Nesting oystercatchers and active kings
One oystercatcher pair looks to be sitting on a nest on an island from the Sand martin hide. The pair or one seem to be mobbing any curious predatory crows. On the Arun Riverlife lagoon the kingfishers are still really active this week – were still waiting to see if there are fledglings! Thanks Alec Pelling for the kingfisher pic above. The black-headed gulls nesting on the island here near the gallery windows mob a poor oystercatcher who drops in there in occasionally. Greylag geese families still wandering the site and pochards pairs are sprinkled about. The female at Pelican Cove has two pochard ducklings with her this month.
Tuesday 21 May 2024
Sand martin hide and Ramsar hide: c30+ sand martins, 1 blackbird, 1 lapwing mobbing a crow, 1 great black-backed gull, 47 black-headed gulls, 2 oystercatchers on island, 2 cackling geese X, 2 Canada geese, 8 tufted ducks, 16 mallards, 2 pochard, 5 gadwall, 1 shoveler, 1 greylag, 19 herring gull, 2 carrion crow. Heard: 1 cuckoo, a chiff chaff, a Cetti’s warbler, 1 blue tit, 1 great tit, 1 wren, 1 chaffinch
Lapwing hide: one pair of pochards
Waterside walk: 2 coots building a nest
Scrape hide: 2 male pochards
Pelican Cove: 1 female pochard with 2 ducklings.
Monday 20 May
Lapwing hide: 1 grey heron, 4 greylag geese, 3 tufted ducks, 1 woodpigeon, 1 coot, 1 blue tit, 1 bullfinch, 1 wren, 3 mallards, 1 Canada goose
Sand martin hide and Ramsar hide: 2 great black-backed gull, 2 oystercatchers mobbing a crow and sitting on nest, 30+ sand martins
Scrape hide: 2 pochards
Reedbed hide: 1 male broad bodied chaser dragonfly
Willow sphere: 2 mute swans, 1 pochard, 1 mandarin
Robins Gate: great spotted woodpecker
Pelican cove: 1 pochard
Ramsar hide: 1 lapwing
Arun Riverlife lagoon: 1 kingfisher in hole 5 of nesting bank
Sunday 19 May
Arun Riverlife lagoon: 2 oystercatcher pair on the island, 1 whitethroat singing in a tree
Pelican Cove: 1 female pochard with 2 ducklings
Wetland Discovery: a pair of greylag geese with 6 goslings, 2 mallards, 1 tfted duck, 2 chaffinch, 3 goldfinch
Offham hangar: 1 peregrine
Ramsar and Sand Martin hides: 2 lapwing mobbing a crow, 2 cackling geese
Lapwing hide:1 cackling goose and a Cackling X barnacle goose pair.
Sat 18 May
Arun Riverlife lagoon: 6 Canada geese with total of 11 goslings, 20 blck-headed gulls, 2 coots, 11 mallard, 1 shoveler, 2 tufted duck, 2 greylag geese with 4 goslings, 1 chiff chaff, 1 Cetti’s warbler, 1 wren, 1 whitethroat
Pelican cove: a pair of pochard with 2 ducklings
Scrape hide: 1 pochard
Ramsar and Sand martin hide: c60 sand martins, 1 lesser black-backed gull, 2 lapwings, 1 cuckoo heard at the back of reedbed.
