Lesser white throat warblings & cuckoo calls
This is Paul Steven’s Wildlife Sightings column for May 12, 2016. You can read Paul's column every week in the Observer series of newspapers.
I spotted a lesser white throat again on Sunday (May 8). We have a few singing on site each spring but this is the first time I have seen one nest building here. A male was bringing nesting material into the hedge at the back of the Arun River life exhibit, safely off of the pathway. Usually heard rather than seen these secretive warblers are smaller than the common whitethroat and I think they have a much nicer song. They are quite
loud and sound similar to a chaffinch with descending tone. The lesser whitethroat has grey cheeks that make its white throat noticeable. The throat on this little male puffed up, feathers ruffled as he burst forth in his loud serenade.
This morning Sam and I saw two lapwing chicks on the wet grassland from the Lapwing hide. These were three to four weeks old. The vegetation is so tall out there now that we hadn’t seen them when they were younger and shorter. There were two pairs at each end of the field so there could be more chicks about. We have been counting between four to six chicks on Arun Riverlife to the two pairs of lapwings that nested there. Pochard ducklings have been hatching out at several hides. There are still several families of greylag and Canadian geese around the site. We are still waiting to see shoveller and shelduck ducklings.
Along the reedbed boardwalk I saw a pair of cuckoos. The male was following the female calling to impress her. Last week the male was calling on Wetland Discovery so he is still trying to win her over. Kingfishers have been showing well over Wetland Discovery with multiple sighting over the weekend.
At last we are seeing a boom in the butterfly population, especially after last weekend’s hot weather. Orange tip butterflies are emerging and I have counted speckled woods, peacocks, red admirals and green-veined whites. I see that brimstone butterflies have been laying eggs on the leaves of the alder buckthorn along the hedgerow. Our boat drivers started seeing blue-tailed damselflies in the reedbeds over the weekend. While walking the reedbed boardwalk a large red damsel suddenly fluttered up before me, its newly emerged wings looking shiny and wet. Masonry bees have been hatching out of our bug hotels.
