Male ducks regain their courting colours
Sept 30: Autumn is finally taking hold at Arundel Wetland Centre. Yellow leaves are scattered across Mill Roads from the lime trees that line the approach to the reserve. Our hedgerows are heavy with juicy blackberries, shiny black elderberries and orange rosehips – a winter larder for our dormice and bullfinches.
The mild weather last week gave our visitors fantastic views of water voles from the boat safari. I took a trip Tuesday with our guide Lizzy and a full boat of visitors. We had great views of 3 water voles, one who appeared again on our return trip. Lizzy is able to reverse the electric boat quietly it doesn’t disturb the voles.
Migrant hawker dragonflies zigzagged around the boat, never pausing for a picture. An aggressive Southern hawker swooped by us several times, challenging our interruption into his territory. Later that day a pair of common darter dragonflies sunning themselves on the chestnut fence rails of the Tranquil Trail provided me with an easier camera shot. The common darters and migrant hawkers can last well into November or until low overnight temperatures strike.
Teal and gadwall numbers continue to be strong. The teal are slowly re-gaining their breeding plumage after their summer eclipse moult. A lovely green eye-stripe is once again becoming apparent on the males. Each day we have had a handful of shoveler ducks onsite and the green on the heads of the males is starting to show again, too.
Grey herons continue to show well, especially from the Ramsar hide although they are also fishing the back waters visible from the windows of the Scrape hide. We are seeing 2-3 herons each morning and one will usually hang about all day, strolling in and out of the reeds. I was doing a hide check at the end of the day on Saturday when I startled a grey heron who was fishing just a few feet from the front of the Ramsar hide.
Kingfishers continue to show well with another 3 sightings this morning. Also spotted around the reserve this week - snipe, grey wagtails, great and blue tits, nuthatch, goldfinches and buzzards.
Paul Steven’s weekly Wildlife Sightings column appears in the Chichester Observer, the Littlehampton Gazette, the Bognor Regis Observer, the Shoreham Herald and the Worthing Herald.
