Spotted Fly Catchers & Sand Martins moving through the reserve
This entry is the text from Paul Steven’s Wildlife Sightings column for Sept 10. Paul’s column runs weekly in the Chichester Observer, Littlehampton Gazette and the Worthing Herald.
During my morning bird count on Monday (Sept 7) I saw two spotted flycatchers on the large willow to right of the Scrape hide with a willow warbler and a chiff chaff. This little flock along with the whitethroats, reed warblers and greenfinches we are seeing onsite, are now moving through on their migration south. Goldfinches and bullfinches are moving southward too but some do overwinter here at Arundel Wetland Centre.
More and more sand martins are visiting us on their migration to Africa. I counted 40 on Sunday morning and 30 on Monday. Now that the sun is out the birds are close to the hide, checking out the holes in our artificial nest banks. Get your cameras ready!
I had my camera with me on my Monday morning when I saw a kingfisher at the Scrape hide, near where the spotted flycatcher had perched. I saw another kingfisher to the right of the Ramsar hide later that afternoon. We had to remove most the large willow tree where the birds used to the left of the hide. This kingfisher perched on some of the twigs that were left. A handful of teal were sitting below his perch on the old stumps of the tree. One of the ducks gave his wings a flap, startling the kingfisher that was off in a flash.
These sunny days are great for insects. I spotted migrant hawker dragonflies in the reedbed and on wet grassland areas. I spotted a holly blue butterfly on the ivy that is now in flower. Staff and visitors have been seeing hornet hoverflies particularly on the hemp-agrimony currently in flower. These are the largest hoverflies in the UK at 2 cm long and their fierce markings mimic the head and stripes of a hornet.
On Sunday our boat drivers has three sightings of grass snakes swimming the channels. Lots of fish are visible on the reserve. It’s easy to see all the roach in the ditch along the long path through the reserve. A large school of sticklebacks are hiding in the pond weed of the Dragonfly pond near the reedbed entrance. This should please the grey herons appearing every morning to fish the ponds and channels.
