Hatching and Nesting
Most mornings we see a male marsh harrier in the "Lost Reedbed". It rises up from the same section of the reedbed and heads off down the river (to hunt?). We have recorded a female marsh harrier as well, but we haven’t seen her recently. Could she be on a nest? We hope so!
Throughout the reedbed you should be able to pick out warblers song- sedge, reed, and Cetti’s warblers have all been recorded there this week along with black caps.
The sand martins are very active near the sand martin hide – some carrying nesting material!
Great numbers of greylag goslings on the grass at Pelican Cove on Sunday 11 plus!
Seems to be one lapwing on a nest of the three males and two females onsite. There is just one pair of oystercatchers onsite and they keep flitting about onsite experimenting with nesting sites.
Sun 20 April
Arun Riverlife lagoon: 2 oyster catchers pair on the island, 1 lapwing, 1 pochard
Wetland Discovery area: 8 male mallards, 4 greylag, 10 Canada geese, 1 grey wagtail, 3 sedge warbler, 4 goldfinch, 1 coot, 1 pochard, 1 wren, 2 chaffinches, 2 tufted ducks, 1 chiffchaff, 1 blackbird
Ramsar & Sand martin hide: 2 Egyptian geese, 4 shelducks, 4 lapwings
Scrape hide: 1 snipe, 3 pochards, 14 tufted ducks, 24 Canada geese, including parents and 6 goslings, 10 greylag geese.
Pelican Cove: 3 grey geese and a total of 11 goslings.
Sat 19 April
Arun Riverlife lagoon: 1 mute swan, 3 male mallards, 9 tufted ducks (5 male 4 female), 1 shoveler duck, 17 Canada geese, 6 greylag geese, 2 gadwall geese, 36 black-headed gulls, 1 coot, 1 lapwing
Ramsar and Sand Martin hide: 4 shelducks, 10 teal, 3 Egyptian geese, 2 cackling geese, 5 lapwing 91 n nest), c50 sand martins with some gathering nesting material, 1 cattle egret, 1 herring gull
Scrape hide: 5 male pochards, 1 pair of shelducks, 1 male marsh harrier, 1 snipe, c10 sand martins, 1 reed warbler singing to the left of the hide.
Front pond: 100s of small toad tadpoles!
Fri 18 April
Woodland Loop: 6 tufted ducks, 5 male and two female mallards, 4 goldfinches, 4 great tits, 3 blue tits, 2 wren, 2 robins, 3 moorhens plus 2 chicks, 1 great spotted woodpecker, 1 green woodpecker, 1 mandarin male.
Thurs 17 April
Ramsar hide: 2 pairs of lapwing with 2 females sitting
Sand Martin and Ramsar hides:c50 sand martins very active around nest holes
Scrape hide: 4 snipe, 3 pochard
Reedbed Boardwalk: 2 sedge warblers, 1 blackcap,2 blue tits, 1 blackbird, 3 wrens, 1 coot, 6 greylag, 2 moorhen, 1 chiffchaff, 1 Cetti’s warbler, 1 reed warblers, 12 black-headed gulls, 9 mallards, 4 Canada geese, 2 mandarins, 1 song thrush
Arun Riverlife lagoon: 1 lapwing.
Wed 16 April
Scrape hide: 7 mallards, 7 greylag geese, 1 pochard, 5 gadwall, 5 shoveller, 2 sedge warblers, 2 tufted ducks, 1 black-headed gulls, 1 male marsh harrier hunting.
Sand martin hide: 2 teal, 4 shelducks, 4 shoveler, 3 gadwall, c40 sand martins, 1 male lapwing, 2 Egyptian geese
Beswick’s swan exhibit: 3 gadwall ducks, 2 pochard ducks
Ramsar hide: 2 Egyptian geese, 5 lapwing (3 males and 2 females), 2 gadwall, 5 tufted ducks, 2 shoveler ducks.
Arun Riverlife: 1 pochard, 2 gadwall ducks, 4 tufted ducks, 1 lapwing, 1 raven
Pelican Cove: 2 oyster catchers, 4 tufted ducks, 1 gadwall
Lakes and Forest exhibit: 1 male mandarin
Sussex Screen; 5 tufted ducks, 2 gadwall
Scrape hide: 1 blue tit, 1 green finch, 1 chaffinch, 2 lapwings, 22 Canada geese, 1 nightingale, 1 Cetti’s warbler, 10 sand martins, 3 reed warblers.
Wetland Discovery area: 3 tufted ducks, 1 willow warbler
Lapwing hide: 1 teal, 2 gadwall
