 1 pochard, 1 tufted duck.
Arun Riverlife lagoon: 1 pochard, 2 kingfishers buzzing about noisly
Pelican cove: 1 female pochard with two ducklings.
Outlook In: pied wagtail
Monday 3 June
Wet grassland: 2 greenfinch, 1 reed warbler, 1 pheasant
Ramsar hide: 1 oystercatcher, 2 mute swans with 6 cygnets, 1 little egret, 2 lawing, 1 black-headed gull
Scrape hide: 1 pochard
Arun Riverlife: 1 kingfisher, 1 oystercatcher on island, 15 black-headed gulls on island with chicks.
Pelican cove: pochard pair with two ducklings.
Sunday 2 June
Wetland Discovery: 1 Cetti’s warbler, 3 mallards, 1 wood pigeon
Ramsar and Sand Martin hide: 1 great black-backed gull, 2 mute swan, 2 oystercatcher adults, 4 little egrets, 5 shelducks (2 pairs +1)
Scrape hide: 2 tufted ducklings minus their parents
Sand martin hide: 8 sand martin fledglings in holes on the left hand wing of the hide.
Arun Riverlife: 1 juvenile kingfisher on perch 3 calling, 1 oystercatcher on island calling, 1 pochard
Pelican Cove: 1 female pochard with two chunky looking ducklings
Offham hangar: 2 peregrines on the hangar being shouty.
Wetland Discovery:2 Canada geese with 5 goslings, 1 carrion crow, 2 chiffchaff, 3 blue tits, 2 wren, 1 chaffinches, 1 tufted ducks,1 reed warblers, 1 blckbird, 1 sedge warbler,
Saturday 1 June
Long path: 1 sedge warbler, 1 reed warbler, 1 Cetti’s warbler
Offham Hangar: 1 peregrine
Waterside Walk: 6 sand martins
Scrape hide: 10 sand martins, 11 tufted ducks
Arun Riverlife: 2 Canada geese, 6 mallards, 2 coots, 2 tufted ducks, 1 reed warbler, 1 Cettis warbler, 10 black-headed gulls, 3 sand martins, 1 wren, 1 pochard, 2 gadwall
Pelican Cove: pair of pochard with 2 ducklings, 1 oystercatcher
Ramsar and Sand Martin hide: pair of oystercatcher on island brooding and feeding young, c30 sand martins, 1 shelduck, 1 cackling x barnacle goose, 1 cackling goose
Lapwing hide: 6 sand martins, Wetland Discovery: 10 sand martins, 1 sedge warbler singing, 1 greenfinch singing,
