Martins moving through & sunny dragonflies
Teal numbers increasing along with the number of house martins (c200 Wednesday!) and sand martins moving through the site.
On Monday 30 lapwing were flushed up staff checking the cattle. Our mooing mowers will be moved off the main wet grassland next week.
The sunny, hot weather this week has loads of migrant hawkers out !
A barn owl came out of its box to see watch Reserve team working on the island in Wetlands Discovery Monday as part of the annual cut. Clearing the islands in the autumn ensure biodiversity in plant species next spring. A group of volunteer from HSBC has come in on Wednesday to help.
Spotted flycatcher last Wednesday spotted by the boat drivers with black caps, kingfisher, garden warblers seen around the site as well.
Green woodpecker several spots onsite and a great spotted one in the trees on the Arundel Riverlife lagoon.
Wed 8 Sept
Arun Riverlife lagoon: 1 little grebe, 2 tufted ducks, 1 gadwall
Pelican Cove: 3 Egyptian geese, 8 gadwall, 5 tufted ducks (2 females and 3 ducklings)
Woodland Loop: 1 greenfinch
Woodland Carr in reedbed: 1 bullfinch
Old Trumpeter swan pen: 1 water rail
Scrape hide: 2 mandarins, 14 mallards, 1 chiff chaff, 1 Cetti’s warbler, 1 water rail
Sand martin hide: c200 house martins drinking and hawking insects
Ramsar hide: 1 little egret, 1 kingfisher
Lapwing hide: 1 water rail
Wetland Discovery: 1 kingfisher
Butterfly survey 10:45-11:45am, 35 species
- 6 large whites
- 5 small whites
- 3 green-veined whites
- 2 common blues
- 6 red admiral
- 2 comma butterflies
- 2 speckled wood
- 1 gatekeeper
- 2 meadow brown
Tues 7 Sept
Around the site: good numbers of migrant hawker dragonflies
Pelican Cove: 5 Egyptian geese
Scrape hide: 5+ teal took to the air and then splashed down again, 1 water rail squealing
Ramsar and Sand Martin hide: 24 black-headed gulls, c30 sand martins, 5 gadwall, 4 moorhen, and 1 coot
Mon 6 Sept
Lapwing hide: 1 snipe
Wetlands Discovery: 1 barn owl at 1.30pm checking out noise of staff cutting on the islands
Ramsar hide: c30 lapwing flushed around 4.30 flew over the river.
Sun 5 September
Scrape hide: 1 kingfisher
Reedbed: 6 long-tailed tits, 5 blue tits, 1 gold crest, chiff chaff/willow warblers 4, 1 garden warbler.
Ramsar hide: 14 lapwing flushed up by a peregrine 3 pm, 30-40 lapwing flying over the Arun River.
Wetland Discovery: 1 grey wagtail, 5 Canada geese, 13 mallards, 2 mute swan, 2 tufted ducks, 1 green woodpecker,2 coot, 2 gadwall.
Scrape hide: 6 sand martins, 1 heron
Friday 3 September
Ramsar hide: teal
Scrape hide: 3 teal, 4 shovelers, 4 gadwall
Arun Riverlife: 2 little grebe, 8 coots, 2 shoveler
Ramsar hide: 1 grey heron, 6 sand martins, 2 gadwall
Wood Loop: 2 pairs of mandarin, 3 blue tits, 1 gold finch, 1 mallard, 1 coot, 1 black cap, 2 moorhens
Arun Riverlife lagoon: 2 Canada geese, 1 gadwall, 1 great spotted woodpecker in trees.
Thurs 2 September
Reedbed: 8 sand martins, 1 magpie, 32 mallards, 1 Cetti’s warbler, 1 black-headed gull
Wood Loop: pair of mandarin with recently fledged youngster.
Wetland Discovery: 3 spotted flycatchers, spotted by our boat drivers
Bat Survey 20:10-21:10 using echo meter
- Several Noctules,
- Lots of soprano pipistrelles and common pipistrelles
- a couple of Leisler’s bats
- a couple of brown long-eared bats
- several Daubenton’s bats
- a Natter’s bat
- a nathusius pipistrelle bat
- a serotine bat
- a Bechstein’s bat
Wed 1 Sept
Arun Riverlife lagoon: 4 gadwall, 1 shoveler, 2 little grebes, 1 grey wagtail
Pelican cove: 6 tufted ducks (2 females and 4 ducklings), 11 gadwalls, and a pair of Egyptian geese.
Wood Loop: 1 green woodpecker, 1 black cap.
Sussex screen: kingfisher
Long path: bullfinch, garden warbler
Scrape hide: 6 shovelers, 10 mallards, 6 teal, 1 moorhen, 1 Cetti’s warbler, 1 coot, 1 green woodpecker, 1 sand martin, 1 willow warbler, 1 gadwall, 1 reed warbler, 1 greenfinch
Sand martin hide: 1 little egret, 2 shoveler
Outlook in building: kestrel perched on top
Ramsar hide:grey heron, 1 teal, and c10 sand martins.
